How to Take a Vacation When You Own a Small Business
You probably wonder how you can take a vacation and who will take care of your customers while you are away.
The truth is that to run a successful business it is important to take time off to recharge your energies and destress yourself.
Here are some helpful tips that will show you how you can go on vacation without fretting about what will happen to your business.
Being a business owner, you need to plan your vacation in advance.
This will allow you to let your customers know that you are going to be away.
If you keep your customers in the dark they are likely to move away by the time you return from your vacation.
The time that you schedule your vacation for is important.
Try and identify the lean or off-peak season in your business and take your vacation around that time.
Before you step out for your vacation make sure the message on your answering machine is changed so that your callers know that you are away and how long you will be away for.
There is nothing more annoying for your customers to keep calling and not get any answer from your end.
You should follow the same routine for your email as well.
Set up an out of office message that will inform your clients of your unavailability instead of just leaving your emails unanswered.
This is an absolute must if you do the bulk of your work through emails.
A very long vacation may inconvenience your customers.
Try and figure out how many days you can take off without causing too much distress to your customers.
If you absolutely must take a long vacation or your customers need you to be around, you may consider someone to substitute for you.
You can get an employee or even a friend or family member to take care of your business while you are away.
It could be anyone who is familiar with your business and has seen you conducting your regular business transactions at least a few times.
You could even work out an arrangement with a competitor to look after your business and agree to share the profits provided you trust them.
You could also offer to do the same for them the next time they are away.