The Seven-Year-Itch: Are You Bored With Your Business? Can't find the motivation to drag yourself from your bed to your office? Scanning the want ads instead of the business section? Read on to find out how to scratch that dissatisfaction itch.

Gil Gordon was in business for four years when his motivationhit a brick wall: No matter how well he did, no matter how pleasedhis clients were, his business cycles were like a rollercoaster.

Billings swung wildly from month to month. Some months werestrong, others left him wondering why he had left his day job as adirector with Johnson & Johnson. And his emotional swings werecarried in tow.

This wasn't good for business or his self-confidence,especially since Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates, aMonmouth Junction, New Jersey, human resources and telecommutingconsulting firm, was working in a then-fledgling field hardlybrimming with clients jumping to send employees home to work.

"I was struck by, and probably a bit depressed by, therealization that no matter what I did, I would probably always beliving on a business roller-coaster," Gordon recalls now, morethan 15 years after encountering that first wall. "The goodnews was that the numbers at the end of the year always turned outOK, and still do. But if I look at it on a monthly basis, there canbe wild swings. I wasn't upset by the fact that there were lowpoints, but by the fact that I seemed destined for that eternalcycle of low points and high points and couldn't do much aboutit."

Whatever the cause, whatever the outcome, Gordon is not alone infacing business swings and the "seven-year itch"homebased entrepreneurs often face. Fickle clients, cyclicalbusiness patterns and motivational mood swings can cause you toquestion your whole purpose in working as an entrepreneur fromhome.

These psychological issues aren't uncommon. How they'rehandled can determine whether a homebased entrepreneur continues tocall the business address "home," or heads back to therelative safety and security of the corporate environment. Andoften, the itch is not a one-time event. While he's never giventoo much thought to returning to a corporate job, Gordon has feltthe itch three times in an 18-year at-home career.

Even if you're more successful that you ever imagined, alack of motivation--and even boredom--can still strike, saysJim Rohrbach, amotivational and business coach in Chicago. Rohrbach calls it the"boredom of success."

In the early stages of a new company--especially a homebasedbusiness where the owner is challenged by working in a newenvironment as well as by running a business--motivation is drawnfrom the desire to succeed long-term, Rohrbach says. But oncerelative success has been achieved, the challenge to succeed oftenfades and people long for more excitement in their businesses.

The antidote? To create a bigger mission for the business,Rohrbach says. Large goals take many steps to achieve, and each canerase boredom and keep the entrepreneur focused.

Another way to combat motivational brick walls is to get out andabout. Schedule networking meetings, sales calls and lunches withpeers, clients or allies. Create new business ideas or a Big Targetproject. (The Big Target is a long-term project designed to exciteand invigorate the business owner to complete a worthwhileproject.)

Journalist and author Jeff Zbar has worked from homesince the 1980s. He writes about home business, teleworking,marketing, communications and other SOHO issues.

Taking A Break For A Fresh Perspective

Paulette Ensign has felt the itch several times since launchingher homebased publishing company, Tips Products International, in1982. Writer's block, stalled motivation, whatever you call it,Ensign has found one common solution: travel. She even relocatedfrom Westchester County, New York, to San Diego to find a warmclimate and enlightened community--two factors she believed wouldhelp spur her creativity and motivation. They have. Now she'lltake quick overnight trips every six to eight weeks to Los Angeles,Phoenix or a nearby resort to help clear her mind. The tripsaren't expensive; just relaxing and invigorating, she says.

In fact, Ensign says if she waits too long to take a break, herinternal clock will chime in. She'll feel stressed andburned-out and start to feel the need to hit the road. Her telltalesigns: to-do and project lists that don't get done, awaking inthe morning and not being excited about work, being abrupt withpeople on the phone, and lacking enthusiasm and motivation for thebusiness. "When going to the post office is the highlight ofmy day, I know something's wrong," she muses.

While she doesn't take work with her on her weekend jaunts,Ensign does comes back brimming with new ideas, she boasts. Whetherit's a new tips booklet, new distribution channels or newmarketing messages, she says, "all that energy just comesback."

Battling Business Lulls

James W. Chan, Ph.D., president of Philadelphia-based firm,Asia Marketing andManagement, has felt the sting of wicked business cycles andloss of enthusiasm for working from home. Usually for Chan, the twogo hand in hand, he says. Six years into his homebased managementconsulting career, the Chinese crackdown on the protesters inTiananamen Square scared away clients hoping to work withChina--and led to a drop in Chan's business.

A direct mailing to 3,000 potential clients resulted in only onejob. The phone didn't ring and boredom grew. Chan found himselfwatching more television than ever, he says.

"I was walking around my home office like a restless animalin a cage. I began to doubt my abilities. I wondered if I was inthe right business. I was looking at want ads," he recalls."I made so little money that I didn't have to pay taxes.It was the first time I realized how good one could feel to be ataxpayer: Paying taxes means you're making money."

The start-up motivation Chan had felt early on evaporated duringthis lull. He found a new job only to have his feelings of boredomand burn-out intensify after accepting the post. The pay was good,but he loathed being an employee again.

The yearning to work solo again actually fueled Chan'sentrepreneurial fires. He continued consulting freelance withseveral former clients, which buoyed his spirits.

