Working from home can be lonely. When I started my first home-based business, I was thrilled to hear from anyone – including phone solicitors. (I knew I had reached “rock bottom” when I looked forward to seeing the UPS driver every few days!)

Working at your local coffee shop can help you avoid being lonely while still staying productive

To keep my sanity – and to improve my business – I started a “mastermind” group. Each week, for a couple of hours, I met with six other business people to share business ideas, marketing strategies and goals. It was great to get insight from several business professionals and an even better excuse to get outside of my office.

In recent years, my business has changed significantly and most of the time, I’m too busy for a regularly scheduled “mastermind” group. But when I don’t have client meetings and I’ve spent too many hours in my home office, I head to my local coffee shop. Almost every time I walk in there, I see groups of people holding business meetings or working alone. Even if I don’t interact with anyone while I’m there (usually I don’t), it’s nice to be around others and to have a change of scenery.

My neighbor, a CPA, told me how she stopped feeling isolated. She runs each morning with a friend and meets with other CPAs for lunch once a week – but also attends association meetings every month to network with colleagues.

It’s possible to fight isolation when you work from home, but it’s going to take a conscious effort by you to reach out to others both online and in person. Remember: You’re not alone and there are others just like you. They’re probably at your local coffee shop right now.