How to Prep Your Business For Vacation
One of my goals for 2018 is to have intentional vacations. This means, I don’t get to work. That’s definitely a challenge for me. I love the work I do, and I don’t like to lose momentum. But what I’ve learned is that when I don’t take any time away, I actually do low quality work. When I take time away from work, I gain clarity and vision for my business.
In fact, my little family is jet-setting off to Italy in a few weeks, so we will be putting these practices to work!
In the past, and up until recently, I have never really been intentional with taking time off during vacation. I like to be needed and attached to my work, so stepping away makes me second guess my value and worth. Whoa. Sorry...that just got deep.
But, as I learn more about myself, I am learning that I have a high value for being there for others. So, as a business that serves, I feel the need to always be present for my audience. Which makes me tied to my work and online presence.
RELATED: How to Overcome Unexpected Life Circumstances in Business
But, as I mentioned before, I made a goal for myself to be more intentional and present during vacations this year. I know that having a baby with us will make it nearly impossible to stay on top of work, but I want to make sure there is intention in my time off from work.
So, these are the practices I am putting in place in order to have an intentional vacation this summer:
Plan Ahead: For me, I have blog posts, emails to my clients, Mastermind meetings, and much more that happen on a weekly basis, so I have to make sure everything is planned and ready to go. That means, working ahead and making sure my assistant has everything she needs to get everything done while I am on vacation. Luckily, I have an assistant to pick up the slack while I am out. She can manage anything pressing, while I frolic through the hills of Tuscany. So, if you’re wanting to take intentional time off from work, spend time scheduling and automating as much as you can, so you’re able to unplug.
Let it Go: As vacation time quickly approaches, I become even more aware of my limitations and the fact that I will never be able to perfectly run this business. And spoiler alert: I don’t have a huge team to do the work when I am out. #goals So, for me, that means that there will definitely be things that I need to let go. For example, if my newsletters don’t get sent that week, oh well. Or if I don’t plan enough blog posts in advance, oops. EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY. As a semi-perfectionist, it is hard for me to swallow this truth. I want everything to be perfect. But, it won’t matter if a few blog posts go unfinished or emails don’t get replied to. Choosing to put more importance on my family is what really matters. At the end of my life, I will remember my time in Italy, not how many emails I replied to on time. If you want to prep your business for vacation, know that it’s completely fine to not have everything done perfectly. And whatever doesn’t get done can wait. We often prioritize work, when in the grand scheme of life, those things are small.
Communicate clearly: I have some clients and customers who need to be notified that I will be out of the office for a couple weeks. This means that I need to make everyone aware that I won’t be available. If you have clients that depend on you, you need to make sure they are completely aware that you are unavailable. If you own an online product shop (like me), you need to make sure your customers are aware that you will be delayed in fulfilling orders. Basically: make sure the people who depend on you know what to expect from you!
Delegate: If there are things that are on your plate as a business owner, that you don’t actually need your hands in, then delegate that, girl! If you are able to hire someone to help, even better! As business owners, we like to have our hands in everything, but sometimes, that’s not the best use of our time.
Shut off: Now that you’ve done all the work to schedule and prepare everything as much as you can, it’s time to shut off! Delete your email app off your phone, set up your auto-responder, maybe even consider deleting some social media apps for a brief time period.
Trust: You’ve done all that you can do to prepare, so you have to trust that things won’t fall apart when you are gone. Vacations and rest are a good thing! Trust that things will get done, your business will still thrive, and everything is going to be okay.
I’ll be over here cheers-ing you and wishing you a fabulous vacation!!