Loneliness In A Home Business

Working a business from home can at times be a lonely endeavour. One of the main problems with a home-based business is the lack of personal contact and interaction with others in a normal business environment. I really enjoyed the random conversations of a busy office in my last place of work.

Sure most people who work from home belong to many networking sites... but it is not the same... or is it?

After a while I did get used to working alone when I made some changes & learnt to break up my working day.

I invested generously in ensuring that I have all the creature comforts in my home office. There is nothing worse than working in a cold room without all the amenities! I have been blessed with an amazing view that really helps... when I look out of my office; all I see is the garden and the river Tay.

I have a regular schedule that gets me out of the office daily. I try and pop out for lunch and meet some friends or people that I do business with. Sometimes I might just go for a short brisk walk to my favourite deli. I occasionally work in the summerhouse when the weather is fine.

I tend to pop out around 4:30pm to do 30 minutes of shopping before resuming work again. These breaks help to keep me sane. I play a variety of music in the background but sometimes I find that it breaks my concentration especially when I am trying to focus on something complicated.

The biggest challenge I have now is to remember to try and stop working. Isn't it great that when you can work no more, you can leave your home office and sit in the lounge and relax until work mode grips you again?

I used to take my lap top with me in the sitting room, but eventually I stopped doing this as I found it far too stressful! Just seeing that machine out of the corner of my eye, even though it was switched off made it hard to relax! Now the computer mostly stays in the office and is not allowed in my relaxation areas.

I still break this rule occasionally like first thing in the mornings when I am writing or responding to mail and blogs that I have written. I like writing and sharing my experiences / knowledge and I hope some of you enjoy reading them.

My family often complain that even though I spend a lot of time at home... I am really not there. I don't get it! I guess they mean that I am in my own world and sometimes hardly notice them. I know what I should do to change this but it can be hard to separate home life from work especially when business is thriving.

I do not have any problems with neighbours, primarily because I run an internet business and as such have no stock requirements apart from basic stationary. The only way they know I am working at home is when they see my car parked in the drive or I have some visitors.

Business should be fun and if you are not having fun working from home then perhaps it is time to make some changes? You might even really start enjoying your business once you have strategies in place for dealing with working alone at home.