Upcoming vacation? Planning a short maternity leave? Or just need some time off to recalibrate? As a soloprenur, this can be a difficult task. No one cares about your business as much as you do and even though life can be made easier with VA, it's sometimes hard to let go and just relax.
As a soloprenur, I've taken time off for mini staycations, week-long Caribbean getaways and a 15 day escape to Portgual - all while managing my business successfully. I'm currently in the process of planning some time off again for myself and thought it would be fun to share how I prepare for it.
1. Plan Ahead
This is the most important step when planning to take some time off.
Every time I take on projects I provide the client with an approximate timeline. This allows both parties to understand responsibilities and deadlines - especially when you're in a collaborative service that requires client feedback. That said, planning ahead for taking time off is essential. Knowing the average amount of time it takes me to complete branding or web design project I can decide how many projects I'm capable of taking on months in advance. This allows me to pre-book projects in advance, set client expectations all while ensuring I'm not stressing while away.
Planning ahead looks a little different with my monthly subscription clients. For them, I'm ensuring that content is ready well in advance, all deadlines are met, and things continue to move smoothly even while I'm away. The next two points help further elaborate...
2. Set automatons & batch work
Automation programs and batch working is the holy grail when it comes to running your business solo.
Since my time off is always planned in advance I also take advantage but automating and batching as much as possible. This ensures things keep running, even without a VA. For my personal business, this means batching blog posts on slower days, building content for subscription clients in advance that matches their strategy and using programs I trust to ensure things go out in a timely manner.
3. Inform your clients
My clients know me for being transparent. Even when I had emergency surgery three years ago, my initial concern was to email and update everyone on the situation and recovery time.
I find that with clients, regardless of how small or large they are, transparency is key. When they are informed that you will have minimal access for special requests during a period of time they respect that. I even include this in my email signature that way it's a friendly reminder every time we communicate. You can also educate your subscription clients on how things will continue to work even while you're away. This builds trust and loyalty.