Generally, the holidays are a time for extended shopping hours, vacations, and family. In the small business and startup world “days off” are few and far between, and many business owners hardly take time to eat, let alone take days off. With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s important to find time away from the business to spend time with family, recharge the batteries, and get a fresh perspective heading into the new year.
I asked eight entrepreneurs how they manage to find a balance between taking time off for the holidays and making sure their business are running at all cylinders:
Plan Ahead
Schedule time off in advance. It’s so important to schedule it in your calendar before anything else, otherwise, the time gets filled up and all you do is end up working anyways.
Diane Conklin – President at Complete Marketing Systems, LLC
Allow your leaders to lead
Have employees who understand all aspects of your business and can handle a plethora of situations whether or not you are physically present in the office.
Erica Tevis – Owner at Little Things Favors
Work on side projects
Pursue the fun little ideas that you have been pushing off instead of worrying about making more sales calls. Work on things you wouldn’t normally work on.
Todd Medema – Founder at AutoRef
Delegate and Follow Up
Delegate but require daily updates so that you can keep in the loop of what’s happening while
you’re unavailable. After the holiday you should try to figure how to
keep this going permanently to free you up to focus on other critical areas
of the business.
Rohan Hall – Founder/CEO at Cool Mojito
Delete, Delete, Delete
Spend time deleting unnecessary emails and to-dos. This will allow you to be focused and uncluttered when you return from a few days off during the holidays.
Erica Duran – CEO & President at Erica Duran International
Work Ahead
Get work done in advance to ensure you will have free time during the holidays. You will be less stressed if you know that you accomplished what you needed to before the holidays.
Andrew Schrage – Founder at MoneyCrashers.com
Expand your network
Spend the holidays reaching out to friends and family about your business and what services you can offer them and their networks.
Zach Kasperski- Owner at Noggin Digital Marketing
Shut off the Smart Phone
Never receive emails on your smartphone. Instead, set up systems so that you are only contacted if there is a serious problem or need.
Matt Inglot – President at Tilted Pixel Inc.
There are no excuses for over-working this holiday season with these great tips. How do you manage your time and holidays as entrepreneurs and business owners? Let us know in the comments section below. Happy Holidays!
Ryan O’Connell is the Vice President of Business Development for Digital Talent Agents, a company that helps experts build their businesses through thought-leadership and content marketing by producing high-quality content for reputable publications. You can reach out to Ryan on Twitter @Oconnellryan.
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