Episode 8: How To Take Time Off

As an entrepreneur, it is so difficult to find time to rest at all, much less take a vacation or some time away. Through a lot of trial and error, we have found a way to work for ourselves and actually enjoy our time away from it.

Want to know how we do it?

It all comes down to having a plan. Sounds self-explanatory, right? So let’s dive deeper.

Inside that plan, there needs to be a process, budget and boundaries. Here’s what I mean:

 

You Need a Plan

You’ll need one overarching theme to make taking time off happen — you have to create a PLAN. We’ve broken down the three most essential parts of your plan to take time off successfully.

 

A Process

The first essential part of your plan is to have a solid process. You know I love a good process, so of course, this is something we could not leave out! You have to think through the question of:

“How will my business keep moving forward while I step away? ”

This question is one of the main problems we would struggle with. We would have a vacation planned, and then, about a day before the vacation started, we would panic. There were little to no processes in place to ensure the business kept moving forward while we were away!

 A process helps accomplish a few things:

1. If you have a team, set them up for success through Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Here are some examples of SOPs:

• Say you plan to be out of the office when a blog post needs to be published.
  • An SOP can help ensure that everyone knows their responsibilities to get the blog posted. The idea is to design a replicable process so that you can repeat it. 
• Maybe your company sells a physical product. 
  • An SOP can ensure the product is shipped while you are out.

By ensuring you have these SOPs in place, you know the team knows what to do—like a teacher’s sub plan in school. Remember, you may be asking the team to do something outside of their regular responsibilities. It is best to be clear and specific with your process. 

2. Create Automation

Creating automation as an entrepreneur is crucial whether you have a team or not! Here are some ways you can automate your business while you are on vacation:

1. 1. 1.  Auto-Reply
         • Setting auto-replies on your email or CRM tool is so important while you are on vacation! They help clearly set expectations for the person(s) reaching out, ensuring they know when you will respond and where to go with their questions if they need answers now.
         • You can also use this auto-reply to add value for the user! Pointing them toward resources or products that help them is a great way to drive awareness and value—even when you aren’t there.
      2. Social Media
         • Using features in social media apps to ensure posts go live while you are out is so helpful to keep your online presence consistent while you are out.
      3. Marketing Emails
         • Scheduling emails and serving your clients while you are not actually in the office is an incredible use of automation. You could even drive sales while you are away!
         • If you plan to communicate outwardly, be sure you are ready to receive communication. This could be through an auto-reply (see above) or a person that’s actually covering for you, responding to live inquiries.

Fully Step Away

Maybe you plan to fully step away from your business for a while. In essence, the business will be “shutting off” while you are gone. If you plan to step away fully, you must clearly communicate this.

From your website to social media, it must be crystal clear that NO one will respond, ship, or do anything else for a select amount of time. The user also needs to know when you will reopen so that their expectations are correctly set.

Wow, we just covered a lot there! Here is a summary of how creating processes is essential to your plan to take time off.

1.     Set SOPs for your team
2.     Creating automation is key
3.     Fully step away 

The bottom line is that you have to decide what you want your customer experience to be while you are on vacation and tailor your processes accordingly.

 

Budget / Cost

When you are creating a plan for your small business during the time you will be away, one major consideration is the cost. What is the cost to your business during that period? Is it more or less than standard times? And how do you figure this cost out?

I’m glad that you asked!

First, let’s talk about the cost of customer experience. Earlier, Mollie talked about the bottom line of taking time off. You have to decide what you want your customer experience to be. Whatever you want that experience to be, will it cost more, less or the same as when you are actually in the office? It could cost more if you have to hire help or pay someone overtime to cover for you, but it could cost less if you pause all operations during your time away.

Secondly, how will your time off affect revenue? In other words, what is the actual cost of the loss in revenue (if that’s part of your forecast 🙂)? Can your company continue to drive revenue at its normal pace? Will sales pause while you are out? Be honest with yourself here. If you aren’t, you could overestimate your revenue and have to play catch-up more than you planned.

There was no set budget or process for managing the money at Between The Pine. Similar to mistake # three, I didn’t really need to use a budget during the first 1-2 months I ran my business.

As time went on, though, I quickly formed habits that were not good for my business finances. I wish that I had started earlier with implementing a business budget. It would have saved me a ton of time and heartache later on!

Finally, are you going to pay yourself the same amount while you are gone? Will your pay change while you are on vacation? If you listened to episode three on paying yourself first (Episode 3 here!!!), you know that I am not a fan of changing your pay just because you think it will be easier. It won’t be. Pay yourself the same amount and keep this factor steady.

Now, the next step is to make your financial plan according to the above factors (cost of the planned customer experience, cost of lost sales, and cost of paying yourself while you are out). Obviously, this is a lot of planning. But as a small business owner, with great power comes great responsibility (yes, I just quoted Spiderman). But seriously! Plan your business finances accordingly. Plan for the added expense of hiring a person to cover for you, the revenue dip while you are out, and for your salary to remain the same. It will allow you to take time off without worrying that your business will run out of cash or that you will have a surprise bill waiting for you when you get home.

 I designed a free money management guide to take you through the basics of planning revenue and expenses. It is a great way to start implementing what I just talked about. Go check it out on our website, here.

 

Boundaries

The last part of your plan on how to take time off should be setting intentions and boundaries for following it. This is so that when you are away, you intentionally choose to step away.

Here are some prompts to help make that a reality.

1. Decide how much you want to work while you are gone.

How much do I want to work when I have time off? Yes, you can work when you have time off. Check your email for ____ amount of time and reply to social comments ____ amount of times. 

Essentially, you need to discover what feels right to you and move forward with that plan. We really want to challenge you to stick to this plan while you are away. 

 

2. Ground yourself.

What are 3 reminders that I can use to remind myself that the work has been done and the plan is in place?

Write the answers down on notecards and bring them with you, then create a daily reminder on your phone so they pop up when needed.

 

3. Consider your access.

You will have access to these tools (email, slack, etc.), so make sure you follow your intentions and work hard to keep yourself in check. You may want to set screen limits or temporarily delete the apps.

Be sure you’re being held accountable. Maybe you want to hold yourself accountable. If not, is someone else holding you accountable, such as a friend, teammate, or person you’re vacationing with?

 

So there you have it: how to take time off as an entrepreneur. We hope this episode was helpful for you and that it shed light on ways you can separate life and work.

Taking time off is essential to being the best you can be not only for your business, but for yourself.