If you are in the exciting position of having your own business to look after, then you are absolutely going to be keen to keep it up and running in the best way you possibly can. There are many ways in which this can prove difficult, and a big part of being an entrepreneur is ensuring that you have the strength and confidence to look past these issues and do what is right by the business. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve the occasional break. You need to take time away from the company every now and then, and when you do you need to know that you are going to be able to trust that you will come back to a healthy business which is still running in the same kind of way as before. In this post, we are going to look at the tricky process of taking a holiday as an entrepreneur, and in particular how to ensure that you enjoy yourself while also keeping your business afloat.
Get Your Timing Right
One of the most important things here is to make sure that you are actually going on holiday at a time that is good for the business. If you fail to do this, then it could be that taking a short time away really spells disaster, so this is something that you are going to have to think about long and hard. Getting the timing right is certainly something of a challenge, but if you approach it in the right way you should be able to get to the bottom of it pretty easily. Most of all, you need to look at your business’ calendar for the year and work out where your busy periods are. This should be obvious from the nature of the industry you are working in, but if it is not then you should simply look at the sales from the previous year (if you have been going that long – if not, I would advise against travelling yet anyway!) to see what kind of time of year tends to be quieter and busier.
That is one kind of way in which timing proves important, but you should also make sure that you are thinking about the larger-scale timing within the business. As we’ve alluded to already, you should probably not travel in the first year of the business’ existence, as that will probably be a time of great action and so on, and you don’t want to make the mistake of ruining things by going away at that time. You should also not go away when you are about to launch a new product or otherwise make some big kind of change like a rebrand. Whenever your business really needs you, in short, you should make a point of remaining. The happier you are that you have got your timing right, the more likely it is that you will be able to take your holiday in peace without having to worry about the business back home, so this is definitely the kind of thing that you really want to focus on getting right.
Give People Plenty Of Warning
You are mostly going to be leaving the business in other people’s hands, so you need to make sure that they are going to be ready for that. The most important part of that is to ensure that you give them plenty of warning before you actually go away. If you fail to do that, you will find that you are going to cause a lot of upset in the business and that you will find it a struggle to feel okay about your holiday abroad. You should book in your holiday just as any other colleague would, with plenty of time in advance, so that the people around you can prepare much more for your temporary departure. You will find that this makes it a lot easier for people to know what to do while you are away, partly because you can then spend time training them and teaching them about whatever they might need to know. That is going to be easier if you have more time to use for that purpose, so this is something that you will need to
Know Who To Leave In Charge
When you go away, you want to know that whoever you have left in charge is absolutely going to be able to look after the place and run the show confidently and without having to ask you too much while you are gone. You should still try to be contactable, and we will look at that later on in more detail, but most importantly you need to know that they are going to be able to look after the business without too much trouble. That shows the importance of choosing the right person, and you are probably going to be thinking about this far in advance if you want to ensure you find them in good time. It could be an easy decision – perhaps you have a deputy manager who will obviously be able to run the show, or another leader who is keen and knowledgeable. But whoever it is, you need to inform them as early on as you can of your holiday, and make sure that they are fully aware of everything that is going to be involved in the process of running the business while you are gone.
With the right person in charge, you are going to find that your holiday is so much more enjoyable, and that you are much more likely to be able to simply relax and unwind. You are also going to be more likely to return to a business which is not only still intact, but perhaps even thriving more and more. That is exactly the situation that you are going to want to try and produce for yourself, and putting the right person in charge while you are away is central to making that a reality.
Be In Touch
It is hugely imperative that you remain in touch at all times when you are on holiday, so that people can still contact you should there be any real troubles. You never know what kind of things might go down or how they might need help, so it is really important that people can still get in touch with you no matter what. You will of course therefore need to take your smartphone with you, and you might want to think about finding a good roaming package so that you can give and receive calls without too much of a cost to you or the business. You should also make sure that you are contactable in other ways too. There is of course always email, and these days you will generally be able to access that wherever you happen to be, even if only on your phone. You might also have reason to use an online fax service, or to start a video call with someone in order to have an emergency meeting. Whatever it takes to keep things running smoothly, be sure that you are there. However, make sure too that you are clear with people that they should only contact you in times of emergency. You don’t want to be disturbed too much while you are away, especially as you are on holiday in order to get away from it all.
Duration Of Your Trip
As you need to think about the timing of the trip, you are also going to have to make sure that the duration of the trip is as you want it to be. You cannot go away for too long, of course, as this will mean that your business suffers – but you want it to be long enough that you are going to feel that you have had a long enough time on holiday. If you come home and you don’t really feel any more relaxed as a result, then that is something that you will need to think twice about. But if you are away for months and months, people might wonder if you really take your own business seriously, and that could cause division in your employees which you don’t really need. Make sure you find a good balance on the duration of your trip – which you might do by compromising on how often you go away throughout a year.
Taking a holiday as an entrepreneur is fraught with difficulties, but you need to make sure that you are doing what you can to find the time to get away every now and then. Everyone deserves a holiday, and the more that you are going to be able to get away, the more energy you can then bring to your business again once you return. That is clearly an important way to approach things, and something you should be considering.
