How to beat the home-based business burn-out blues

I went to visit a friend who had quit the corporate world to start his own art-based business. This was a guy who wore, if not a suit, at least a tie and jacket to work every day for a decade.

All the curtains in his house were drawn and his bed was littered with color samples, catalogs and all the assorted detritus of a home-based business. With his unshaven face and sunken eyes, he bore a frightening resemblance to Tom Hanks in “Castaway”. He leaned over and, with a wild glint in his eye, whispered “I haven’t taken a shower in three days.” That close to him it wasn’t difficult to believe but I couldn’t figure out why he felt the need to tell me.

A couple of years later I got it when I too had swapped working for the man for the pleasantly unstructured life of a home-based entrepreneur. I was on my way to a Networking luncheon and slipped on some dress shoes only to find that my feet had apparently grown two sizes. My sneakers and my fluffy slippers fit just fine but they didn’t go with my little black suit. I understood then that his confession had been more than a need to share his personal hygiene issues with me. He felt compelled to share the horror of what he was becoming.

At some point every back bedroom start-up entrepreneur has an epiphany that they might be a little too far gone along the go-it-alone continuum. For me it was the shoes. For my friend it was the orange water pouring out of his groaning shower head when he finally found a reason to shower.

If you’re just starting out with a home-based business and still euphoric over working in your p.j’s – be aware that there is a dark side. One day you, too, may run slap up against a moment of clarity when you see your formerly civilized life sliding away over the horizon; a moment when you realize that you may have taken the ball and run with it just a little too far.

There’s so much to do in setting up and maintaining a business. And, mindful of the fact that 80% of all small businesses fail in the first year, you’re probably anxious to do as much as you can as fast as you can in order to start bringing home the goods.

There are several balances to be worked out – all of them tricky. When do you outsource and when do you do it yourself? How much can you work and still have a life and a family at the end of it? What do you absolutely have to do first and what can wait?

There are many excellent books and articles on what to do to set up your business. This isn’t one of them. This is about how to be as you do those things. How to be kind to yourself. How to be available to your family and friends and enjoy life even amid the uncertainty and stress of creating your dream from scratch.

After all, your life isn’t wallpaper to your daily struggle. It goes on whether you pay attention to it or not.

So here are a couple of tips to keep you present and focused. Six things you can do to avoid singing the Home-Based Burnout Blues.

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Procrastination. I’d love to, but…

When a good friend asked me to contribute a little something for her newsletter it seemed like a great idea. When I cleared the decks and sat down to write it seemed a great time to color-code my closet or whip up a crab casserole. As an enthusiastic writer, who has nevertheless had writing blocks in my life which have lasted longer than some World Wars, this business of avoiding doing something that I really want to do used to mystify me.

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