6 Tips For a Worry-Free Vacation Away from Your Business
Everyone deserves a break. Furthermore, everyone should take a break. Taking time away from work has important health benefits: regular periods of relaxation leave you feeling recharged and motivated to take on new challenges, whereas persistent stress raises blood pressure and can lead to exhaustion.
However, leaving work for an extended amount of time is particularly difficult for entrepreneurs who worry their absence will negatively impact their company. According to recent research by business software provider Sage, over 30% of UK small business owners do not take a summer holiday.
Here are some tips to help you take a holiday – the right way:
1. Tie up loose ends
Is there anything that you’ve been putting off? Take care of bureaucratic, time-sensitive issues before you leave. For example: renewing a lease or license, or paying off balances.
2. Handover your work
Document your workflow and processes. Use this data to train a trusted employee to handle your daily tasks while you are away. If your team requires additional support as a result, consider hiring a temporary employee or a freelancer. Ensure systems are in place for increased efficiency; be mindful of cash flow, deliveries, inventory, etc.
3. Leave an emergency contact number
Give your senior employee your contact information, only to be used in case of an emergency.
4. Give notice
Do you have any regular customers? Let them know at least a month in advance that you’ll be away and who they can approach with any questions or needs. Set up an automated email response informing the sender of your vacation dates.
5. Get to know these apps
Need to urgently sign a document while away on vacation? DocuSign enables you to receive documents via email and add your signature to them.
If an emergency meeting needs to take place, simply download GoToMeeting and hold a video conference.
Go paperless and track your expenses with Expensify. Simply take a photo of your receipt and the app will store it and organize it according to category.
Automate simple tasks. IFTTT enables you to receive custom notifications, for example, from certain email addresses in case of an emergency. Additionally, you may create pre-programmed messages, like a thank-you note to new social followers.
Schedule out your social media posts using Hootsuite. Pre-planned content can be automatically published on specific dates and times.
Got a flash of inspiration while away from the office? Record your idea with Evernote. The app also enables you to scan and save photos or documents as well as save articles to read later.
Plan your vacation itinerary and efficiently get from place to place using Google Maps or Apple Maps.
6. Most importantly – Disconnect:
Try to disconnect from work as much as possible – this is what a vacation is for. If you must, check your phone and email in the morning only.
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