When he quit the day job and returned to consulting full time in1991, Chan learned one important lesson: Business failure is notpersonal failure. He read books about mythology, religion,philosophy and poetry to gain perspective from others who hadsuffered setbacks, and quickly realized that his failure was noindictment of James Chan.

"To me, my business was my child. When I felt that Icouldn't do it full time, I felt like I had failed," saysChan, who wrote Spare Room Tycoon: The 70 Lessons of SaneSelf-Employment (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, $22) based on hisexperiences. "One of the lessons I learned was starting abusiness is an encounter with forces far more powerful thanyourself. I came to realize that success isn't totally in ourcontrol no matter how hard we work or how devoted our cause is.Slowly I regained a sense of achievement, excitement andwonder."

Sometimes even strong business isn't enough to stave off theitch, Gordon admits. One time, Gordon "hit the wall"while in the midst of a large client training project. Halfway intothe project, he realized how unclear the project definition was"and how I felt I was stuck in a big deep hole."

Interim reviews of the work started to get increasinglyfrustrating, and it became clear that the product he was planningto deliver--one which he and the client had agreed to--wasn'tthe product the client wanted. But the client couldn't be anymore specific, and was growing frustrated. Eventually, the twoparted company with the project not completed. But at least Gordonwas free of the quagmire, he admits.

It's not uncommon to become mired in a large project or justnot know where to begin on a challenging assignment for animportant client. The resulting emotions can leave you grasping fordirection. Gordon admits to scanning want ads several times duringthese emotional lows, although he says he never seriouslyconsidered leaving his benefits-rich home office, where he couldcall his own shots and watch his two children grow up.

"Both of these instances provided good learningopportunities, but they weren't much fun when I was in themiddle of them," Gordon admits today. "Both are a kind of'pick yourself up and move on' experience: frustratingand de-motivating when they happen, but not fatal by anymeans."

Find Out If You're Suffering From The Seven-Year-Itch

Is your entrepreneurial fire still burning? Still feeling thesame spirit as you did when you first launched your business? Manybusinesses suffer motivational challenges after five to sevenyears, once the start-up passions have subsided and the businessbecomes, well, just business.

Answer the following questions to see if you're facingmotivational lapses.

• Are you unhappy with work or do you dislike what you'redoing, even when you're busy and making money?

• Are you unfocused? Do you dread the coming day when you awakenin the morning?

• Are you abrupt with people--family, peers, clients or vendors?Are you inexplicably on edge with others? Do you have anunexplained feeling of anxiety?

• Has your productivity taken a nose-dive? Does your to-do listnever get any smaller? Are you facing the same unfinished projectstoday as you were last week?

• Have you considered the prospect of taking a full-time jobwhere you do nothing more than your core task and you don'thave to handle business development or the finances?

Tips To Boost Your Motivation

If you're touched by the seven-year-itch--regardless of howlong you've been in business--you may need some diversions tobreak up your day and add variety to your work and personal life.Here are some possible alternatives to the everyday:

• Get out. Network with peers, have lunch with clients,volunteer with associations--escape the cocoon that can be the homeoffice and meet with others. Hearing tales of their successes andchallenges will remind you that you're not alone.

• Meet with your confidants. Find those people you trustmost and tell them what you're feeling--especially feelings offailure, anxiety or worry. Unloading your concerns and hearing thefeedback of others can be therapeutic, professionally andphysically.

• Get away. Take a vacation, even if it's only aweekend away at a local retreat. In fact, the best time to take abreak is when business is slow. Leave the work at home. Let yourmind rest so it can work again.

• Create a MasterMind group. First coined by authorNapoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich (Fawcett Books, $6.99),a MasterMind group is a core clutch of allies with whom you canshare experiences, fears, challenges and new business ideas. In thebest of times, it's a good way to bounce business ideas offtrusted peers. In dire times, it's good for the spirit to ventfeelings of angst. Just look for positive outcomes, and don'tmake it a belly-aching session.

• Be an entrepreneur. Tackle a new project, branch outinto new areas, or create a new project that will re-energize yourfocus and revive your pioneering spirit.

• Create a Big Target Project. This is a long-termproject, something that, once completed, will become a powerfulreminder to your clients and peers of the businessperson you are.It can be a book, an audiocassette series, a new promotionalpackage for your business, a new Web site, a proprietary researchproject about your industry, a new business--anything that can bedone in 12 to 24 months. It has to be hands-on--you can't justpass it off to a subcontractor to create. Unlike the rote-ness ofdaily work, the Big Target focuses your energy on a single projectand enlivens your spirit every day to complete it.

• Keep a diary. Instead of bearing the emotional strain ofbusiness cycles or feelings of depression, put your thoughts inwriting. Reading and re-reading about your own emotions will revealhow out-of-balance you can be. This exercise will reveal a patternof emotions and help lend perspective.

• Reassess your calling and purpose. Is what you'redoing--either working from home or your profession itself--what youreally want to be doing? Honestly re-examine and list those thingsthat bring you joy, pride, satisfaction, fulfillment and a sense ofsuccess. Advises James Chan, "If you really don't want todo what you've been doing, don't be afraid to change yourown life script."