Co-Founder Speed Date<\/a> and the numerous online forums that link businesses are helping the isolated to reach out, but more needs to be done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
How about a national program of mentorship that links soloists to experienced business leaders? Rather than require participants to go to a Business Enterprise Centre or call the small business hotline, it could be tailored to their needs, meeting in neutral locations or in more formalised group settings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
4. Help with growing pains<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Adelaide-based entrepreneur Sue McKay made a sensible choice when launching her administrative assistance firm Kick It To Me in 2005 \u2013 she based the business at home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But when she expanded the brand to cover various other areas \u2013 from an online op shop to an accommodation service \u2013 she found that her business had suddenly taken over her home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe home office had become jam-packed and the accommodation business needed space for linen and the breakfast goods,\u201d she told StartupSmart<\/i> last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used the spare bedroom and then gradually filled the rest of the house. The washing machine was on non-stop and I\u2019d have to do ironing at night in front of the TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe op shop took up the second bedroom, meaning that four rooms of the house were taken up by the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I loved the business, I started resenting it. I realise that I couldn\u2019t grow the business without getting premises. I just couldn\u2019t cope with linen baskets being on the dining room table all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fortunately, McKay managed to find the right office space for the business, while retaining some of the home-based activity that appealed to her in the first place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But it is often a big leap for soloists to take. You\u2019re moving from your spare room to signing a lease that commits you to commercial rents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A halfway house of a co-working space can be the best way to manage this change. There are now a number of such communal spaces, such as The Hub in Melbourne and Fishburners in Sydney. But there needs to be more in order to cover the wide spread of home-working entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
3. A mentorship strategy Working from home can be a taxing, isolating experience. Of course, there are upsides, too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}