If you are self-employed, how do keep up your spirits when you have no work?

Answer 1

It is TOUGH to keep your spirits up when you have no work lined up -- especially if bills are starting to come.

This is the time to sit down and assess what is going wrong. If you have a marketing plan, revisit it and see what is not working. If you have none, then I suggest you start creating one.

From the article "How to Keep Your Entrepreneurial Spirit Strong in Challenging Times " learn 10 tips for keeping your entrepreneurial spirit strong during these challenging times.http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol69/entrepreneurial.htm

1. Reflect and reposition = Reconnect with your passion and reposition your business accordingly.

2. Collaborate = identify those who you think you can work with as a strategic partner

3. Reconnect with your customers and suppliers = contact them and let them know that they can use your services again should they need them. If you have some special offer, then that would be super.

4. Get to know the people in your neighborhood = Join your local Chamber of Commerce, or a networking group and get to know your business neighborhood.

5. Accept 100% responsibility for your survival. When you accept 100% responsibility for your own survival you stop looking for excuses and you start looking for solutions.

6. Clean-up. Nothing helps us to see more clearly than a good clean-up.

7. Make a choice. Choose your vision, choose your success, choose hope, choose to see the opportunity, choose to explore the possibility.

8. Take the pressure off. When we are feeling threatened or pressured our thinking is less clear and our actions less rationale.

9. Become your own best compass. Read the media reports, watch the trends, listen to the experts but always think for yourself.

10. Read great books. There are great books that exist that can feed your entrepreneurial spirit. Books that remind you of the hope, the opportunities and the possibilities.


You may want to talk to someone to give you ideas of how best to get customers for your business. There are several places where you may be able to find a mentor, and they can give you valuable advice (who knows, even where to get your clients):

Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_roundtables.html
Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs
Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/ , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org
Professional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html
Industry and trade associations
Local business groups, such as the chamber of commerce
Local chapters of business groups

Answer 2

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Being self employed then you already know this. Sit down with a coffee (if you drink coffee) and start brainstorming ideas on how to drum up additional business, how how you can get paid quicker, etc. If you are waiting on money to come in then here is an idea that all supply houses use. Offer a 2% discount if they paid within 10 days. I haven't found too many people who wouldn't take the discount. That keeps the cash flowing.

By the way, being self-employed, don't dwell on the negative things of what could, would, or should happen. You made the choice to be in business for yourself and my hats off to you. It's not as easy as people make it seem to be. You need to stay positive. You do this by improving your situation on whatever problem or situation you are having.

Oh, one other thing - if you really need help to remain positive give it some thought as to why you wanted to get into business to begin with. Remember working for somone else, the money you made or didn't make, the hours and bull you had to put up with just for a paycheck that would just barely pay your bills. This usually picks me up and gets me going again right away.

I'm also self employed.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Try to meet and talk with, other self-employed people.

Try to network with business in similar market, maybe even say your looking for work...etc.

You can still continue to build and grow, your own business...working part-time somewhere else.

Keep positive and more research into your market...etc and im sure you will find success..ok.

Answer 4

You have to constantly reassess your business daily and if it is not working out well look for different opportunity's.go to Trumps question last week and read my answer to him-everthing you need in buisness is there-good luck!

Answer 5

Just keep at it
try a radical new marketing idea
i hang out at coffee shops and talk to people who are sitting by themselves

Answer 6

Maybe you can get a part time job to help your mind and your pocketbook:)