When I first went out on my own, I worked out my house. I can remember the thrill of cranking up my music as high as it could go, though the buzz did not last. The silence beyond the music was deafening. After the first couple of days it hit me: I was truly on my own. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. What I didn’t realize was how much I would miss working with other people. Sure, I had my clients that I talked with on the phone a couple times a week, but they were in Ohio so I didn’t see them in person much.
After about six months I got used to the silence but then another couple months later, I realized that I if I didn’t get out of the house during the day, I was going to lose my mind. I just missed human interaction. My unfortunate husband paid the price when he came home – all I could do was talk! My one-year-old daughter and I would often compete for who babbled the most and I think I won most of the time. When I finally realized it was time to get out and network, if not for business, then for my own sanity, life became so much easier.
When my friend Terry Chase Hazell founded her second company, she knew from the beginning that she couldn’t work out of her house. With two young children at home and her office in her bedroom, one of her first corporate tasks was to locate office space. She was able to secure a much bigger office than she needed, but she was the only one in it. She, too, had forgotten how lonely it is as the only full-time employee in a company. It had gotten so bad that her husband, Eric, offered to buy her a volleyball and paint a face on it so she could have a friend (like Tom Hanks’ “friend” Wilson in Cast Away). Now that she is raising money for her company she spends many days out of the office at meetings so it is not so bad. Even so, she tries to convince me to move my office into her space at least once a month. At least she would prefer my company over a volleyball…
