Self-Employed
Break Away
How To Take The
Vacation You Deserve
By Jan
Norman
As the days grow longer and the weather gets warmer,
micro-business owners dream of taking a few days
off.
But it’s just a dream, right? Small-business
owners work 365 days a year – 366 in leap years – until
they drop.
Not so, says the American Express OPEN
Small Business Network, which provides services for
small businesses. Two-thirds of business owners in
annual, nationwide surveys say they take at least a
week’s vacation during the year. That result has been
steady for several years. |
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Have you been missing out on a much deserved getaway while
your colleagues enjoy fun in the sun?
Then take some
tips from your fellow NASE Members. They say that planning,
technology and help from family, friends and associates are
major tools that enable even solo entrepreneurs to break
away.
SHOW NO
FEAR
“Business owners are often reluctant to
take vacations because they fear the company will suffer if
they are not minding it,” acknowledges Alice Bredin,
small-business advisor for the OPEN Small Business Network.
“The irony is that vacations can be a long-term investment in
the success of the business by helping owners recharge and
return to work invigorated.”
NASE Member Marie Julian,
owner of men’s hair salon Beau Monde in Redding, Calif.,
manages to go to Boston every other year to visit family and
friends. She’s usually gone for 10 days.
“I work only
with men customers. Many of them don’t make appointments and
they don’t remember dates,” she says. “I put a sign on my
salon mirror about my upcoming vacation to let them know
months in advance, but they don’t remember.”
Still, men
are loyal customers, and most will wait until she returns from
vacation “unless it’s an emergency, like a wedding,” Julian
says. “Some will go to another stylist, which I like because
they see the difference in the quality of the work. I give an
excellent haircut.
“When I return they say, ‘I wish I
had waited.’ I love to hear that,” she laughs.
COMMIT, THEN
PLAN
Although many micro-business owners are
obsessive about their businesses, they need to make a
commitment to get away sometimes, says mental health counselor
Ruth Luban in Laguna Beach, Calif.
“The result of
long-term stress – burnout – is characterized by feelings of
frustration, disillusionment, futility and fatigue,” says
Luban, who speaks from personal experience. She worked so hard
running a private counseling practice in Oregon while raising
two teenage sons that she had to take a year off to
recover.
“I’m zealous about this because there was
nothing out there to help when I was going through it,” she
says.
Unfortunately, many business owners take their
anxieties with them on vacation. The OPEN Small Business
Network found that half of vacation-goers worry about their
businesses while away.
The top cause for concern,
according to survey results, is that an important customer
won’t receive good service, mentioned by 42 percent of
respondents in 2005. Other reasons are:
-
Worries about missing a new
business opportunity, 31 percent
-
Staff misjudgments, 28
percent
-
Equipment breakdowns, 24
percent
-
Lack of help, 23 percent
-
Business security, 18
percent Business owners can find solutions to
most of those issues, says small-business advisor Bredin.
“Careful planning and preparation can make it easier for
hard-working entrepreneurs to more fully enjoy their vacations
and help them return to work invigorated.”
Planning
helps, agrees NASE Member Terry Fraser, owner of Garden Fairy,
a landscape planning and maintenance firm in Petaluma,
Calif.
Fraser has taken 10-day vacations to Virginia,
Washington, D.C., and Washington state in the past three
years.
“I give much more personalized care than the
‘mow and blow’ people,” she says. “I started [business] in
1978, built up a clientele over time and didn’t take
vacations. But once I made a commitment, I could do
it.”
She works long and hard during the spring and
summer to get customers’ gardens in shape. She sets up
irrigation systems and continually tests them to build strong
lawns and landscaping. When she goes on vacation, the yards
and gardens can be maintained for a while without her
presence.
TIME YOUR
GETAWAY
Fraser’s busiest time is spring and
summer when her clients want exquisite gardens for outdoor
dining and entertaining. She’s also busy during the winter,
cleaning up between storms. However, over the years, Fraser
learned that October was moderately slow for
her.
That’s when she takes her 10-day
vacations.
