Small Business Tips: Don’t work from home!
Don’t work from home, why? Entrepreneurs are in a class by ourselves. We go against the grain. When everyone else is working we’re sleeping and when everyone else is sleeping … well, we’re working! Whenever you go against the grain, you place yourself in the minority and it can anything from challenging to incredibly frustrating. Since there are so few of us who live in this existence, it can also be lonely, and depressing. In general, most people fail to understand the extremely complicated lives of an black entrepreneur. I’m not so sure that even WE understand it.
We do not sit around all day waiting for a windfall of money while we do no work. If anything we work HARDER than someone with a 9 to 5, albeit we actually LOVE what we do so putting in the extra work is no work at all.
Entrepreneur Challenge: Don’t work from Home
Living this existence can eventually take its toll on you and make you depressed amongst other things. Perhaps not depressed in the clinical sense (or maybe) but more depressed in the “I’m missing out” sense. We have a hard time slowing down and at the same time catching up. Entrepreneurs are addicted to what we do: if we love what we do we have to be addicted because it takes an incredible level of commitment and passion. I know “addiction” is a strong word but I have seen people who are addicted to the gym. You can only work out so much but I’ve seen people who stay in the gym daily for hours on end. We focus on the bad addictions but there are many variants.
Once we become addicted, and it becomes our drug of choice, people start to see a side of us that we may not be fully aware Sometimes we are out of control and don’t know it. People say things like “You work too much” or “You don’t have fun in your life” (my own mother told me that and she was right). We are more than aware that this is nonstop and the minute you take care of one thing, something that you took care of a week before needs your attention again.
Playing so many roles, constantly hiring and firing people (who misrepresent themselves as qualified) and trying to do sales and collections amongst the millions of other things that we do can not only be daunting, it can take a toll on you and your physical and mental health.
Successful Small Business Owner’s Don’t work from Home all the time.
By the time we get done working, especially if we work from home, which I am STRONGLY against, we want a “treat” and that’s usually something that we will pay for dearly later, too much bad food, too many drinks at happy hour etc.
Several black entrepreneurs that I know work hard all day then go out to get something horrible to eat. One of my closest friends developed gout and another one got Diabetes from this habit. It is true that you become dire in the need for human connection and life when you put in those hours. We are living in our own heads on a consistent basis. Make sure you open the windows and let fresh air in your life.
Figure out a way to work in concert with the rest of the world. Home is a space that should be used to relax not work. So you have to work AWAY from home otherwise something else will become your place to relax and that’s where the trouble starts.
Don’t work from Home All the time.
I absolutely love the convenience of being able to go out during the day and going to the grocery store or to a retail store and no one is there I’m sure you’ve experienced the same thing if you work from home. No lines, no kids running around no drama. You get very used to it very quickly and when you are in the store during the regular hours let’s say after 5, it becomes more frustrating and draining and harder to adapt.
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You created a new grain and now you’re going against it. The best solution is to create a flow. this means setting up a schedule, a to-do list each day, with activities in advance in order to get yourself used to it. I have often found that working from home made me feel very isolated and depressed.
I would constantly get sleepy after a couple of hours and the next thing I knew I would take a nap, and the day was shot. I was not motivated to get out after that and go WITH the grain of the after 5 crowds, so I gained a tremendous amount of weight and lost a tremendous amount of creative time. If you find yourself stuck, unravel and change your schedule to enjoy life as an black entrepreneur more. Once you find your balance, you will be able to be more productive.
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