Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

Working from home is the ideal work environment for many; it’s a necessity for some; while others are unwilling work-from-home women or men, having been forced to create their own businesses because of a variety of factors.

Regardless of your reasons for working from home it’s important to recognize that there are elements that can rob you of your energy, cause mental and physical fatigue, and how to avoid them:

1.            Not enough sleep: Experts recommend at least 6-8 hours sleep every night for you to function at your peak performance each day.  Studies indicate that the average American gets only about 4 hours sleep.

2.            Lack of exercise: Exercise is an energy booster because it stimulates the free flow of blood and oxygen (more…)

A short while ago someone made the comment to me that she could never work from home as she would find it boring.  Asking questions made me realize that what she would find boring is not being able to interact with people of a regular basis.

Many people love working alone. Others hate it! They miss the rapport with co-workers, the watercooler chit-chats and jokes, and face-to-face interactions with people. Depending on the type of business you're pursuing, you may not necessarily have regular interaction with people face-to-face and on a one-on-one basis.

If you work with clients/customers mainly on the telephone, why not arrange to meet them in person from time to time? If there are networking events in your area, why not make arrangements so you can attend one or two each month?

Online forums in your niche are great places to interact with like-minded people.  Over the past 16 days over 200 people have become part of a 30-day blog challenge (#blog30 on Twitter) and it has been interesting to see the level of interaction and support among participants as we visit each others blogs, leave comments, and promote each other on the social networks.

Perhaps like me, your spiritual activities also allow you to interact with another level of like-minded people.  When it's all added together I never have time to be bored and feel isolated, but this is not the case with some persons.

How about you? If you work from home, do you feel isolated, and how do you deal with isolation?  Please share your thoughts in the Comments.

Based on current statistics many of my readers are women who work from home, full-time or part-time.  As a result in gender-related posts I may lean towards situations that affect female readers.  However, men who work from home are affected by many of the same factors, so please adjust accordingly.

Studies indicate that while many women enjoy working from home and made a deliberate choice to do so, some women did so out of necessity.  Regardless of the reason many find that they miss the interaction of colleagues at work, the challenges of the workplace as well as opportunities to be dressed professionally in whatever type of clothing was considered the norm for her profession.  One of the results of this can be the loss of self-esteem and self-confidence.  In fact, I've spoken with women at home parties who said that while they love their children, they are just glad to have intelligent adult conversation with other women.

In order to regain your self-confidence and rebuild your self-esteem, the following are points to keep in mind as you strive for small successes on a daily basis:

• Negative thoughts will pull you down and have a negative effect on those around you, including children, if any.  Endeavor to look on the bright side of things and re-train your mind to think positive thoughts.  It's more than theory that positive thinking can change not just you, but also those around you.

• Be enthusiastic.  This reminds me on a very strong and successful woman who has been working from home for some years.  She recalls that when she worked in a stressful job in corporate America every morning some of the women would walk in and say, “Oh! I'm so tired…” and she found herself saying that she was tired too.  Then one day she was about to respond in kind and she suddenly realized that she did not feel tired at all, but she had got into the habit of responding to the negative comments of others and she herself had  become a Negative Nelly.  Work at greeting each day with enthusiasm seeing every day as a new beginning and another day to take steps toward achieving whatever your success goal may be.

• If you're not feeling confident in any given situation, pause for a moment and think of what is the worst that could happen.  You may find that even the worst would not be so bad after all and you can instead focus your energy on given the situation at hand your best.

• Are you dissatisfied with your physical appearance?  Then do something about it starting today..not tomorrow or next week…TODAY! Start your exercise program, or just start walking.  If you're going to start a diet,  start today.

• Do something for someone else and make someone else feel good.  The Biblical statement is true, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.”  Giving to others allows you to focus on others and being selfless will make you feel better about yourself knowing that you have contributed to the happiness of someone else.