Celebrating Christmas solo

Soon I will be celebrating my first Christmas as a solo business owner. Celebrations are an important part of life, but are there ways of enjoying the festive season if there's only you in the office? Absolutely!

Recently I marked my third birthday in business. However, for the first two years I ran my business part-time and worked three days a week in a corporate environment. For the past two years I had the best of both worlds at Christmas: the freedom and flexibility of a soloist and the indulgence of corporate Christmas parties.

This year I have the best of one world, my world as a full-time soloist.

So how does a soloist celebrate Christmas?

I can see it would be tempting to let Christmas pass me by. There is me, myself, and I in my office. Most of my clients are interstate or overseas. It is tempting to say "It’s all too hard."

Yet my love of a good celebration inspires me to create a way to make Christmas a special event in my business.

Perhaps I could …

• Have a Soloists' Picnic with others I know in my city. An entire afternoon, in a stunning location, with yummy food and several bottles of champagne.
• Create a virtual celebration with clients. Create a blog or webpage where they can share the wonderful outcomes of their year.
• Host Christmas drinks for people I have connected with via my business this year, like suppliers, people I have met at networking events and local clients.
• Create a fun Christmas parcel to send to clients
• Hang tinsel in my office for me, myself, and I and play Christmas Carols every Friday afternoon in December (singing along optional)

Celebration is an important part of life. It is a chance to reflect and enjoy what has been achieved and what you are grateful for. Celebrations can be big or small – what is most important is that you actively participate.

I haven’t decided yet how I will choose to celebrate Christmas, however, I have decided to celebrate.

How will you celebrate Christmas as a soloist?

HO HO HO!

• Published 08 December 06
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Business psychology (15) | Business values (16) | Social responsibility (6) | Work motivation (9) | Work styles (5) | Working alone (14)

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6 comments | Add your own 

• I plan on deferring my Christmas break until the second week in April - that''s when the tax man's computer is temporarily out of touch. In the meantime we plough on with out GST's, BAS's, Payrolls and tax returns.
  Of course, at this time of the year, it always goes better with the odd chocolate or glass of bubbly. Denise from Kumey

• Xmas is a time for sharing so hosting a soloist's Xmas party sounds like a great idea ! Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles

• We will take a break in April and another end of year quiet time in July to celebrate my birthday, anniversary of being in business for myself and the new financial year. Jacinta Hoare from Cairns

• These celebrations all sound wonderful! Thank you for sharing :)
  hmmmm ... I am starting to think planning a whole year of celebrations would be a great way to kick start 2007! Linda Anderson from Sydney, Australia | Read my articles

• I'm not in a position to be able to sponsor a Christmas party to say thanks to all the people I work with, but I didn't want to miss out on the festive season entirely.
  So a friend and I organised a 'freelancers Christmas party' for freelancers/soloists/grad students/anyone who doesn't fit into the coporate-norm... so not only do we all get to celebrate our workplaces (no matter what form they take) together, the details have been distributed widely so it might turn out to be a fun networking opportunity also! Lisa from Melbourne

• Congratulations Linda!!! Let's not forget that as soloists, with completely control over how we spend our time, celebrations can be had any time we feel like it. Zern from eicolab

6 comments | Add your own 

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