I’m currently on an overseas holiday for just over a month… away from my furbabies and my business baby. It’s not easy leaving my business baby (or my furbabies, but they are in good hands). I work in a service industry that is built on one-on-one relationships, so being off the scene for a while can be a scary prospect.
There is quite a bit of planning required to be away from your business for any length of time.
There are clients to take care of, bills to pay, cash flow to manage, and of course the marketing activity must continue. And then there is the fear everything will just crumble while you are away, clients will wander off, and and the results of your labours will be lost. There’s also the fear of leaving your business baby in the hands of someone else. For those reasons, it is easy to talk yourself out of a holiday or perhaps limit your holidays to a long weekend here and there. I have been guilty of this in the past. Now though, I practise what I preach. Afterall, it doesn’t take much additional effort to be away for 4 weeks as opposed to two, and the long term benefits are many.
So, if you need some encouragement, here are just some of the benefits of taking a holiday:
- Sleep, rest, rejuvenation and the down-regulation of your stress levels, (doesn’t that sound good)
- The opportunity to connect (or re-connect) with the other important aspects of your life… family, friends, hobbies, healthy habits. Running a business can make you a bit one-dimentional if you aren’t careful,
- The time to step out of your business and see it from a different perspective through fresh eyes and without the distraction of everyday tasks,
- The opportunity to look at other businesses (in your industry and elsewhere) to be inspired on new ways to improve your own business,
- Prevention of “burn-out” …something business owners are at significant risk of experiencing,
- The chance to soak up new inspiration by being in different surroundings and engaging your senses with new stimuli (even if it is simply reading something not related to your business for a change.)
So, don’t fall into the trap of never taking a proper holiday- and when you do go on holidays, don’t fall into the trap of taking your business with you when you go. In today’s connected world, this is an easy trap to fall into… responding to emails, doing banking, blogging, updating social media etc etc.
Really be disciplined to limit your time to the barest essentials a couple of times a week. If you’ve done the preparation, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Right, so I’m off for a walk on the beach before sunset (something I never get to do when I am at home and in my normal routine) knowing that I am looking forward to getting back to my business baby in a couple of weeks with new inspiration and renewed energy and enthusiasm.
