Hello Chasers,
Hooray – it’s nearly Christmas – well in fact this time next week it is!
Did you just groan?
Hmmm?
If you did, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Many business owners find themselves ridiculously busy at this time of year – customers demanding things be ready for the new year, trying to finish up those messy jobs still outstanding – like the world is going to end on December 24 – crazy huh; and it’s the same thing every year at this time of the year too!
You might even have team members taking leave. Do you remember when you were an employee? You put in a form and took leave and generally didn’t think about work again until the night before you were due to go back. It was all gloriously simple.
A study by online by our favourite accounting software – Xero – found that almost 60% of Australian small business owners haven’t taken a break for more than a year and nearly a quarter haven’t had a holiday in more than 3 years.
‘But I CAN’T take a break, I’m self-employed.’
I hear you say. And I know how busy life is as a small business owner too as I have been one now for over 32 years.
Time off is important.
However, research has shown that time off is necessary for your body and brain to recharge. Otherwise, you could go down a path you probably don’t want to go down – burnout, depression, etc.
And neither of those conditions is going to make life better for you or your loved ones, nor bring you the joy that you first had when you started your business. So, let’s avoid them happening by making sure you take a break.
It doesn’t have to be a looooooong break. We’re not talking a couple of months – although if you really wanted to you could put things in place to manage that. But for now, let’s start small.
Could you do two weeks? We are and try to do this every year. It’s Christmas and unless you run a shop or an essential service, chances are, it will be pretty quiet between the day before Christmas Eve and New Year. That’s 10 days right there. See how easy this is? One of those days is like the last real working day of the year – everyone will be at parties. 4 of those are weekend days and 3 are public holidays. So really, it’s only 2 days that you’re M.I.A. from the business.
You can take those two days. The world will not end. And let’s face it, you’re a small business owner, and you’ll more than makeup for that time over a couple of months.
So how do you do that if you’re self-employed?
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