Help! I Need a Vacation

Today . . . I am thinking about this question that came in from one of our readers.

If you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.

Q: I so desperately need a vacation but am afraid to take one. Help!

A: Taking a vacation can do wonders for you and your business. After all, I'm currently on one!

Entrepreneurial women often get so caught up in the day-to-day responsibilities of maintaining and building a successful small business that they forget to take the much-needed opportunity to relax, recharge, and regroup.

Taking regularly scheduled vacations can help you to avoid burn-out and reduce stress, get reconnected with your family and friends, and put you back in touch with your inner strength and source — what I call your Inner Samurai. 

Five Tips:

1. Repeat after me: "Taking a vacation is necessary for my personal wellbeing and success of my business."

2. Schedule your vacation in advance, and stick to those dates.

3. If it is an extended vacation (as mine is to China), begin your vacation while still at home by allotting several front-end days for packing, tying up lose home and business ends, and relaxing before you get on the plane, train, or in your automobile.

4. Factor into the back end of your vacation several re-entry days to get yourself back into the swing of things at home and business. Longer, if you'll be dealing with jet lag. 

5. Plan to limit (or disconnect completely from) work-related communication (i.e., phone calls and e-mails), so that you can spend your vacation focusing exclusively on whom you're with, where you are, and what you're doing.

P.S. - Refrain from scheduling any important commitments for the first few days after you return.

That's my answer and I'm sticking to it!

Do you have any other suggestions? If so, leave a comment and let us know. And, if you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.

Susan L. Reid
Inner Samurai Business Expert

Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success

Comments

[Lady Cricket]

Once again, Susan is spot on! Having had the privilege (and I mean that wholeheartedly) to work with Susan over the past 3 years, and having been in the position where, as a small business owner, being freaked out about taking an honest vacation (which means enjoying it without constantly checking your email/voice mail, etc.), I stand behind her advice 100%. It is absolutely necessary to take time to rejuvenate...imperative to your business success.

Although I had done the absolute opposite previously (stressing out that I wouldn't have income during one week of vacation, trying to please everyone else's schedules), I'm here to tell you that the world won't end, and that your clients will actually respect you more for taking a stand. If they don't, they are clearly not your "perfect client" and don't appreciate your skills and the fact that you have a life outside of your business.

As a very good example, recently I requested Susan's counsel regarding difficulties with a "high-maintenance" client with whom I've worked for over 7 years. On the basis of my one email to her, Susan already had the best response to my client figured out prior to our session. And it worked beautifully! Our working relationship remains intact, and we definitely will work together again in the future - as well as maintaining our good friendship.

Without Susan's intuitive counsel, I may have sabotaged my future relationship with my friend/client out of frustration. I cannot more highly recommend anyone else as a business coach. Susan absolutely rocks!

[Carol McClelland of Green Career Central]

Here, here to vacations!!

I just took two weeks away from my business...and my computer!! What a blessing.

What I've learned is getting away allows me to return to my work with a clearer perspective about what's working and what's not working! That clarity allows me to up level my business more quickly.

I've also gotten some of my most significant contracts and opportunities while I've been on vacation or just after I've returned.

Thanks Susan for sticking to your convictions on this!! Have a great trip!!

[Lady Samurai]

Thank you Lady Cricket and Carol for echoing your true knowing - that taking a vacation is not only good for your body and soul, it's good for your business, too.

I know the feeling of thinking that you can't take a vacation. It's a stuck, limiting feeling that used to leave me resentful and tired. Then I woke up. Being resentful and tired is not good for my business. It's not good for my clients. And it really isn't good for me.

Both of you offer shining examples of how taking a vacation has had a positive effect on your life and business.