Lonelypreneur? Top Tips to Deal with Loneliness this Mental Health Awareness Week
One of my most unexpected challenges when I first launched my business was how lonely the first few months were.
So lonely, in fact, I got a part time job just to see people and almost gave up business forever. Here are my top five tips to combat loneliness as an entrepreneur.
1. Jump on a live course to learn something new – have a shared experience with strangers into the same stuff as you and make sure to switch your camera on if it’s on Zoom.
2. Go to a networking event with the one objective of making friends. Find someone you click with and have a laugh with, so you can meet up regularly to work together. It doesn’t have to be working on the same stuff, just make it like your own, mini co-working club.
3. Say: ‘Thank you’. Think of three people across your life that have had a big positive impact. Get back in touch with those people, tell them what they did to help you and say: ‘Thank you’. I did this and it was a beautiful experience of connection.
4. Send someone a small gift – a book, a key ring, an affirmation poster, or perhaps something unusual from Etsy. You’re helping a small business and sending some love to someone you know. Double the positivity.
5. Connection mission – go out of your way to chat to a barista in a cafe, or a shop assistant. Make eye contact and ask them how they are today. Ask them about the weirdest, funniest or scariest customer they had and maybe tip them at the end if you feel like it. Or, find a traffic warden and buy them chocolate. Unless they just gave you a ticket.
About Simon Paine
Simon Paine is the CEO and co-founder of Rebel Business School, which helps people from all walks of life to start their own businesses. Rebel’s mission is to change the way entrepreneurship is taught across the world. The company has educated over 15,000 people in seven different countries through free events and helped launch 805 businesses in 2020 alone.
In 2021, Rebel Business School won a Queen’s Award for promoting opportunity. Its work has also been backed by organisations including Google, Henley Business School, Westminster City Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.
