So you’re a business owner and you’re daring to take a holiday? Brave move. But will you be working on holiday, or taking a much-needed break away from your laptop?
Or are you not taking a break at all because you’re worried your business will grind to a halt when you’re away? You wouldn’t be alone – 76% of small business owners forego holidays to make sure their business keeps running (Source: OnePoll survey for Xero).
Taking a break from your business is really important
The benefits of having a break without worrying about your business are:
- Your family remember who you are!
- You get to unwind, relax and sleep properly
- You get some headspace to think about your business
- You may get some perspective on issues or suddenly think of new ways of doing things
5 top tips for taking a break
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Choose a good time
You may be restricted to when you can go on holiday but picking a time of year when it’s quieter generally, such as August, when lots of other people are on holiday can reduce the impact of you being away.
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Prepare in advance
There’s nothing worse than working until 2 am in the morning on the day you’re going on holiday trying to get everything sorted in your absence. And that’s before you’ve packed or worked out where you last put your passport.
Start making plans at least two weeks in advance, ideally four weeks to give you plenty of preparation time.
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Tell your clients you will be away
Let your clients know you will be away, so they won’t wonder why you’re not replying to them and deal with anything that is likely to crop up whilst you are away and let them know what to do.
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Identify any problems in advance
Is anything likely to go wrong whilst you’re away? Have a think and then plan to work around it. E.g. is a supplier likely to not deliver when they should.
Confirm with everyone what needs to happen when you’re away.
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Automate your processes
Automating your processes can be very beneficial. Not simply for when you are away, but in general day to day business life.
Here’s a short list of things you can automate:
- Having an out of office email with your holiday dates and give them an alternative email or telephone number to use if necessary.
- Or set up forwarding rules on your emails, so that all your emails go to someone else to monitor and take action on in your absence if necessary.
- Use a telephone answering service to handle any phone messages from prospects
- Social media planning
There are lots of tools out there to help you keep your social media active when you’re away. Fill up Hootsuite/Buffer/Social Jukebox with scheduled posts for the time you are away. - Automating your mailing system (MailChimp, or Active Campaign for example) create some newsletters or blogs that go out at scheduled times so they will still go out when you’re away.
- Invoicing – Get your invoices prepared before you go away – you can send them on time-delayed emails, so they go out the day you need them to.
With the right planning and preparation, your business can keep ticking over and you can have a lovely, stress-free break.
Or if you must, do what I will be doing on my holiday, log on for an hour each day to check on things and do any urgent work. If this is the thing that keeps your stress levels low, then do it.
What other hints and tips can you share? Post them in the comments box below.
Bonne vacances!
