At times, starting a business solo can create feelings of isolation. The commitment and discipline required will cause you to sacrifice time with your personal friends while launching your business. This is 100% normal! An entrepreneur must prioritize the needs of getting the business up and running. You haven’t forgotten your friends or love them any less. New businesses demand time and intense focus to be successful. Hard decisions have to be made to feed your venture to promote its growth. Self-employment is tough. Being your own boss is even tougher and requires you to maintain self-discipline. The reason for doing all of this is Entrepreneurship has unlimited income potential. What activities will you give up? How much time are you going to dedicate to your business? How are you going to reallocate your time to your business? What social functions will you exchange for business events?
In the best scenarios, your friends are in business with you or starting their own creating a new level of professional connection between you. But this is not always the case. Most people when starting a business are making a shift that tends to set them apart from their existing circle of friends. Some of them may be supportive and some may resent you not being available to get together like before. Close friends may not be so close any more. The hard truth is you may lose some friendships altogether because some may not understand your prioritizing business over your relationship with them. Yet again, this is 100% normal. In fact, it is practically guaranteed to happen. You are making an investment which demands to be fueled by time, money, and work effort. The time to make the effort has to come from somewhere. Usually, it is your previous free time, time you spent hanging out with friends, watching tv, playing games or just relaxing. No one has to accept or validate that sacrifice but you. It is your business, time, money and sweat equity being poured into your vision for the future. As uncomfortable as it may be, stay the course, when you hit your goals it will be worth it.
Time is a finite resource. Launching and maintaining a business requires extensive amounts of time. Starting out as a side hustle, it may not require much more than a fun hobby. But as it grows and you make the decision to promote the side hustle to a full blown business, it becomes like a part-time job. As profitability grows, so does your decision to invest time. It is not uncommon and almost the rule, a new business will require more than the standard 40-hour work week of the corporate 9-to-5 job. Why? Because, it’s all you! Need to finish your invoicing…”Sorry, friend. I can’t go to the movies. I have to finish my paperwork.” Product testing.. “Sorry friend.” Business trip…”Sorry friend.” It becomes a theme as you shift your time to making your business a success. The tradeoff is the invested time is the unlimited income potential.
The good news is as you build your network of business contacts you meet more people. While some may be strictly business relationships, occasionally you will find new contacts who are more than just business partners, mentors, vendors, clients, or fellow entrepreneurs. You will discover entrepreneurial friends. Persons with whom you can discuss the challenges and successes of business ownership.This is your tribe: People with the same goals, drive, and outlook you have. You will discover mentors who have been where you have been and have insights to tools and strategies to supercharge your business. Make connections with persons in the same industry as yourself. Talk shop. Pool resources. If you can’t serve a customer, make an agreement to refer business to one another. Soon you will find your circle of business friends has grown to a size rivaling your personal friends. You are not isolated, you are part of a tribe of driven individuals striving to serve the needs of your community.
The next step is to find groups and local networking events catering to small business owners. Dive in, get involved, expand your contacts and discover new resources. Become part of the community and learn more about what the community needs. Find where your business fits to better serve the community. The more you engage, the more your business grows. The more people you get to know.There are hundreds, thousands of people like you working and building businesses. You are birds of a feather. Embrace it. If you can’t answer, they will leave a message and wait to hear back. They understand business requires focus, organization, and prioritization. They are doing exactly what you are doing…running a business!
As you adapt to serve others, you will discover new opportunities that may complement your current business. Take the time to do research with your entrepreneurial friend, vendors, customers and community. Examine if you can serve additional needs. Keep in mind failure is a learning tool. Be okay with projects and processes being imperfect on the first or even the hundredth attempt. The master has failed more times than the beginner ever tried. Will your idea be feasible? Will it work? Will it be a success? No, and sometimes yes! The key is to continue to work at it and evolve. Develop your service or product to top quality and efficiency. Call it Market Research and get feedback from your customers and entrepreneurial friends and community.
Being a solopreneur doesn’t mean you are all by yourself. You have a community with you!
LEARN. GROW. ADAPT. EVOLVE.