Working for yourself is an extremely romantic idea. It's all about taking the leap, chasing your dreams, and building a life you love, isn't it? At the heart of it, this is absolutely the sunny side of being self-employed. But not every day ends up feeling this way.

The Self-employed illusion

I've been working for myself for just about 10 months now. At first the freedom was all but intoxicating. I mean, I get to work from home, I can wear whatever I want (most often yoga pants), and there's no onslaught of annoying meetings to keep me from doing the work I love. Amazing, right? At first it absolutely was.

After a while, however, it gets old. When the novelty wears off, working for yourself can get pretty lonely. I started feeling sloppy, anxious, and absolutely starved for company. It felt like I had to wait forever for my husband to get home, and yet I simultaneously felt like I was behind on everything and never had enough time. Couple that with not knowing where your next project is coming from, and you've got one stressed out mess of a girl.

Solving the Struggle

As you can probably tell, the struggle has been extremely real for me recently. I'm a firm believer in being very open about this journey (even the not-so pretty parts), so last week I took to Twitter and Instagram to talk about it. After sharing my own challenges, I was amazed at the overwhelming response I received.

As it turns out, so many freelancers and business owners share my dilemma. Better yet, many of them began sharing their own amazing stories, encouragement, and their answers to the solopreneur struggle. I wouldn't dream of keeping this wisdom to myself, so without further ado, I'm excited to share our answers with you!