Vacation? What’s that?

A small business weaves a fine seam between itself and the life of its owner. In the beginning, it’s because of all the work it takes to get the business out of the ground. Later, as the business matures, the owner often becomes the brand customers identify with, which means consistent sales performance seems to depend upon the owner’s omnipresence. At least that’s the way it seems.

Between the business consistently getting in the cash line ahead of a vacation budget and the owner being afraid to leave – like a new mother leaving her baby with a babysitter for the first time – it can be tough for a small business owner to take a real vacation?

We wanted to know how the whole vacation thing was looking for small business owners these days, so we asked this question: As summer approaches, will you be able to leave your business long enough to take a vacation where you’re away from work for a week? Here’s what we learned.

A little more than 40% of our respondents said they were definitely taking a real vacation this summer. Goodonya, guys! This means several things: You have a successful, mature organization; you have your priorities straight; your family gave you an ultimatum, or some combination.

About 1 in 5 of our sample was undecided. If half of these actually take a vacation, that would be over half of our sample getting away from it all this summer.

But 37% said there would be no vacation this year.You’ll get no judgment from me – been there, done that. No one doesn’t like a vacation – you gotta do what you gotta do.

One of the best ways for a small business owner to grow into taking a full vacation is by taking time off over long weekends.I’ve been doing this for years – give it a try.

I talked more about taking time off from the business on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show. Click here to listen and let us know what your vacation plans are for this summer.

Real Ways for Small Business

Your Small Business Advisor!