For many small business owners starting out is a lonely and intense process. The burden of responsibility is on your shoulders alone and for those who are used to a corporate environment it can be quite depressing to suddenly spend time in an office of one. Most of us are team players and so running a business when it is just you is quite isolating and scary.
Here are our top tips to ensure you feel supported and can manage to work well on your own.
1. Set yourself some goals, targets call them anything but know what it is you want to achieve. Our blog on goals last week may help. If you have something to work towards and know what it is you will succeed. It can be tempting to drift aimlessly or to simply be so busy that you do not plan or take time to do a goal setting exercise. Successful businesses have goals.
2. Know where it is you want to be in a year, six months or even five years. Set yourself a vision alongside your goals. Your goals are the call to action your vision should be centred around where you are going and where you want to end up. Our blog on setting a vision may help.
3. Make sure you take breaks. This may sound silly but just as in any office setting you have set breaks make sure your day is ordered and you take some time for relaxing. Making yourself ill by over work are never going to get you where you want to be. When you take a break get out of the house/office and get some fresh air or do something completely different such as reading a good book. Make sure you keep yourself well hydrated during the day as well.
4. Get out there and network. There are free networks you can join and we run several in our area. There is also help and support available online. Twitter may sound as though it is just for celebrities but it can be a good place to network as well and linkedin is great for business to business working. When you go to an event make sure you are meeting new people and chatting, join in conversations and feel part of something.
5. Break up your day with real conversations by phone, skype or face to face. Making sure you talk to someone during the day may sound weird but actually it is important particularly for those of us who work alone and are extraverts. It is nice to make some human contact in the course of a day.
6. Look at your support network and increase it. If you know people in similar positions to you meet up once in a while and take time to find out how the other person is. Not only will this make you feel part of a larger business community but one to one chats can be a great way to catch up on other people's business success and support them in turn.
7. Keep things professional in your house, if it is your office. If you work in your pyjamas fair enough but if someone popped in to see you would it be ok? I know people who get dressed for the office at home and have their desk as it would be in a professional setting. Sometimes it helps to actually behave as though you still have a boss. Of course there are those of us who like to relax too so you need to find a way of getting your office space as you want it.
8. Make sure that your family or housemates respect what you do and know when you are working. Some people like to keep office hours when working for themselves others are more flexible. A mum I know who works from home makes sure she is available when the kids get home from school but then gets back to work, her hours are flexible but the family know this means she may work when they are around.
Do you have any top tips on things which have helped you to run your business and start out on your own? How well does your support network work? Let us know.
If you would like any further information on our support networks please phone the office on 01254 505050
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