How to Take a Vacation (When You’re a Small Business Owner)

By Rieva Lesonsky

It’s Friday, and if you’re planning to still be working tomorrow… and the day after…maybe you need some a vacation. But when you’re a small business owner, taking time off can be easier said than done.

Or maybe you’re not convinced that you do need a break. In that case, consider some interesting research Intuit compiled about why small business owners need vacations:

Health reasons: Women who don’t take vacations are 8 times more likely to suffer from heart disease. Men who take vacations are 32 percent less likely to die of heart attacks.

Productivity: 82 percent of people report they are more productive after a vacation. However, long weekends didn’t have the same effect on productivity as a more extended vacation.

Innovation: As you probably know from experience, you’re less likely to come up with creative solutions when you’re stressed out and on overload. Mental downtime, on the other hand, helps you be more innovative.

If you’re not taking vacations, you’re not alone. More than half (55 percent) of small business owners work on “most” or “all” holidays! But with mobile devices and cloud computing making it easier to stay in touch as needed, taking a vacation really shouldn’t be the end of the world for your business.

Here are some tips Intuit offers to help you relax while your business runs smoothly:

1. Delegate. Trust employees to handle tasks without you.
2. Plan ahead. Get big projects out of the way before you go. Have any data you’ll need to access on vacation available, either by taking it with you (such as on a USB drive) or using a cloud solution so you can access it anytime.
3. Spread the word. Let clients and customers know when you’ll be out of town. You’ll find most are understanding and happy to work with your schedule.

Once you’re on vacation, of course, the key is to really be on vacation. Limit how often you check your email or voicemail. You might want to check it first thing in the morning and in the evening. Focus on urgent problems if any arise, but don’t worry about smaller issues. (You’ve got someone back at the office handling those, remember?)

You may want to set up a system with your team so they only contact you in an emergency, or they contact you in a certain way if there’s an urgent matter. That means you won’t have to jump every time your BlackBerry pings.

Truly unwinding on vacation can bring you back refreshed and full of new ideas for growing your business. You’ll be rested and ready to serve your customers and clients better…and that benefits everyone, not just you.

Image by Flickr user avrene (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 29th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs, Small Business, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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