Vacation Time

It's often challenging for new and micro business owners to take a break and unplug from it all. These are just a few tips I do as a small business owner to make sure I get some much needed time away. 

Transcript

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Hey guys, it's Carrie Ann, your host of the Hub and a founding member of Thrive Hub. Our mission at Thrive Hub is to empower new and inspiring entrepreneurs in our local community by connecting them with experienced business owners. Whether you need guidance on starting your venture, building your network, or tackling business challenges, we're here to help you get up and running. Hey guys, welcome back to the hub. On today's episode, we're going to talk about a topic that is often overlooked, but super important for business owners. School is out here in the South starting next week. So summer vacations are starting, and taking a break as a business owner is super important. Whether you are a solo operation or you manage a team, when you prioritize your downtime, you're gonna see benefits, and it is definitely essential for your well-being and the health of your business. So, why does taking a break matter? Entrepreneurs like myself are notorious for our relentless work ethic, but operating without breaks and pauses can lead to burnout. I had that a couple months ago, guys. I have a whole episode about it. Decreasing creativity and even health issues can be a cause if we don't take those breaks that we need. Summer is the perfect time for you to step away, recharge, and come back even stronger. Taking a vacation doesn't just benefit you, it can benefit your family, it can benefit your employees, and it can also inspire your team to embrace, balance, and improve their overall productivity. So here's a few steps that I use to plan vacations. The first is what I do, guys. At the beginning of the year, I treat my business very similar in this aspect to a big, you know, corporate job. Like January 1st, most companies are like, hey, what are you looking for vacations? When are you looking to take the time off? So at the beginning of the year, which is also a very slow time typically for balloon businesses and entertainment businesses after the holidays, we have a little bit of downtime. So I pull out the big calendar. I still use a paper planner because I like to personally see everything visually laid out for me. Um, but I know a lot of people are into tech calendars and stuff like that. So they're definitely out there. Choose the calendar that works best for you. Look at the entire year. My kids are in sports. We don't always have the luxury of getting those calendars of when their games and events are gonna be very far ahead of time. But if I know that there is gonna be kids' sports, I put it on the calendar. If I know my husband and I are planning the trip to Disney World, put it on the calendar and block it off. Big letters, scratch out the days on the calendar, whatever you need to do, so you know not to schedule anything on those days. Second thing I really like to do, and I do um a lot of is I set boundaries. You don't always have to fully disconnect, and that is one of the boundaries that I choose to do depending on where I go. Obviously, if me and my family are going to Disney World, I can't be booking everything while I'm on Splash Mountain. Um, we need to just you need to decide how much you want to disconnect on smaller trips and like vacations, especially if I travel by myself, which I do sometimes, and sometimes I even take a retreat to help my business. I do like a planning and stuff like that for my business on retreats. I bring my computer and my calendar with me because I can still take time to book events and get you know invoices out or do some of the office stuff, estimates and stuff like that that don't take a lot of my time that I don't typically get to do every day working my business back home. So that gives me, and it takes just a you know an hour out of my day. I do it over coffee, um, and then I go on the rest of my day and have a vacation. So decide and set those boundaries and then communicate your plans to your clients and staff. Make sure that you have clear expectations on what's gonna happen while you're gone. If you are going out of town and you want to communicate to your clients some way, if you have a newsletter, you can definitely put it in there. But that's gonna lead to my next step is to automate, automate, automate. And this is something you can do to communicate to your clients, whether you have that newsletter, but use technology to get the message out there. So someone may reach out to you via your website or social medias while you are gone and have an automated message that goes back out to them. Say, hey, we are unavailable from this date to this date, and when are you going to return their message? Set a clear date on when that is going to happen. Will it be the next day after you return? Will it be 24 to 48 hours after that return date window so you can get all your messages sent back out? So automating is super helpful when it comes to vacations. And you can also have an automated email. We all know, just set up that vacation email. We have done it if you've worked in corporate when you're out of the office. It was one of the highlights when you're going on vacation, like, hey, I'm out of office. Um, make sure you set that up so your clients and if you have a staff and teammates, they know that you are gone and won't be able to be reached for a while. And then definitely prepare, prepare, prepare. Prepare things in advance. Wrap up any projects you're working on that need to get done prior to leaving. Schedule, here's another automated thing. Schedule content for while you're gone. Social media is great in that way that you can pre-schedule posts and then it won't even look like you're out of town. And leave detailed instructions for your team if you have a staff. Let them know what you expect from them while you're away or things that you need their assistance with finishing up while you are gone. One of the big, big struggles I had as a brand new business owner years ago was that, and I'm sure many business owners fear fear that if you take time off, it will hurt your business. In reality, a well-planned break can spark fresh ideas and new perspectives. Like I said, when I go on vacation, I see things out there, you know, that might help or things I want to bring back into my business too. It gives me ideas when I'm out out in the world and exploring. Remember, your clients and customers will understand that you need a break as long as you communicate to them. If you ghost them while you're on vacation, they may not feel the same way. But if you communicate ahead of time or just let them know that you are unavailable for the day that they would like to schedule you, they will understand. Everyone needs time to recharge. So here are those few tips that I talked about. Let's recap those steps. Block off your calendar early and stick to your plans. I have a paper calendar, like I said, you use whatever calendar works for you. Outsource or automate repetitive tasks or things that you can do. If you've been waiting to set up those automated posts, now is your time to do that. And your business can continue on while you're on break and on vacation. Set up those out-of-office emails and email responses and communicate when you will return a message back to the client. And then definitely embrace the power of unplugging. Please don't shy away from being offline. You definitely can still have a business, you can still be a successful business owner while you are on vacation. So, taking summer vacations is not just a luxury, it is a necessary investment in yourself and your business. So I really want to encourage you guys to get out there. This season, give yourself permission to relax, recharge, and enjoy the moments that matter to you. Your business will thank you. Alright, guys, that's it for the hub today. I will see you next time.

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