I am an entrepreneur, have been self employed my whole life. I am also a single mom and have a mortgage. After many years of starts and stops, I launched a new venture last year. Unfortunately I am not surrounded by creative types, I can and do go into NYC but its not a regular occurrance. The stress of being pulled in so many directions sometimes can lead to paralysis. I read everything that I can and that does help, but I miss the synergy that comes from like minded people looking at situations in new ways. Any ideas on some places to get support, or help finding a mastermind group?
So appreciate any help! Thanks, Kim
Sounds like you need to do a lot more networking with other entrepreneurs. Invite some of them out to brunch, even entrepreneurs that you don't know very well. It also sounds like you need someone in your business who you can bounce ideas off of. If there's nobody working in your business who you trust as a confidant, that may be the next person you want to hire.
Is there an incubator or similar near you, like Tech Stars? Or, how about a local business/commerce group.
If you're lucky, there'll be a generous tech firm nearby who'll let you use their offices for free/nominal cost. Google does this in London, I believe, so maybe there's something similar near you in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg is keen on tech, so maybe see if the city offers anything.
Consider subscribing to something like "the Startup digest" to find local startup-related events around you. There is a NYC one - here are a few of the latest listings.
Of course, you could also search out events on Meetup( NYTechWomen covers startup topics) or Techcrunch or PandoDaily - some may have the topic / focus you are looking for.