Involving Friends

Gaining the support of your family and friends is essential to the self-employed professional. Being self-employed is a big step, and it can be pretty scary. Without support of family and friends, being self-employed is even more difficult. So how do you convince them that your ideas are great, and get the much-needed encouragement you need?

Involve them. Involving your friends in your self-employment decisions is actually a big help. Your friends are the only ones who are going to tell you the truth about most things, anyway, and just hearing them say that your ideas are good is a big help. In fact, involve them as much as possible. Get them to put up flyers, to spread the word, to use their contacts. If they feel that they're somehow involved in your business future, they're going to lend a lot more support to your self-employment goals.

Talk to your friends. Tell them what your long-term plans are, what you want your self-employment to be like, how you're going to make it all happen. They will not only be able to point out any faults in your plan, which can help you, but they will also be able to tell you what's good about your plan. Getting feedback from another person is invaluable when you're self-employed, because we aren't always the best judges of ourselves.

To learn more about gaining the support of family, read Involving Family.