How to Relax on Holiday AND Keep Your Business Growing

For business owners, freelancers or anyone self-employed, summer holidays can become stressful rather than relaxing. Why? Because being away invariably means letting go, at least a little anyway.

I’m passionate about business owners improving their lifestyle as well as their profits, so I want to share some ideas to help you find a balance between taking time off and keeping your business not only ticking along, but generating interest.

The benefits of holidays

Holidays are good for us. We all work so hard that we need to have some downtime, or we will burn out. Holidays help us to manage stress, improve sleep patterns, reduce blood pressure, and reconnect with family and loved ones. They help us take stock, prioritise and reconnect with goals. And the benefits can last months.

The downsides of holidays

On the other hand, when you run your own business, there are certain downsides of taking a holiday. Not only is there extra work before you go and catch-up on your return, there is often little or no revenue generation whilst you are away.

On top of this you have the double-whammy financial impact – especially if you have a business model that depends in its entirety, or greatly, on you delivering all the work to get paid. You pay for the holiday and then lose income when away, putting even more pressure on you to relax ….. does that ever actually work?

How to find a balance and escape from it all

Let’s get one thing straight: if you run a business that totally depends on you delivering the work to get all your revenue, you need to look at your business model.

Start thinking about ways to generate some passive income, or consider how you could spread your revenue over a twelve month period but only deliver for ten months.

This type of challenge is one I regularly speak to my clients about as no-one can work all year round. We need a break from our business in order to continue offering our customers the very best we can.

Of course, this type of change doesn’t happen overnight but, once you know that everything is well organised and working, you truly give yourself the chance to actually switch off and relax.

Processes and systems

Let’s look at how you can make the most of some cloud-based systems (low cost, often free) which work together beautifully. Simply by setting up some processes and systems, or reviewing and tweaking the ones you have, you can make sure your business is ticking along and generating leads even if you’re not actively delivering chargeable work. To the outside world it will appear to be business as usual, even when you are taking a well-earned break.

I have put together a handful of packages, available to us all, to show you how it really is possible to keep your business going when you’re on holiday.

Where to focus your energy before going away

Before we delve into the detail, a few quick words on the build up to your break.

The weeks and days leading up to going away should be focused on keeping on top of your client work, but also investing time and energy in setting things up so that your systems and processes are taken care of.

The following packages work together to help you continue to attract, engage, and keep, great clients throughout the year.

Most importantly though, they can be left to their own devices while you are away. This gives you the opportunity to truly relax and recharge.

When you return from your break you will be able to give your clients, and your business, the best possible service – which is really what they deserve.

CapsuleCRM

Capsule is a smart, simple, online CRM. You can integrate your website contact form with CapsuleCRM to ensure that all new leads and contacts are recorded. Any tasks that are due whilst you are away will remain on the dashboard so that you can take care of them on your return. All communication, which goes out via Mailchimp, will be recorded on CapsuleCRM – as will the financial transactions through its perfect integration with Xero.

If you have a sign-up form for a list in Mailchimp, make sure you enable the webhook so that any new activity (updates, subscribes and unsubscribes) are fed through to CapsuleCRM.

If the contact isn’t already on Capsule then a new contact record will be automatically created together with a task to remind you to enhance the record when you are back from your holiday.

Xero

Xero is a cloud-based accounting package. If you are away over month-end, Xero can set up recurring invoices so that they are sent on time. You can customise the covering email, so the client still receives the communications they are used to.

If your client doesn’t usually pay you a regular sum each month, you can set up a task (in CapsuleCRM) to cancel the recurring invoice on your return and go back to the way you usually invoice.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email delivery and list management tool. With the help of automation, your contacts can receive regular emails straight to their inbox without you having to hit the send button each time. One-off campaigns can also be scheduled to go out when you are away. Just make sure you select the CapsuleCRM tracker on Mailchimp so that the activity is recorded on CapsuleCRM.

Do you offer a newsletter sign-up form (GDPR compliant of course 😉) ? Use Mailchimp to kick-start a series of emails through the automation function. As above, simply set up a web-hook to capture these new contacts in CapsuleCRM.

Hootsuite

This social media scheduling tool and dashboard helps you set up your social media messages for the whole time you are away. Use it to promote downloads to build your list, to generate sign-ups to your newsletter, and build interest in your brand.

Relax on holiday

Spending some time and energy on preparing these tools now will pay dividends as you continue to generate interest in your business during your holiday.

Gone are the days of coming back from a break and spending double the time catching up. All the information you need will be at your fingertips in CapsuleCRM.

And if you can’t completely prise yourself away then the Capsule Mobile app is excellent.

Once you return, invigorated after a great holiday, you will be in an excellent position to hit the ground running. All your new energy will give your business the boost it needs to grow.

Learn more

If you’d like help with any of the packages mentioned, or with any other area of your business, please contact me for a free initial conversation.

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All that is left to say now is “Happy Holidays!”