Small Business Owners on Vacation: Is it Possible?

#smallbiz owners on vacation? Is it possible? The answer is yes, BUT, it comes with some planning and boundary setting. Here’s how I balance vacation with work and personal life: https://beyondthechaos.biz/small-business-owner-vacations/

The link is wrong. It takes you to Example.com. Correct link is https://buff.ly/2Oy2t54

One of the major issues I see with consultants that are starting out is having rates that are too low. They think to live comfortably they take their previous base salary and convert it into an hourly rate. This is wrong because their old salary didn’t take into account benefits (don’t get me going on getting your own small business health insurance), sick time, retirement planning, and yes, vacation time. Even worse, there will be weeks (months?) where you’re not exceptionally busy (and thus not making much money) and you need to plan for that with your consulting rates.

You definitely time away from the daily grind! It’s easy to get burned out as a small business owner - especially if you’re a solo developer. With employees I think it’s a little easier for everyone to go on vacation because there’s someone else to ‘man the fort’ while you’re off enjoying life. And customers like that they’re not completely cutoff in case of an emergency.

never found an answer to this.
As a solo guy selling software for nearly 30 years, email is never turned off.
People demand support on Xmas day, never mind family vacations.
Oddly, the smaller the business and the less expensive the software, the more people seem to demand.

I can reduce work load to an hour in morning and an hour in evening to do the most urgent stuff.

Don’t tell customers you are on holiday/vacation as they stop ordering/buying.

I have seen this too. It’s definitely…weird. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why we’ve not focused on products and more on consulting since the consulting clients know that if I’m working on their project they’re getting charged. Some clients expect us to be their Level 2 tech support and that’s fine but they know it costs them for me to do this.

[quote=474995:@Jeff Tullin]never found an answer to this.
As a solo guy selling software for nearly 30 years, email is never turned off.
People demand support on Xmas day, never mind family vacations.
Oddly, the smaller the business and the less expensive the software, the more people seem to demand.[/quote]
I would recommend a virtual assistant or ZenDesk to help.

once they have a phone # , email , text message #. imessage etc its darned near impossible to be “offline”

I feel you there. We invested in a reasonably priced phone service, Jive. It gave us access to a phone number and text service (and go-to-meeting) so that our clients don’t get our personal info. A lot easier to turn off, but it is still on the computer and your phone so you can stay in touch - but on your own terms. It didn’t take that long for us to convert or clients over to it.

We used Grasshopper for an auto attendant and visual voicemail before we had our office Cisco phone system. It’s priced reasonable and helps keep a healthy abstraction from you and your customers with a professional experience.
Grasshopper

I start notifying my clients weeks before that usually works for me. Also, virtual assistant or ZenDesk can help during the time you are away to let you enjoy.

[quote=475075:@Mike Cotrone]We used Grasshopper for an auto attendant and visual voicemail before we had our office Cisco phone system. It’s priced reasonable and helps keep a healthy abstraction from you and your customers with a professional experience.
Grasshopper[/quote]
I am glad to hear that.

I just can second Christian, I do not tell my customers when in vacation. But also I have to admit, that my vacations are not often more than one week long and most of my customers are educated well and write emails and tickets :wink:

I usually tell clients with active projects that I’m going on vacation. Usually weeks in advance so that it’s not a surprise to them if I don’t answer an email right away.

Ah okay Bob I was quite unclear on that. I usally try to avoid any vacation when in projects. Of course if this is not possible than you should communicate this with your customers.

Communicating with your clients in advance usually helps them either respect that you are away or explains if there is a delay in response. They all have lives too and take vacation. They DO understand.

Best to try to be not too accessible at any time. Even if you’'re not on holiday, as a single developer you need to find time to stay concentrated and get some work done. People understand and accept as long as they know you will get back to them.

Yes that’s also true! But I would consider a better wording. You’re channeling or streamlining your support or improving communication e.g., it depends on what your customer is used of and ready to go for. It was a long way to implement a ticketsystem for my biggest customer with 300+ employees cause everybody thought he/she is the most important person in need of personal support. In German I often call this duty “Bauchpinseln” - there is no English translaton for this, If I would say “painting someones stomach” it could create strange pictures in your mind :wink:

Love this. Communication is key.