Being a business owner can be a lonely job. This applies both to sole traders and those who run their business from home, as well as owners of larger businesses. Having ultimate responsibility for the failure or success of your business can often place you in a position of isolation when it comes to sharing the emotional load.
It is important therefore to have people involved in your life and business who champion you. For some of us, our family members are great champions: I am fortunate to have a partner who not only supports the fact that I run a business, he is a great advocate who has even secured clients for me on more than one occasion!
Even those of us that do have family support, our family members most often do not really understand what it is like to be a business owner. Without wanting to sound ‘elitist’, running a business is one of those things that cannot be truly understood unless you have experienced it.
So it is important to find a peer (or two) who can become champions of you and your journey as a business owner. This might be someone in the same phase of business as you; someone who you can relate to the current issues you are facing. Or it might be someone who acts more like a mentor, who can listen to you when you need a sounding board and can offer advice where needed.
Although business ownership can be a solo effort as far as responsibilities and daily tasks, you should never seek to ‘go it alone’. Find people with whom you can share the emotional highs and lows: this not only gives you motivation to keep forging ahead, it also makes the journey much more enjoyable.
Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender