How to Take Time Off As A Solopreneur
Originally posted 1/27/23
Before you roll your eyes and feel the need to remind me that we have just finished the holiday season - I know. I know we've all had some downtime, most likely, and talking about how to take time off seems a little redundant. I would counter that planning now is crucial if you want to create the opportunity to take time off in 2023.
If you are anything like me, in the one-woman office that I am, if I am not working, no one is working, and there is no income coming in. The idea of taking time sends me into a panic-filled spin. Since this year, one of my big goals has been breaking big goals or tasks into small steps. I can apply that too breaks this year by planning ahead. But I have more tips than that. So if you want stress-free breaks from work, read on, and let's get our times off planned and scheduled for the year.
When are you going?
When do you want to take a break? No matter what type of business you own or run, being the go-to or the ‘only’ means you are buried in to-do lists, tasks, and every other part of running a business. Marketing, accounting, and running; that's just the surface of what it takes to be a business owner. It might seem appealing to plan week-long vacations, but experts suggest taking shorter, more frequent breaks is more manageable.
This year, my family and I took our first “family planning/goal-setting” trip to our favorite hotel in Monterrey, Ca. During that trip, we sat down with a family calendar and planned many short trips. Day trips, weekend trips, movie and game nights. During the summer, starting in June, we have scheduled a camping trip each month from June through August. We will also attend fun day trips like the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Caruthers Fair. These are just day trips. Still, they offer a break from the daily grind. A day in the car as a family and experiencing these celebrations will take my mind off my notary business and all the to-do lists and allow me to focus on my family and breathe. As I wrote last year, I experienced professional burnout, and the time it took away from my business to recover was so much longer than a 3-4 day camping trip or a day in Gilroy tasting Garlic Ice Cream. The idea of planning time off for yourself and your family is an excellent exercise in promoting and protecting yourself from experiencing the debilitating symptoms of burnout and maintaining your mental health.
How to take time off
Ok, you are planning short breaks throughout the year; great. How do you leave your business for 3-4 days and not lose momentum or clients? I have read scores of articles about this topic, and in all of them, I’ve read the same things. Hire help. I am not going there with this blog post. Although it is an option for you, as a solopreneur, I don’t have the financial resources to pay someone to stand in my place while I am gone. Still, things may need to be done when you are away. So how do you manage that? I have a couple of suggestions:
Plan and prepare ahead of time.
Get ahead on your books. Be a rock star in the small business world and ensure your invoices and bills are current and paid.
Get a head start on your marketing content and use a platform like Hootsuite to preschedule your social media posts.
If you maintain a blog on your website as I do, get into the habit of having two to three weeks of blog posts written and scheduled within your website platform.
Update your public hours of operation, like on Google Business or your website, with upcoming “office closed” dates.
Find Someone in Your Industry Network to Help.
I am a notary, so I have hundreds of notaries in my network to whom I would happily refer business.
Be sure the peer you reach out to represents your same values and work ethic.
Add on your voicemail the day you leave that peer's name and contact information on your break.
Alert the Customers of Your schedule change.
If you have regular customers you know will be affected by your absence, give them a heads-up.
Prepare a vacation email response that gives the date you’ll return to work and if you will be checking emails. (which you should try not to do!)
Make sure all of your business bills are paid
If subscriptions or bills will come due when you are gone, get a head start and prepay or schedule auto-pay so you don’t come back to the office without electricity.
How to Take Time off During the Holidays.
This works the same as your short getaways or day trips. Plan ahead. Google business will actually alert you to the option to change your office hours when holidays arise. If you want to take the last two weeks of the year off, do so, but plan now so that when you get there, you don’t even have to think about it.
How to Prep Scheduling Apps for Your Break
If you use a scheduling app for your business like Calendly or Acuity to automate your client's ability to book appointments, then there are steps to take so you don’t get an alert in the middle of your vacation that you have an appointment in 30 minutes. I learned this hard while at a romantic dinner with my husband. My phone alerted me that I had a signing in 15 minutes. I forgot to schedule my dinner in my google calendar. If I had, that time would have been blocked from customers trying to schedule an appointment. So, schedule on whatever calendar your appointment app is tied to that you'll be unavailable, or google lets you use “out of office.”
Being a business owner is a brave and busy thing. You work hard, no doubt, and taking some breathing time is important. I encourage you to open up your planning calendar and make some plans. Don’t forget about the holidays, your kid's birthdays, or your wedding anniversary. You have the power to run off to the beach for those events. Do that, but plan ahead to keep those breaks free for anything other than business.
I’d love to hear what short trips or getaways you plan this year. Send me a note at jcooper@jkcmobilenotary.com.
If you'd like to watch the companion video to this blog post, check it out here.
Until Next Time-
Jennifer K. Cooper, JKC Mobile Notary