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Is your business giving you a vacation?4 min read

Just returned back from a glorious vacation as I visited Rhode Island my original home. The weather was absolutely spectacular. I enjoyed a couple of days on my brother’s boat tied to a mooring buoy in the Block Island bay. Visited my favorite beach spots like Narragansett, Misquamicut, Matunuck, and Point Judith. Enjoyed the fabulous cold-water New England seafood like lobster, littlenecks, clam chowder and more. Spent some quality time with my extended family. Just simply a great time away. I came back refreshed and recharged of which I now have the ability to be better for me, my family, my community and my clients.

My question to you is, are you one of those business owners that feel that you cannot take a vacation. I, unfortunately, find that there are usually one of two reasons that certain owners restrict themselves from taking time away from their business.

#1. They haven’t implemented the structure for their team to perform as so the business can run without them with them being away, so, unfortunately, they are consistently tied to the business and can’t take a vacation.

#2. They have the mindset that, “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” or “If it needs to be done right, I need to do it myself.” They simply don’t put the trust and faith in their team to step up and deliver the goods. They personally feel that the business cannot run efficiently without them being present.

If either of these scenarios describes you. You are doing yourself, your team and your organization an injustice.

Richard Branson the famous entrepreneur essentially has one job and that is to train his managers to train his different teams to represent his brands with pride. The proper cycle of a successful business is simple if done right.

If you’re a business owner, leader and have a team, you essentially have one job and that is to take care of your team. Your job is to create the structure and culture for your team to thrive and represent your brand with pride. Because when your team is on their A-game, they will simply take care of your customers. When your customers are happy and well taken care of, they will come back more often, spend more money and tell their friends and colleagues about your business.

When this cycle is successful, the customers will actually take care of your business as your business will then take care of you, the owner. Because let’s face it, that’s why you created your own business in the first place as so you can have the freedom and time to do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want to do it with.

If you as a business owner have not yet put the structure in place to take care of your team, then, unfortunately, your business is not yet taking care of you. If this is the case, it’s time to take the action and do so. If you need assistance, there are plenty of professionals like myself that you can partner with that will help and guide you properly.

I would like to conclude by sharing a comment from a client of mine. Jim has been in business for 35 years and was somewhat losing his mojo and passion for his business.  After working together and creating the proper structure in his business, he took a two-week vacation. Jim shared a revelation with me on his first call back. He shared, “Coach, the best part of taking this vacation outside of the extraordinary adventure is that upon my return, it actually felt that the business ran better with me away, the team stepped up and the business didn’t skip a beat. I think I’m going to go away more often.”

My question to you is, can you make this type of statement?

It’s amazing what can happen when you create the proper structure and culture in addition to putting your full faith and trust in your team. Remember the reason why you went into business in the first place. Hopefully, it was to create a business that works for you apposed to you working for it. And the only way for this to happen is for you to take care of the team.

Take this step, master it and you to will be soon telling us about your wonderful time away.