Four ways a Christmas break can benefit your business
As we enter December, how are you feeling about the Christmas holiday period to come?
For self -employed small businesses it is not always easy to take “annual leave.” And stop working. In fact, it can be quite scary to stop and risk losing momentum. I think it’s important to take advantage of the points in the year when most businesses naturally stop, Christmas being one of those points.
Taking a break from working is important and can actually benefit your business in the long run.
Aim to log off and put your feet up for a well earned rest.
Avoid Burnout
Running your own business is full on, it can be very consuming. Taking some time away from work is important for your health. Self-care means you can stay on top of your game and helps you show up wholeheartedly. It really is true that if you don’t make time for your health you could be forced to make time for illness, if you work yourself to the point of burnout your business will not thank you.
Acknowledging the worries, I mentioned earlier, I believe a break is of maximum benefit if you feel prepared and don’t leave things outstanding that will play on your mind. This means planning your break to get your “to-do list” completed or at least down to the tasks you really are happy can wait.
Be sure to let clients and customers know with plenty of notice that you will be out of the office as it were and how that will affect your services. It is a good idea to set any inboxes or messenger bots you have to auto respond to notify any contacts who messages, of when you will be back to deal with their mail.
Fresh Idea’s
Once you have managed to clock off from work and relax you are likely to find new ideas flow more freely into your thoughts, keep a notebook handy to jot them down, don’t feel you must act on them straight away.
This may also be a good time to use the break to launch a rebrand or new product, if you have stepped away from social media and marketing your business during the break, then coming back with something new and exciting can be a great way of catching your audiences attention again.
Those light bulb moments will come in stronger when you allow your mind to relax
Time to Reflect
When we stop going about our normal day in such a hurry and slow down the pace a little, it is natural to reflect and review what we have been doing.
If you set goals, did you achieve them? If not, do you know why? If you did great, what’s next? Is there a job or a task that has been on your list far too long that you’re not giving priority too? Maybe it's no longer relevant and that’s fine. We don’t have to do things we once wanted if our needs have evolved. If it’s a task that you don’t like or don’t feel you have the skills for, but you know it will still benefit your business, consider outsourcing it. It’s not a weakness to get help, quite the opposite. Recognising your skill set and outsourcing tasks that distract you from your superpowers is a wise decision, to help your business get the best of you as well as what else it needs to succeed. After all, we can’t all be skilled at everything, and buying someone else’s skills to fill a gap is what makes the business world go around.
Plan for the future
Now you have reviewed where you are and renewed your enthusiasm, I hope you feel inspired to look ahead to the future before you return to work!
What do you want your work to involve when you get back? If there was something creating you stress previously what can you do to prevent the problem from building up again?
If you need to free up more time to work on the paid tasks only you can do, do you know how to streamline all the other behind the scenes work to allow that to happen?
Use the enthusiasm
you rest has created to plan how that new idea can become reality
If anything in this blog has made you think “yep” I need to do that but your not sure how or where to start then do book a free 1-hour enquiry call with me to pick my brain about how to lighten your load.