If the only voice you hear is yours bouncing back at you off the walls around you, it might be time to find a friend.
Entrepreneurs by nature cut against the grain. They charge in a direction that no one else is going. The positive side is that we discover new things, we invent and we develop; however, because our first steps are always going where others are not, we are most often headed there alone.
Working in your office, day and night, on whatever project you are pursuing is never good. The practice disallows sounding boards, causes energy depletion and, ultimately, will make you want to hit your head against a wall, which never ends well.
At the same time, one of the biggest challenges of getting started is not having the funds available to hire staff. Here are four simple ways you can put people around you that share your experience without adding cost:
Borrow Office Space
Find a friend that has a business and ask to use an empty desk. It is amazing how much a difference it can make to just be around people that are also working. There is a cultural accountability that is created. When you’re sitting in someone else’s office space, you’ve put yourself in a situation where others will naturally ask about your progress,, you’ll have senseless conversations that give you a needed mental break and you’ll feel the general energy of others working.
What to watch out for:
Their success is not your success. You can feel like you have arrived because you are in the heart of something that is already successful. You still have to mind the store and not allow yourself to be tempted into plunging too deeply into their culture that you forget to build your business.
Hit The Coffee Shop
Creating a routine of getting out of your house everyday is important. . Find a busy local coffeeshop and notice who is there everyday. If you routinely see someone there, they’re probably working too. Make an effort to get lunch together from time to time. Talking about what you are working on and hearing their story will create new energy in you, provide opportunities for you to discuss ideas aloud,, and get a new perspective from someone who’s at arms distance from your project.
What to watch out for:
Don’t allow yourself to get too caught up in other conversations or drink too much coffee lest you spend half your day in the bathroom.
Join a Co-Working Space
Most large cities are seeing co-working spaces pop up. Co-working spaces are hotbeds of entrepreneurialism. People just like you rent space in a single office environment to work onr independent projects. There is a ton of positive, forward thinking, innovative energy that is collected in one place, They are usually really inexpensive and have basic facilities available:desks, whiteboards, conference rooms, bathrooms, and yes, coffee! They’re also a great environment for building partnerships. A good co-working space administrator will recruit businesses that can help each other out. For example, they will usually include a graphic designer, a web developer and a new lawyer.
What to watch out for:
It can be tempting to never go home. We all need a break. When there are so many dedicated people around working and there is a sense of community, you will forget the time and fail to have a life. Additionally, it can be easy to get caught up helping everyone else. Entrepreneurs love to talk about their ideas and to hear the ideas of others. We love to improve things. Time can tick away quickly in these very energizing and affirming conversations….be careful.
Build a Team of Partners
We must remember, we don’t have all the answers. Recruit people into your idea. We can get so fearful that if we ask people to work for us and lack the funds to pay them we will have to give up too much. If you fail to launch, 100% of nothing is nothing. Don’t be afraid to dilute your ownership in an effort to build your team. You are the idea rockstar and, most likely, the execution nightmare. Most entrepreneurs are not good builders. The problem we face is that our idea is so real, it feels like it’s already done. Building teams around us of people that can iterate the idea and have the operations skills to move it forward will exponentially impact the value we get out of it.
What to watch out for:
Dilution of ownership comes with a cost. Make sure you build a good team and have written commitments. Once you are married in the stock world, you are married forever. It is very important to have clearly defined, written expectations.
The key is to not live alone.
We have to build momentum and teams to make our ideas real. We do not have the time or money to waste chasing bad ideas, failing because we lose energy or lose our lives and families because we’re overworked doing the parts we are not gifted to do. Plug in somewhere and find the energy you need to keep moving forward.
