Can an Entrepreneur Take a Vacation?

Startup Sunday

My brother is an entrepreneur and he lives in China -- two concrete reasons that I don't get to see him often. So when we are graced with the pleasure of his company, I want to enjoy it! For years, he would come to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with us, only to pop open his laptop the moment the dinner table was cleared and the conversation died down. Oh, how I fumed. He was present physically but his mind was far away.

Now, I finally understand. After becoming an entrepreneur myself, I realize how painful it must have been for him to take a week away from his business. To be around the globe from his employees, clients and investors, celebrating a holiday that barely interrupted their routine flow of business. He never complained about the full-day family outings we planned, and discretely ducked away from after-dinner drinks for his conference calls.

Over this Christmas weekend, I tried an experiment. I decided to unplug from work for three full days. No work calls, no projects, no writing or sending email. Sure, I checked my Blackberry for emergency messages, but nothing was urgent enough to warrant a reply.

It felt good. I was able to focus exclusively on my family, nuclear and extended. I slept and read novels and played games with the kids. I even indulged in a movie at the theater with my brother and parents. Today when I sat down to write this blog post, it flowed out of my fingertips easily -- thanks in part to being refreshed by the mental break from work.

I'm not sure yet whether I can extend the complete break from work to other vacations during the year. It's pretty easy to take Christmas weekend off -- whether or not you celebrate Christmas, nobody expects you to be available at the drop of the hat. When it comes to an August week at the beach, it's trickier to declare it a work-free zone. Fortunately, I have nine months to figure that out.

What about you? Were you able to unplug over the holidays? Or did you, like my brother, sneak in work around the edges of family celebration?

Comments

[Nnamdi]

It is hard to take a vacation when times are good, but in a recession .. it is almost impossible.

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[LionshareERP]

I think it completely depends on where your revenue stream comes from - if your revenue is very linear and tied to you, individually, performing services or selling then any time taken "off" is a loss of revenue. If your revenue stream comes from multiple sources in your organization then it can be a little easier.

[Sue Rumack]

For more than 25 years I was an entreprenneur as was my ex, both with our own businesses. Talk about double insanity! Needless to say, it is in my blood for I'm embarking once again as an soloprenneur.

Taking vacation even though I had employees to watch the store both figuratively and realistically, didn't work because I lacked organization and process, had not delegated authority in the best ways and naively assumed that employees would be as insanely invested in my business as I was!

But I have evolved and my family is grown and extended. Now more than ever as a solo prenneur without employees, do I need to plan my precious family time.

Being the entreprenneur when you have family and want to vacation with your kids to really build those all important family memories needs to be a priority (if you so choose) that is built in as part of the annual business strategy. Choosing others to mind the store is the most important piece of the total disconnect success.

What I'm saying from my heart and not from a manual is that if you want it all, and as entreprenneurs we do want it all, planning the perfect family getaway needs the same action planning as does your revenue funnel for 2010 so that your business doesn't suffer and your spouse and kids feel like #1 priority.

To be successful, you MUST plan to take at least 1 day every 6 weeks for you, solo, away from your business entirely. Recharge, Repurpose and Refresh.

To be successful with your mate and your family you MUST plan whatever time you need together to be as family focussed as possible. There is no template, no book, no guidelines other than communicating with your loved ones to see what they need most for your family to be as successful as your business.

That's it for now.

Sue Rumack
life essence coach

Portal to Positivity

[Kathy Sykes]

I was hoping there was a way that business-free vacation could happen. I am planning on "doing my own thing" in 2010 and wanted to put PRIORITY on not neglecting family and ME TIME! Keep this discussion going.

[Entrepreneurs Blog]

Spending too much time 'in' your business and not 'on' your business can be a limiting factor to success. Of course we all need to be focused, especially in these times, but some time would be well spent on seeing where you can pass on the torch of duties to others. I recently outsourced a nmber of my functions to the Philipinnes for example.