Solo-Entrepreneurs: Overcoming loneliness and isolation?

For quite sometime, I could not understand why I was going through a tough time building my new start-up business. Making an earnest attempt to get something new started, I found myself sacrificing relationships to build my dream. For sometime I went through a difficult period with feelings of loneliness and disconnectedness, which led to a mild depression. I am not a negative person by any means. I love strategy and activity. However, I was in a personal rut.

I am sure other solo-entrepreneurs go through the depressed valley's too at some point. One morning, as I was contemplating my station in life, I finally came to understand that I need regular connectivity with others. I need to let others know I am okay and that I am available for them. I soon discovered that I am deeply wired inside to be with others; to be part of a team or a community. Life is in community!

I am now reading Dr. Brene Brown’s research on leadership. She notes in her writings, “We are hard wired for connectivity.” I always knew the value of connectivity, but I found myself in isolation or alone in the business community promoting and growing my business. One morning, an idea came through my mind: I need to reach out to 3 people a day for 30 days. So I started going through my phone and calling certain people to just simply catch up with them. This exercise has done wonders for me. All the sudden, I felt highly connected to people’s lives and to my own. I now have more daily motivation to move forward with the execution of my business plan.

As a solo-entrepreneur, here are two things you can do to overcome “loneliness and isolation” in your office or when you are out in the field.

Call three people per day before starting your work day

I must have over 900 numbers on my cell phone, of family, friends and business acquaintances accumulated over the years. I don’t know why I have some of them on my iPhone. I cannot remember the moment or reason why I added them. That is not my point, however, to fight against “loneliness and isolation”, I decided to call three random people each day for 30 days. I can still remember the first few phone calls:

First call: A friend was glad to hear from me. He told me he and his new wife had just returned from a trip from Europe. We spoke about family and other things. I don’t know why, but after this first phone call my eyes were filled with tears. It was nice catching up with an old friend.

Second call: Another friend told me the recent “good news” in his life. He was newly engaged and seemed very happy about the girl he had chosen. I celebrated with him and wised him well. 

Third call: I was highly encouraged with this call. The call was filled with an empathic ear and sound wisdom. What stood out to me was, “I knew I was called to do my business, so I applied myself until it just came forth.”

I am so glad to have implemented this strategy. 

Build your own business community or cadre

Two years ago, I started a business networking group called Business and Bagels, a monthly morning group at a local Panera Bread from 8 to 9:30am. It started with 7 people around a table. As of today, this group has grown to 25 to 30 people in consistent attendance. My group is made up of business people from several industries such as insurance, finance, bookkeeping, a business chamber, realtors, lawyers, health and wholeness, etc. This group has three layers:

• A core team of about 7 people who started with me, and attend all the time.
• The second layers consists of those who come more frequently, and are making themselves known to others. 
• The third layer consists of visitors, of which we have at every single meeting.

Although managing this monthly event takes time, it gets me out of my office to expose my business, meet new friends, and simply to connect. I am now starting another group called Business Over Breakfast in Henderson, Nevada.

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Joel C. Garcia is CEO of THRIVN, a top staffing and recruiting agency with a focus on employee engagement, workforce development and client satisfaction, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Joel has a proven track record for coaching high performance teams by empowering them to transform work cultures by exuding managerial excellence and utilizing components of a collaborative, innovative and strategic style of leadership. Joel earned a Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in coaching and mentoring from Regent University.