Take a Vacation and Leave the Business in Sound Hands

If you ask the average person how they feel about vacation, you will probably hear words like “excited” and “relaxing.” But ask a small business owner and you may hear “worried.”

According to an American Express Open Survey, two out of three business owners worry about their companies while on vacation. Maybe that’s because 34% of business owners take a vacation when they’re stressed or have “had enough.”

But taking a worry-free vacation is possible. “You want to think that only you have the secret sauce to what makes your business successful—but one person is not a scalable model,” says Shenan Reed, who leaves her small marketing agency in the hands of business partners while she’s on vacation. “If you don't challenge yourself to find your own replacement, ideally many times over, you won't be able to grow your business and you won't be able to go on vacation.”

Here are tips from fellow small business owners on how to take time off—and leave the business in good hands.

• Tracy Kellner and her husband run two specialty grocery stores in Chicago, and have been able to take one big trip—10 to 14 days—and several shorter trips—two to seven days apiece—each year. The secret to their success: “Empower staff throughout the year—not just when you leave. Train them to work with customers and vendors,” she says. Kellner has created a binder that outlines the open/close duties, daily/weekly/monthly duties, order intake procedures, and phone numbers for every possible situation—from the landlord to the fridge repairman to the IT squad. This operations manual heads off problems while Kellner and her husband are lying on the beach.
   
• From day one at her small business, ForTheFit.com, which sells clothing in hard-to-find sizes, Consuelo Bova says she figured out “how to make this tricky situation work.” She and her husband—one of the company’s three employees—love to travel. So she uses financial forecasts to predict the slow times in her business, and decides to book vacations during these periods. She also chooses hotels based on their wifi policy. “I may have to make some small sacrifices in choosing the locale or type of adventure, but at least I can still travel,” says Bova. And she knows exactly how to reach her e-mail, desktop, faxes, bank accounts and other critical needs from anywhere in the world. “Many services exist to help you take your business on the road.” (Good thing—81% of small business owners check in with their business by phone or e-mail while away, according to the American Express survey.)
   
• Phil Wrzesinski, who owns an independent toy store in Jackson, Mich., also insists on training staff to handle basic operations. This should be done whether or not you are going away, he says. Wrzesinksi also appoints a trusted, go-to person within the company to handle major emergencies. And finally, he accepts the fact that employees may handle things differently than he does. “You have to decide if at the end of the day, their results—not necessarily their methods—are acceptable,” he says.