“I had to change my priorities a little,”
she says. “Getting clients set up with irrigation means that
their gardens don’t need me every day.”
Julian also
avoids taking vacations from her hair salon during certain
high-demand times, such as around Christmas and New Year’s Eve
and, surprisingly, the first of the month.
Some of her
customers are retired and wait for their Social Security
checks to arrive at the beginning of each month before going
in for a haircut. Her business doubles during the first week
each month.
“It’s wise for me to take vacations
mid-month,” she says.
But sometimes, trying to time the
slow period doesn’t work.
In mid-January, Julian took a
three-day trip to Seattle. Even though she was gone during the
normally slow middle of the week, she had 25 messages on her
voice mail when she returned.
All of her customers got
haircuts shortly before Christmas, she explains, so they were
ready for a trim by mid-January, which she hadn’t
anticipated.
“I normally have five to 10 customers a
day. For two days I had 22 a day, working until 7 at night to
catch up,” she says.
GET
SOME BACKUP
In an emergency, Julian calls on
friendly colleagues to help with the workload – without
stealing her customers. She does the same for
them.
Other micro-business owners turn to family
members or friends who step in and help keep the business
going while the owners are gone.
Fraser used to have a
partner in her landscape business, but now runs the company
alone. “I have friends in the area who help me out, especially
with the physical labor, on the weekends and when I’m away,”
she says.
Friends also pitch in to help NASE Members
Beth and Dave Schroeder, who own apartments and A Place for
Space self-storage yard in Rockford, Ill.
Even with two
businesses, the Schroeders manage to take their two children
on vacations for as long as two weeks to such places as
Florida and Mexico.
“For the apartments, we have the
phone calls forwarded to a friend, who we give a couple of
hundred dollars to answer the calls,” Beth Schroeder says. “If
a toilet breaks, he calls a plumber. We give him a credit
card.”
Obviously, micro-business owners must choose
such a replacement carefully because of the financial
liability, she adds.
USE
TECHNOLOGY
Technology such as e-mail
autoresponders and voice mail can help keep customers in the
loop while you’re away.
But technology helps only if
customers use it, says hair stylist Julian. She left a message
on her business voice mail about her sudden trip to Seattle.
“Those who called got the message, but most men don’t
call.”
Micro-business owners can also use technology to
manage their work while on vacation. Computers, the Internet,
cell phones and voice mail with remote message retrieval all
help absent owners keep in touch while they get
away.
In fact, most do. The OPEN Small Business Network
survey found that 67 percent of business owners who manage to
take a vacation deal with business issues while away. Even if
they have no specific concerns, 59 percent said they check in
with their office at least once a day.
Some business
technology is obvious, but other less well-known and useful
solutions are available for specific types of
businesses.
For instance, the Schroeders found a tech
solution for their self-storage business, which has 330 units.
After a great deal of research, last year they paid $17,000 to
lease an automated kiosk.
They were among the first 25
customers for the Insomniac 900. The automated kiosk greets
customers and potential new renters, gives virtual tours of
the facility and accepts payments.
“It’s good not just
for vacations, but long weekends, which are really busy times
for rentals,” Beth Schroeder says. “We’re such a large
facility, we either needed to hire employees or get something
like this, which is cheaper than an employee. And it speaks
Spanish!”
When they first installed the machine, they
wondered whether customers would resist the new technology.
However, when Beth sat in the office all day and took in $120
in payments, while the machine took in $1,200, the Schroeders
knew they didn’t need to worry.
“You have to be
proactive in seeking technology to help you run your business
more efficiently,” Beth Schroeder says. “I did a lot of
research to find [the automated kiosk]. And then we went to a
business conference to talk with someone who already owned
one. We wanted to talk with him face to face.”
The
research and financial investment paid off not only with a
summer vacation to Mexico, but also with a more recent trip to
Las Vegas, she says.
“The first of the month is the
busiest for us, but [in February] was the first time in
eight-and-a-half years that we could leave at the first of the
month,” she says.
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