Working all alone in our home businesses it can get really easy to think of ourselves as a one-person show; all isolated on our island of work and business. The fact is, however, we really do interact with other people and even though we are not sharing an office or a bank account with a business a business partner, our business can be collaboration. We collaborate with our clients and customers, our vendors and suppliers, and often our family members who help us run our businesses.
Think about it, when you are trying to find just the right product for a customer or working with a client to produce the services that he or she needs, are you not working in collaboration? You really are on the same side trying to accomplish a shared goal. The same goes for those vendors and suppliers who make sure you have the right paper or the person who comes and repairs your computer—you are both trying to make it so that you have what you need to make your business work. This means we can have multiple collaborators even though we are a tiny, one-person business.
There is a shift in thinking that takes place the minute we think of all the collaborating we are doing in our business as opposed to the “I’m alone struggling on this business” thinking that can be common. Once we realize how connected we are and how many other people are working with us to help make our business a success, the collaboration factor can spur us on to even greater heights. We can also feel the energy of all that joint work instead of feeling like we are slogging up the hill all by ourselves. Embrace the collaboration and see if it inspires more motivation for your business.