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Welcome to Part Four of the Keeping Your Sanity as a Solopreneur series. In Part One, we tackled mindset by busting some common myths about transitioning from employee to self employed. In Part Two, I shared some of my current tools and processes that help me run my business. In Part Three, we went through an exercise to discover your passions and how they can translate into income. Today, let’s talk about building community.

Building a business around something you love is exciting, but it can also be lonely. I thought as a introvert, I would love being by myself. While I still do, sometimes I reminisce on the days where I had co-workers to chat with and bounce ideas off of.

When I started entertaining the idea of leaving my job, I had a community of people (mainly two friends interested in leaving their jobs, my sister, and my mastermind group) who knew this was my plan. I sought out people who had made the leap to ask for advice, and when I gave my resignation notice I felt more comfortable going public with my decision.

Along the way, I’ve worked to build two distinct communities that have supported me:

Like-minded communities

As a social worker, I could easily find other social workers interested in working for themselves, but most I encountered wanted to open or had opened their own private practice. I found few non-social workers interested in building businesses outside of clinical practices. Instead of getting frustrated, I focused on  building community with like-minded individuals, including:

• Individuals in my field/industry interested in working for themselves
• Individuals interested in building businesses related to similar passions

Because I saw program design and evaluation as core services for my business, I’ve developed working and personal relationships with other program designers and evaluators. With Reproductive Justice being the foundation of my business, I strengthened my connections to folks in the Reproductive Justice community. In the process, I was able to fine tune my business offerings, develop my skill sets, and network.

Secondly, I was able to connect with other solopreneurs, consultants, and freelancers to discuss business strategies like building a client base to marketing. My friend Myra Batchelder  started a New York City-focused consulting and entrepreneur support group, that meets on a monthly basis. Interestingly, most of the people in the group are very social justice minded and are building businesses that reflect that. At the same time, I’m able to problem-solve with people who can offer an more objective viewpoint of any struggles I may be facing.

Here are some ways to find like-minded communities:

• Freelancer Union’s Spark events
• Co-working spaces in your area
• Professional and academic membership organizations
• Facebook and LinkedIn groups
• Google Groups or Hangouts
• Using Twitter hashtags related to your location or your industry
• Follow blogs that share similar interests (and interact with people in the comments section)
• Create your own

Non-solopreneur communities 

It’s very temping to focus on your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But you have to take a break at some point. Who better to spend time with than people who share similar interests outside of the solopreneur world?

It’s also very temping to believe that most people would not be interested in hearing about your solopreneur successes and challenges. That couldn’t be further from the truth! They may not know the ins and outs of your business, but they’ll support you if they see your passion and determination to succeed. They may even tell others about your business. In fact, when I decided to start my business, I sent an email to friends, family as well as colleagues and potential clients. I also share aspects of my business on my personal Facebook from time to time, while keeping the bulk of my business postings on my Facebook page. You can find these communities in a variety of ways:

• Family (biological and chosen)
• Friends
• Places you socialize or attend frequently
• Social media (using hashtags to find people, locations, and interests)
• Meetup groups related to personal hobbies and interests
• Create your own

Non-solopreneur communities are just as vital for solopreneurs as like-minded communities are, as they support our work-life balance (and we’ll talk about this next week.)

Stayed tuned for Part Five

This is Part Four of the Keeping Your Sanity as a Solopreneur series. If this is your first time coming to the series, be sure to read Parts One, Two, and Three. Come back next week for Part Five, where we’ll discuss the importance of work-life balance for solopreneur success.