Now is time to renew your marketing efforts. Can you combine those lazy, hazy days with a renewed effort? If you can, lost opportunities of others might just come your way.

Might you slow down a bit? Sure, if you do it right, and remember your short term and long term goals. Maybe you should investigate advertising in publications you hadn't tried in past. You should consider running multiple ads with different copy in ones you are already using. How about using an auto-responder in those ads. This will ensure you get back to an inquiry right away, and you can do follow-up at your leisure.

Why not put a form on your website(s) to handle inquiries? Through use of checkboxes, you can immediately categorize your potential customers requests. By using a mail package such as Eudora, you can automatically respond with a "canned" response that is tailored to their request.

Will some of your prospects also be running at a slower speed? Of course, and this is why you must redouble your efforts.

Don't forget that thousands upon thousands of new prospects get web access every day. They are hungry for information, and might just be looking for type of opportunity you offer. These "Internet Newbies" are like a fertile field that you can harvest during summer. Bitten by prospect of earning money on Net, they are viable candidates that you will lose if you don't vigorously pursue them.

I know that with press of things we have to do it is easy to slack off. Much of your competition will succumb to those "Summer Doldrums", and if you take advantage of their inactivity, you just might be pleasantly surprised at results.

4. Organize Your Own Functions

Once you've joined various associations and formed joint venture partnerships, take initiative and organize functions that bring you all together. These could be business-oriented networking sessions or purely social get-togethers such as a barbeque in local park. Either way, you're forging a relationship with people in your new arena, just as you did when you were working in a corporate office. The only difference is that now you must take initiative to forge these relationships. These are not people you are going to be seeing every day at office.

5. Join a Gym

You are, of course, health conscious and physically active, right? Of course you are! So, why not kill two birds with one stone ... stay fit and meet new people. If you establish a routine that allows you to be at gym at same time every day, you will run into many of same people and get to know them.

6. Use Internet

Making online friends is another way of staying connected with outside world. Be very disciplined here though. It's way too easy to spend a lot of work time on social email exchanges and in chat rooms. Don't fritter away your time, but do seek out and maintain internet friendships.

7. Background Noise

Sometimes, it's only silence that reminds you you're alone. If you come from a corporate environment, your workday was punctuated by constant background noise of telephones ringing, other people's conversations, hysterical laughter from other end of office and lunch trolley pages over intercom system. If you find absolute quiet irksome, turn on radio and have it playing in background while you work. Talk stations are good because it's like having other people in next room, but if you find yourself becoming so engrossed with talk topics that you stop working and start listening, switch to a music station.

There's no avoiding fact that making transition from a corporate environment to a home-based business is just that ... a transition. Most people will have to grapple with isolation monster in early days of their work-from-home career. But, as you can see, there are many ways of keeping isolation and loneliness at bay just by reaching out and forming new associations. Remember, just because you work alone doesn't mean you have to go it alone.