Will You Take a Vacation This Year?

Closed for vacation. Are  you considering taking vacation this year, and closing up shop for a week or more?

My husband and I headed out to our favorite breakfast place last weekend and found it closed for two weeks.  I can certainly see benefits to closing up your business and taking off, from a personal standpoint. After all, everyone needs a break.

I have seen the “closed for vacation” sign mostly on restaurants, but other retail establishments seem to be doing this more and more. The kinds of businesses that take vacations are usually those that have the kind of business in which people will continue to come back and can wait several weeks for service.  I don’t see the local dry cleaner taking vacation, for example, but other service businesses like barbers and beauty salons certainly take time off occasionally.

Some questions about taking time off from your business:

• Do you force employees to take the time off with no pay? Or do you give them paid vacation?  There is no law that says you must pay a vacation (nor sick pay or personal time or holidays, for that matter).  But most employers do give some vacation time to stay competitive.  Paying employees for vacations can add significantly to the cost of that time off.
• How do you notify your customers? Is a sign on the door enough?  If you have a newsletter, you could let them know.  My restaurant had little cards on the tables as well as a sign on the door.  You won’t catch everyone, but you will prevent an irate customer leaving nasty messages on your answering machine.
• Have you considered keeping the place going while you are gone? That decision probably depends on how much you trust your employees, or if you have a manager you trust.
• Do you worry about losing customers? I would.  But I would weigh the cost of my sanity and the benefit to my family with the thought that a few customers might find somewhere else to shop and not come back.

I hope you are taking time off from your small business this summer. You deserve it.

Image: sxc.hu