Whilst it can seem like a dream set up, if you’ve ever owned your own business, or work from home on a regular basis, there will undoubtedly be times where you’ve felt isolated, alone or questioned your decision. From Eugene Farrell, Head of Trauma Support Services at AXA PPP healthcare.

Research from Acas found that around a fifth (20 percent) of homeworkers often feel socially isolated – a figure which is expected to grow. But is this feeling of isolation normal? And what can you do to overcome it?

The Acas report states that: “Homeworking is on the rise; just over 13 percent of the UK workforce performs some or all of their usual job-related tasks at homei . The findings presented in this report are derived from data collected among Acas employees via in-depth interviews, a quantitative survey and a 14-day diary study, supplemented by a comprehensive review of the academic research literature. Homeworkers, who conduct virtually all of their work at home, were compared to partial homeworkers, who work from home approximately 31 percent of the time; mobile workers, who spend about half their working time on the road and the rest divided between home and the office; and office workers.”

“The feeling of isolation can be quite traumatic, especially if a person has previously been office-based and they are used to social interactions on a daily basis. We spend roughly 90,000 hours of our lives working, and when an average of 38 hours per week spent interacting in a workplace disappears, some people can find it hard to adjust.”

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, there were a record 5.5million private sector businesses operating in the UK at the start of 2016, with the number of sole trader or self-employed increasing by 84,000. Sixty per cent of these private sector businesses are operated on a sole trader basis, not employing anyone other than the owner themselves.

It’s really important to start to make new connections, either by planning face-to-face meetings, or joining likeminded business networking groups. Collaborative working environments, such as WeWork, can also give you that sense of social interaction with other self-employed peers.

www.axappphealthcare.co.uk/business-health-insurance/business-health-centre/