Work Life Balance Fridays: Taking a vacation

Since I am about to head out to the Bahamas I thought I would discuss one of the most important things to create a work life balance – the vacation.

Because most entrepreneurs work long hours they look at vacations as a luxury.

I am here to tell you that it is a necessity!

In the beginning of starting your business you might think that taking a vacation is an impossible thing but I have come to realize that you must take breaks to get perspective. Rest is something entrepreneurs can never seem to get enough of. Vacations. Not a word that is in many entrepreneurs vocabularies, but it should be.

Judy Artunian at the NFIB web site offers their take on this topic.

“More often than not, the entrepreneurs who could stand to gain the most from taking a two-week vacation are often the ones who can’t bear to be away from their business for more than two days. If you’re having trouble breaking away for that leisurely trip to the Bahamas or to your brother’s lakefront cabin, it might be time to re-orient your thinking about vacations.”

It can be good for your company, good for your employees and good for your ability to deal with the stresses your venture keeps sending your way.

Rod Walsh and Dan Carrison wrote a great article that offers some specific ideas on how to move a business in this direction. They recommend the following:

1. Admit that you are not indispensable. If you’re not taking time to unwind, you’re setting a terrible example for your employees. Not taking a vacation is not a sign of an indispensable business owner; it’s proof of an ineffective leader. It’s the mark of an irritable boss with high employee turnover.?

2. Begin to delegate. That you’re afraid to take a vacation tells us you’ve been too active in the mundane day-to-day tasks of your business and have not allowed your employees to grow. If you’re doing the same tasks as your employees, stop it immediately?you’re the boss, the leader, the visionary.? Identify tasks that others can and should be doing, and begin the process of training your employees. Once trained, let them do what they have learned. They may make mistakes at first, but use this as a chance to coach and teach, not to take back and do it yourself.

3. Start with short vacations, like my hero in the story above, and begin to build toward longer ones as the shorter ones get easier and go smoothly.

4. Choose times that don’t demand your attention. If cash flow is a worry, plan you times away between big check runs and payroll deadlines. If you have quieter times during the month or year, use them for your time off.

5. Give your employees a life line to reach you, but make very clear the rules for such contact. I did this with great success. At times they called to often or at times to little, but again use these as opportunities to coach and teach.

So this upcoming week will have some great pre-written posts and I look forward to seeing your comments when I get back from vacation on Wednesday.

Look for our guest hosting of the Carnival of Entrepreneurs, a 3-part interview with Ben Casnocha, author of “My Startup Life” and a review of the book “The 4-hour Work Week”.