True Blue Communications Blog
Entrepreneurs - Take a Vacation!
Transcript
True Blue Communications has been in business now for about 15 months, and I'm finally preparing to do something that many might consider unthinkable - take a week-long vacation. Now, since I've been out on my own, I have taken a day or two off here and there around a long holiday, and since my work is so mobile, there have been plenty of times where I traveled but I've taken my work with me and done work while I was away. But, this will actually be the first week-long vacation I'll take that I plan not to do any work.
I recently read some statistics in the Public Relations Tactics newsletter that said 30% of workers plan to work while they're on vacation and 12% of workers say that they're feeling guilty on vacation that they're not at work. I, personally, am going to try to do my best not to fall into those percentages. The Wall Street Journal also recently ran a story called "Time Off, it's not an Option, it's a Requirement" that talked about how entrepreneurs really should take time off, despite business concerns that their business might crumble while they're away.
There are a few reasons for these recommendations. Number one, entrepreneurs work long, hard hours and burn out, so they need time to recharge their batteries and stay in good condition for the long haul. Number two, vacations help you clear your head and you may come back to work with a clearer strategy for how to take your business to the next level. And number three, if you find you can't completely cut yourself off from what's going on in your business, there are new devices, mobile devices like Smartphones and laptops and everything else, that make it a lot easier to check in and handle any emergencies that may arise while you're gone.
As for my vacation, I'm really going to try to do my best to unplug. Although, I do foresee myself checking my email at least a couple of times a day just to make sure there's nothing extremely urgent that needs to be forwarded to my colleagues and nothing really critical that needs to be addressed while I'm away. But, anything that doesn't really need to be taken care of that week while I'm gone is just going to have to wait until I get back.
Here are a few final tips for entrepreneurs planning on taking time off. Number one - very obvious one - notify in advance anyone who really needs to know that you're going to be out of pocket - that might be your colleagues or your business partners, key customers or clients, etc. Number two, if you can, set away messages on your work email and on your work phone line so that people who call you or email you know that you are away and that you'll get back to them when you return and don't think that you're simply being unresponsive.
If you have stories to share about how taking time off has helped you or your business, please feel free to post them at Facebook.com/truebluecommunications - and I'll be sure to do the same when I get back from the beach. Thanks for watching.
