For many business owners, getting their businesses off the ground wasn’t the hardest part. Launching their website and creating a marketing strategy wasn’t the hardest part either. Transitioning from an employee, a valuable team member, to a small business owner was the biggest hurdle, especially for the entrepreneurs who are social beings. Suddenly, there’s no more talking over the water cooler. No more whispering to your cubicle buddy. Just isolation knowing that you’re solely responsible for the success of your business.

In the early years of business, most small business owners lack entrepreneurial support. They lack peers. They lack mentorship. They learn how to run their new businesses through trial and error. Sometimes more error than they’d like to admit. The business owner can feel like they’re completely alone on a deserted island, like they have no one to turn to for help.

Every Business Owner Needs Outside Support 

Deserted islands aside, entrepreneurship has its perks. It can be very liberating for the new business owner. Those who left the corporate world for entrepreneurship are excitedly shouting “Freedom!” like a scene in Braveheart. Because…entrepreneurship is exciting. It’s rewarding. You don’t have to sit in traffic two hours a day. Instead, you’re commuting to your kitchen table, your home office, or the office space located a few miles from your home. It’s casual Friday every day.

You don’t have to schedule your vacations around the company’s “slow seasons.” And you don’t have to miss your kids’ (or grandkids) baseball or soccer games. However, when you signed up, it never occurred to you that running your own business would be… lonely.

Loneliness isn’t something you think about when you dream of starting a business until it happens to you. Isolated, you forgot how much you enjoyed having lunch with your office friends. You suddenly miss coming up with brilliant ideas with your team. You miss the camaraderie and having people to bounce ideas off of. In your former corporate life, there was always someone to talk to. Someone to share ideas with and brainstorm. When you became your own boss, you left all that behind.

Getting Support from the Outside 

Every small business owner needs support from the outside. One of the best ways to fill this need is to establish relationships with people who believe in your ideas and who have goals that align with yours. If you are not getting adequate support from your friends and family, or if you’re realizing that you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s an indication that you need to surround yourself with the “right” people. The vast majority of business owners feel like they can’t discuss their business worries with friends and family due to their lack of understanding and support. If you can relate, what you’re going through is normal.

Business Ownership Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely 

Running a business is hard enough, you shouldn’t do it alone. You need advice. You need a positive support team who will help you make informed decisions in regards to your business endeavors. Get the right support team on board, and you dramatically improve your chances of success. Here are some great ways to start building a support team:

  • Enlist the services of a business coach.
  • Join business networking groups.
  • Join the Chamber of Commerce.
  • Join professional organizations.
  • Join your local chapter of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
  • Get support from business service providers, such as business law attorneys, accountants, and marketing professionals.

Owning a business is not only stressful, it gets lonely. Not every friend or family member will be supportive of your entrepreneurial journey. The key to success is to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can listen to your big ideas, who can give you advice, and help you avoid the common pitfalls of business ownership. That being said, our coaches help business owners build a supportive network, meet new people, and step outside their comfort zone.

At AdviCoach, we understand how it’s easy for business owners to become enmeshed in their businesses. Even outgoing entrepreneurs can get lonely and stuck. Our coaches help push entrepreneurs out of their ruts and when there’s a lot of noise, we act as a sounding board and help resolve the challenges business owners face. We take the “lonely” out of entrepreneurship.

Is business coaching right for your business? To find out, contact us for a free, no obligation conversation. We’ll figure out if a business coach will take your business to the next level.