One of the toughest things for a business owner to do is let go. It’s hard to escape the feeling that if you took off for a week or two, especially in the height of the busy season, everything would come crashing down.
And yet, as a wise contractor says in an article from another COLE Publishing magazine, “Your business is only as strong as when you are not there.” That’s powerful stuff, when you think about it. A good business is one that runs just as smoothly when the boss man or woman is off at a convention or floating in a fishing boat on a lake somewhere in Canada.
Lots of owners already own businesses like that — they just don’t know it. The people and equipment are in place. They’re capable professionals. The owner could leave anytime and the place would run just fine. Only it never happens, because the owner never leaves.
Forget for a moment how your control obsession can stunt the growth of your people and, ultimately, your company. Think of the price you may be paying — in stress, fatigue and anxiety — for working too hard and too long.
What’s your excuse?
I know people in the onsite business who take vacations only in winter — the slow season. I can’t comprehend that, because my favorite vacation time is June, when it’s beautiful in Wisconsin and fishing is at or near its peak.
There are all kinds of reasons not to take vacations. Work is too busy. Time off means lost income. I’m breaking in a new employee. I’m waiting for word on this great big job. Or the best one of all: I’ll take a vacation as soon as ... And you know what always happens then.
Of course, some people prefer to take winter vacations. Some like their work so much they don’t care if they get away (or so they claim). But for the majority, time off is a necessary thing for resting the body, for recharging the mental batteries, for enriching family life.
So how do you manage to get away, to have time with your family, and to indulge your hobbies and passions? In part, you have to take advice from those shoe company commercials: Just do it.
Make it a priority
A business owner friend used to lament, every fall, that another fishing season had gone by in which he spent too little time in the boat, in which the few outings he got were ruined by weather, in which he never got the chance to say, “I hammered ’em!”
His solution? Make fishing a priority. His favorite hobby had always ranked lower than work. Then, as a New Year’s resolution, he decided to try something different. He pulled out his office calendar at the start of January, picked his favorite months, and started blocking out days. A week here. A day there. A four-day weekend there.
Then he scheduled his work life around those times he had reserved for fishing. Business meeting on Friday, June 23? No, that day’s not available. How about the next week? He guarded those days jealously. When they came, he went fishing.
He didn’t block out excessive amounts of time — he needed to mind the store. But he put aside enough days so that when autumn came, he could look back and say, “It wasn’t as much as I might have liked — but it was enough.”
And, by the way, his business did just fine through his short absences.
You can do it
Maybe an approach like that would work for you. Maybe you can set aside the days you need for your favorite pastimes — golf, sailing, scuba diving, antique hunting, or whatever it may be. Perhaps there is time, after all, for that family trip to Yellowstone or Disney World that you and the kids have talked about, even if it is the busy season.
The energizing and healing power of discretionary time can be remarkable. What would it be like to get away — really get away — every year on a consistent basis, not “when you can” but when you want to?
Another wise man once said, “Your vacation is over when you begin to long for your work.” You deserve a vacation like that, and not just once in a lifetime. How about making that a priority, along with your other business goals?
