Summary: Can you take a week or two vacation from your vacation? Prepare yourself and your business to be away.
It’s summer time, the weather is warm and thoughts of escaping work for a week or two fill your dreams? Can you do it? Can you take a week or two from your business? For some this is an easy question to answer, for others not so much. So, how do you prepare yourself and your business to be away on a vacation?
Courtesy of PhotoXpress
Let’s be realistic here, I know you will be calling into the office and checking emails – the point here is to reduce that time and give your people what is needed to carry on in your absence. After all, you need the break from the office as much as they do.
How to prepare yourself. Yes, you also need the proper preparation before you go on vacation. Decide what needs to be completed before you leave, what can wait until your return, and what can be delegated. The point here to prioritize before you leave so you do not wake up in the middle night on your vacation and think “that proposal was due!”
Prepare your business. Tell everyone you are going on vacation and that you will have limited access to email. This is important, they need to know you are not going to be checking up on them every hour and gives them the confidence to their work. If you are going to be calling in, create set times (8am or 5pm) and let them know what kind of information you will be looking for. This way they can be prepared and will have information to pass along.
In case of emergency. There may be a time when they will have no choice but to call you. Give them a number to call only in case of an emergency and what constitutes an emergency.
As you can see, communication is the key here. People need to know that you trust them and while you will be following up, you are giving them the conditions ahead of time. In other words – you are setting the expectations!
Now go and enjoy your vacation!
What else do you do to prepare yourself and your business for a vacation?
Great article and a topic I always struggle with. I actually travel quite a bit and it could be for 2 – 3 weeks at a time. When I do travel for business, I have found Skype to be a GREAT tool. Often, I am out of the country and the time differences can be 12 or 13 hours. Setting up a time every other day to spend 30 minutes with staff on happenings and events is such a great way to manage the office without being there. That time is set to discuss important issues that our staff may need guidance with or confirmation, then it is also fun for the staff to see that you are there to support them. Now when I am on personal vacations, I still conduct these meetings every other day, but they are typically much shorter in time. Thanks again for some great suggestions!