We are human beings, we all need a vacation from our everyday chores, business, family, everything! Owning a business is like owning a child. It becomes impossible to leave it alone and go on a vacation or holiday. But everyone needs a physical and mental break so that when they come back after relaxing they have a new perspective to see life and full of energy to face the coming up challenges.
A vacation is no vacation when you have to constantly worry about your business, check email or be on call with your employees. Without work-life balance, you won’t be able to give your best in every sector of your life. You need to set your priorities straight for successful management of your business.
Going on a vacation will not be a big thing if you have good planning, right approach and communication setups for your business. If you are ready to do that then let’s get started, here are some tips to help you manage the business without any tension while you are out on a vacation.
Create a responsible team
If your business is completely dependent on you, then my friend you are following the wrong path. Hiring the right people for the company is a tough task. You need to hire and train people who can work equally good or better than you. The team you build should be capable enough to earn your trust so that you can leave the business to them for few days.
There will be some employees who after training also will not be dedicated to the company. And the customers. You need to recognize them and get rid of them.
Choose the right representative on your behalf
For this work, you need to choose a very trusted employee of your company to step up and fill your seats for a while. You can choose among the senior members of the company for this position as they have the required experience and maturity.
You can do this in two ways, either you can keep a single person in charge or you can divide all your jobs among different employees.
List down all the jobs done by you and then appoint them one by one to the best
employees. For example, if you receive too many calls and emails, then you need someone to attend these calls and emails. And filter the important calls and direct them to you.
This will leave you relaxed while you are gone, as you left your job in the hands of faithful employees.
Before going hold brief meetings with the employees, so that they are also aware of who is given the authority for particular sectors. Be concise but provide the necessary details like deadlines, important tasks, etc. Don’t overload them with the tasks that can be accomplished after you are back.
Planning is the key
Arrange your holiday after three or four months so that you have time to do all the planning. Impromptu vacations are a big NO.
Have a look at your work calendar and start the planning. The work calendar you plan out make sure you share it with the employee or employees in charge.
Set priorities for your work. Don’t keep any deadlines while you are gone. Especially those tasks that will require your approval. Keep the deadlines before or after you come back. If you are keeping deadlines after you come back, make sure you have time to complete them in time.
Planning the work calendar of your vacation time beforehand will help you to make better decisions. If any new work arises then you can give it to some responsible employee.
Work occasionally
As the owner of a business, you don’t get the happiness of turning off your work mode completely. It becomes impossible to find peace of mind when you are not sure if everything is going well in the office. So for that peace of mind what you can do is work for 1 or 2 hours in the morning. During this time you can do few things like:-
- Try to stay in touch but not too much– Communicate regularly via calls with your assistant or the person-in-charge to make sure everything is fine. You can ask the main person in charge to send you a summary or report of all the tasks accomplished at the end of the day.
- Check business analytics– Keep a check on daily performance indicators and analytics to make sure that everything is going well.
- Spot checking on employees– There are a number of shared digital calendars available. Use them to see how your employees are handling their work, how many breaks they are taking, are they meeting deadlines in time, all this will help to understand how they are planning to achieve their goals. You can start using this before you go on a vacation so that you get used to it.
Set a good communication channel
If you want your employees to take up the responsibilities you need to have open communication with them and make them aware of everything that is happening in the company.
- Give a time– You can tell your employees at what particular time they can call you up to clear their queries. Like if you are planning to set aside two hours in the morning for work then inform your employees to reach you at that time.
- Emergency only– Also, set an emergency only email id or skype id where they can contact you in case of any kind of emergency.
- Push notifications- For handling critical times you can use push notifications. If any kind of emergency occurs they can send you a message or email to inform you about it.
Make use of technology
There are a lot of tools available to help you keep in touch.
- Communication tools – Push notifications, Skype, Gmail, slack, help you keep in touch in real time. You can make video calls to handle critical moments.
- Project management tools – Trello is a simple project management tool, that helps you to prioritize your tasks.
- Calendars – Already mentioned about the digital calendars present in the market. Don’t forget to sync your calendars with your email ids and project management tools, so that you don’t miss any important dates.
- Document workflows – Apps like Google Docs helps employees to store data in real time, that makes sharing and updating easy.
- Order management tools – Tools like EMERGE App that takes care of inventory, purchases, sales orders, payments, & fulfillment.
Inform your suppliers and clients beforehand
This is very important because at times your customers want you to be present at a particular time, and if you are not then that creates a problem.
- Inform them at least two or three months before so that they don’t plan any meetings or set deadlines at that time for you.
- Tell them the exact time for which you would not be available.
- Make them familiar with the delegates who will be in charge.
- You can provide them also with your emergency ids.
- Remind them again before you leave.
Be ready for emergency situations
However well you plan things may get out of hands. Don’t let this scare you and cancel your vacation. Relax! Ask yourself what is the worst case scenario? What is that thing that you are most scared of? Jot down the all the problems. And after that sit with your team and discuss the solutions for them.
Emergency only ids and push notifications will be a good way to contact you during this time.
Lastly!
Have an enthusiastic spirit. Plan a relaxing getaway for yourself. The time you take away from your business will not only help you relax but also learn new things. Don’t be scared, business is all about experimenting with new things. When you come back you will realize how good your employees are, what are the things lacking in your system, what are your strengths & weaknesses, etc.
Make sure you follow all the above-mentioned tips. It will help you build a perfect getaway work-plan for your business. After that, you are ready to enjoy a good holiday. Also, try not to work too much or think too much about your business because it will ruin the whole idea of the vacation.