Not allowed take a holiday!

NeptunesMoon

Since starting my business, I've been fully dedicated to it. Every phone call returned, every email replied to and trying to be the best in terms of customer service and attention that's possible. The business is going a few years and it's now and is at a stage where I'm making a living out of it and believe I've built up a pretty strong reputation for it.

I'd like to be able to take a holiday in which I can completely switch off. That means no phone calls or emails, be it for 2 weeks or 2 months but I know if that was to happen, it could be terrible for the business and the impression both new and existing customers might get so this obviously isn't an option.

The thing is, the business isn't really ready to take on a full time employee to handle everything as I can do all this myself while still having recreational time but I'd feel a holiday couldn't really be a holiday if I had to take calls, reply to emails each evening, do accounts etc.

The line of business I'm in, would kind of be expected to always be open and available so I'm just looking for any advice on what others may have done in the same situation. Train and employ temporary staff for a few weeks to handle absolutely everything I handle myself (which is a broad spectrum of things: emails, calls, accounts, invoicing, cost calculation and doing the actual work itself) and then have them go once I've had my holiday? Train and employ with a hope to expand and have them take on the extra work I may be afraid of having/not skilled for? Put an explanatory note on my website/auto return email/voicemail explaining I'm having my first, well deserved holiday in many years and hope they understand and may come back the next time they need such a service?

Any other suggestions welcome

Gloomtastic!

A call answering service like Kindlebell may be able to help you. They'd answer the phone, emails etc, speak to customers and defer any actual work until you got back. I'm sure they've dealt with this situation before and will have all the answers.

Enjoy your break!

PCPhoto

unfortunately thats one of the main pitfalls of being self-employed and/or opening a business.

I've been working as a sole trader for close to 10years and am only recently in a position to refuse work and say I'm away for 2/3 weeks - usually I get someone to cover me and pay them - even supply them with my equipment so they can do the job, even though they have their own.

sometimes you have to take the hit financially in order to keep your house under control - do you NEED to take a holiday or is it simply something you think you deserve ? is the company likely to suffer if you are not there or can things keep moving ?

as harsh as it might sound - I suggest you postpone your holiday or find someone who can do the job - even if you break even or make a slight loss you can make up the money later in the year, who knows you could make a profit with this person in place and you might look at expanding.

(I have booked a holiday in April for 2 weeks - one of those weeks I have arranged someone to cover me it will cost me slightly more than what I was going to earn from my normal contracts, it means that my contracts wont hire the person I have used as he/she would cost them more than I do for supplying the same service.)

A call answering service is great - but wont get any work done, most businesses need to react to customers needs asap.

rainbowdash

If you start to tell most of your regular customers a couple of weeks in advance then they can prepare for your holiday by ordering before or after.

I was away recently and just left a voicemail saying back in a few days and while away I did answer a few emails but as vaguely as possible.

While it did hit the pocket and leave a bit of tidying up afterwards it seemed to work out ok.

Also obviously you should try and pick a time of year when your business is a bit slack.

MOH

I got a newsletter recently from some online business I've dealt with a few times (can't for the life of me remember who it was).

The gist of it was "we've been working our butts off, we've done all this stuff in the last year, we're all taking a short break", though obviously it was phrased much better than that.

My immediate reaction was fair dues to them. At least they're up front about it, and giving a bit of notice, and being clear about exactly what the cut-off times for orders and support calls are.
You'd need to be careful with the timing - too far in advance and people will forget about it, to close and it's not enough notice. But obviously you'd put on the website note and voicemail too.

You really need to balance how long you can afford to take off, the benefit you'll get from it, versus the cost in lost business. e.g. If you're getting to the point where you're getting stressed out and it's affecting your view of the business, then it might be worth taking a week or two, even if it costs you in the short term.

tricky D

You need to make contingencies for this whether you do go on holiday or not to cover the possibility of you being unable to work due to a period of serious illness.

I'd recommend you go anyway. I went on my first holiday for a few years last autumn with no contact channel, except a former colleague in case of real emergency and it did a world of good which rubbed off positively onto the work area.

As MOH mentions, get the communication right and most of your clients will have no problem.

grizzly

Do you have anyone that you give freelance work to that you trust? You could wait until a bigger project comes along and while they are on board offer an extra sum to answer phones/emails for a week. Perhaps they could handle small emergencies so your clients feel secure while you're away.

You could send out an email introducing your caretaker a couple of weeks before you leave.

NeptunesMoon

cheers for all the replies and suggestions. i actually use kbell for a 18XX number already so know the business and have heard of their call answering service, but this wouldn't address all that would be needed unfortunately.

I wouldn't have customers returning to me too often so this wouldn't be a problem, the industry I'm in, most people might only need once a year or so plus then there's all the new customers and it's not a highly skilled job in that the quality of work would be lesser with somebody else filling in, just the standard would need to remain high so I could train somebody in quite easily, it's just that getting somebody to completely fill in for me would be difficult, some days I may only get 1 or two calls and emails and have no jobs on that day at all. Other days there might be jobs and a few calls. It's a tricky business as there's no set times of opening or jobs either and I generally take calls and reply to mails at any given time. So although it would require full time availability in terms of somebody taking calls and replying to emails, the amount of actual work per week may not be much, but then again other weeks it could be a lot. There's no office, shop or "sales" to deal with in terms of products, only service.

cheers

Gloomtastic!

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

cheers for all the replies and suggestions. i actually use kbell for a 18XX number already so know the business and have heard of their call answering service, but this wouldn't address all that would be needed unfortunately.

I wouldn't have customers returning to me too often so this wouldn't be a problem, the industry I'm in, most people might only need once a year or so plus then there's all the new customers and it's not a highly skilled job in that the quality of work would be lesser with somebody else filling in, just the standard would need to remain high so I could train somebody in quite easily, it's just that getting somebody to completely fill in for me would be difficult, some days I may only get 1 or two calls and emails and have no jobs on that day at all. Other days there might be jobs and a few calls. It's a tricky business as there's no set times of opening or jobs either and I generally take calls and reply to mails at any given time. So although it would require full time availability in terms of somebody taking calls and replying to emails, the amount of actual work per week may not be much, but then again other weeks it could be a lot. There's no office, shop or "sales" to deal with in terms of products, only service.

cheers

It's called being self-employed!

thecommander

I send a postcard to all my clients about 5 weeks out, then remind them 2 weeks out.

Depending on the time zone I'm in I'll either get up earlier, or stay up later and manage anything that's really really urgent. Same goes for phonecalls. An hour a day can make it seem to people like you're on top of it all.

Never had a chance to turn phone off completely and ignore for 2 weeks, but that's part of being self employed at that level.