NFIB

Avoid Isolation
03/ 25/ 2002

by Joanne Eglash

Whether you work from home or in a one-person office, you may occasionally miss those coffee room chats and just-between-colleagues schmooze sessions. If so, you're in good company. As an entrepreneur whose management and staff roster consists of me, myself and I, I sometimes suffer from what I call EIS (Entrepreneur Isolation Syndrome). Being a sole proprietor means that I have no one with whom to brainstorm, share a setback or celebrate a success.

Talking with other entrepreneurs, I discovered we all use similar anti-isolation solutions. For three years, Cyn Breon has run her Web production company Abominable Art from her home. To counter EIS, she relies on email.

"I have my email program route emails into friend or business boxes and I address the friends when I feel the need for a break."

When she feels isolated, she gets out of the office or calls clients to discuss their projects. "This gives me a productive way to experience some human contact," she says.

As a personal and professional coach in San Francisco, Corrine Luesing has helped others deal with home isolation. She recommends that sole proprietors understand "that this is an incredibly common challenge. We as humans need connection and often work best when that need is met."

The good news: "There are many solutions and ways to work around it."

For example, one of Luesing's clients who works from home found the isolation draining her energy.

"We identified what it was that she actually was missing, which was contact with colleagues to bounce ideas off." The solutions they agreed upon ranged "from attending professional association meetings to starting a book group to inviting a colleague to lunch."

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This article originally appeared in the February/March 2002 issue of MyBUSINESS Magazine.

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