Gil Gordon was in business for four years when his motivation
hit a brick wall: No matter how well he did, no matter how pleased
his clients were, his business cycles were like a roller
coaster.
Billings swung wildly from month to month. Some months were
strong, others left him wondering why he had left his day job as a
director with Johnson & Johnson. And his emotional swings were
carried in tow.
This wasn't good for business or his self-confidence,
especially since Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates, a
Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, human resources and telecommuting
consulting firm, was working in a then-fledgling field hardly
brimming with clients jumping to send employees home to work.
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"I was struck by, and probably a bit depressed by, the
realization that no matter what I did, I would probably always be
living on a business roller-coaster," Gordon recalls now, more
than 15 years after encountering that first wall. "The good
news was that the numbers at the end of the year always turned out
OK, and still do. But if I look at it on a monthly basis, there can
be wild swings. I wasn't upset by the fact that there were low
points, but by the fact that I seemed destined for that eternal
cycle of low points and high points and couldn't do much about
it."
Whatever the cause, whatever the outcome, Gordon is not alone in
facing business swings and the "seven-year itch"
homebased entrepreneurs often face. Fickle clients, cyclical
business patterns and motivational mood swings can cause you to
question your whole purpose in working as an entrepreneur from
home.
These psychological issues aren't uncommon. How they're
handled can determine whether a homebased entrepreneur continues to
call the business address "home," or heads back to the
relative safety and security of the corporate environment. And
often, the itch is not a one-time event. While he's never given
too much thought to returning to a corporate job, Gordon has felt
the itch three times in an 18-year at-home career.
Even if you're more successful that you ever imagined, a
lack of motivation--and even boredom--can still strike, says
Jim Rohrbach, a
motivational and business coach in Chicago. Rohrbach calls it the
"boredom of success."
In the early stages of a new company--especially a homebased
business where the owner is challenged by working in a new
environment as well as by running a business--motivation is drawn
from the desire to succeed long-term, Rohrbach says. But once
relative success has been achieved, the challenge to succeed often
fades and people long for more excitement in their businesses.
The antidote? To create a bigger mission for the business,
Rohrbach says. Large goals take many steps to achieve, and each can
erase boredom and keep the entrepreneur focused.
Another way to combat motivational brick walls is to get out and
about. Schedule networking meetings, sales calls and lunches with
peers, clients or allies. Create new business ideas or a Big Target
project. (The Big Target is a long-term project designed to excite
and invigorate the business owner to complete a worthwhile
project.)
Journalist and author Jeff Zbar has worked from home
since the 1980s. He writes about home business, teleworking,
marketing, communications and other SOHO issues.
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