How does a small business owner take a holiday?

This is a serious question to small business owners … when did you last take a holiday? I’m talking a real holiday not just a day off or a long weekend. I bet it has been quite a while. I am just as guilty. It has been years since I took a proper holiday … it was before I set up my business as a freelance PA.

So why am I writing this … well it is because I am about to take not one but two holidays!! Yikes … can I really do this? Well the answer is yes and you should be able to do the same. So I thought I would write this to explain how I, and any other small business/service providers, should be able to take time off.

So here are my tips and it is all down to planning:

Plan ahead

Planning ahead is so important, for you and your clients. You need to give your clients as much notice as possible, especially if it is going to affect your ability to complete their work.

Try and give your clients at least 30 days notice, more if you can, so plan your diary for events and holidays in good time and let them know.

Budget/acknowledge that income might be reduced … and plan for that

Think about it … are you okay with taking off time and not getting paid?

Depending on the work you do, the clients you work for and how much time off you are taking, your income might be reduced for the month that you take time off. Can you manage? Do you need to try and bring in more work the month before … or just save a bit more each month to prepare for any holiday time that you really need to take and deserve?

This is the reason why many freelancers and small business owners take very little time off. If you’re just taking a week off you can probably keep up with all the work you would do in the month anyway, unless you do daily tasks for certain clients, but try and fit in a full month’s tasks into just a couple of weeks and that isn’t quite so easy.

So if you take holiday and therefore don’t get paid, what do you do? You need the break, need to step away and not work. It certainly helps to have wonderful and understanding clients who will let you juggle your time but planning and budgeting ahead for your holiday is crucial.

Back-up support … and plan

Businesses vary and your clients might want/expect you to provide some form of back-up while you’re away. Do you have this in place? Is there someone else who can take over if needed? Some people offer this as an option to clients for an additional fee and this is set out when contracts are drawn up at the start of your working relationship. The extra fee is needed as time will be required to train whoever is going to provide the back-up support.

To be absolutely honest I do not have this solution in place as the work I do is generally moveable/not time sensitive so I can cram client work into the time before or after I take a break in any month. If a new client or task comes in I am always totally open about how quickly I can turn their work around … there is no point in telling a client you will complete a task by a date that is totally unachievable.

So again … plan your time and work schedule well ahead, and have back-up support in place if it is needed for your clients/business.

Do you plan to work ‘a bit’ on your holiday?

There are many different tasks that VAs do and some are easier to do ‘around’ your holiday than others. I could quite easily work while on holiday just doing a little bit in the morning or evening and my clients needn’t be aware that I am actually not working from home as usual. With tasks that are largely project-based or not time sensitive this can be done. So long as client work is completed what does it matter where I work? This could be seen as a huge benefit, with all the technology to allow work to be done anywhere BUT I really think a complete break is needed sometimes.

Some clients might need you to be available during normal business hours so working for a few hours just in the morning or evening won’t work, not to mention that you might be taking your holiday in a different time zone!

So, can you run your business only working mornings or evenings for a short period of time while you take a break? If you can, then perhaps you do not have to tell clients you are taking time off. I particularly choose to accept work that can fit around other aspects of my life … after all this is one of the reasons I set up my business in the first place.

But again it is down to planning … can you plan to work a ‘bit’ during your holiday if that is the easiest way to take a break?

➡️ So plan, plan and plan some more …

I looked at my calendar and planned things well in advance so that my work could easily be fitted in around my holidays. We all need some time off … and my holiday is well overdue. It’s all about planning.

HOWEVER … that was before I had a crisis last week when my computer decided to display the rainbow wheel of death rather too much and crashed more times than I could handle! By the way … why is is a rainbow wheel of death? I love rainbows and they are joyous to me not threatening!! I lost data (mostly personal as I saved work-related data first!!) and had to resort to purchasing a new desktop! I have been playing catchup all this week before I head away!

PS Don’t forget to consider sick days too … I know this isn’t holiday time but if you unwell who will get the work done? I suffer from migraines and sometimes need to take time away from my desk … but I struggle on and if there is a deadline to meet then I still get the work done (squinting at my computer screen while wearing sunglasses!) So anything urgent still gets done … I will never let my clients down … but that’s my choice. Someone else might not be able to function in this way and so again having backup support needs to be considered and put in place.

PPS In case you are interested for my holidays I am walking Hadrian’s Wall next week (not sure if I am actually looking forward to this or not … and is it really a holiday?). In June I am heading to Toronto and Detroit … now that’s really exciting!

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Cornerstone pa services is here to help YOU and YOUR business. Do get in touch if you have admin tasks to outsource and give yourself more time to focus on other aspects of your business. No task is ever too small or too tedious.