Happy Monday! With Thanksgiving ahead of us this week and the winter holidays not far off, I'm so excited for today's podcast episode. We're talking all about taking time off in your business! I completely believe in taking time away from your business in a healthy and positive way, so I can't wait to dive into my top tips for making that happen. This episode is inspired by my team, actually! The entire time is taking the majority of December off to enjoy the last few weeks of the year and I'm so happy for all of us! So, I wanted to share some tips for taking time off in your business. But... before we get into that, I want to remind you about something!

I want to share my new FREE guide with you: My $3K Mini Sessions Blueprint. It’s a step-by-step guide of what to do to make $3,000 on your next mini sessions… all on ONE date. Whether you’ve hit that goal before or just want to see if there’s other ideas to try, grab this free guide. It’s jam packed with tons of great information for you! Now that you've got that downloaded, let's head back to talking about time off!

Tips for Taking Time Off in Your Business

My goal for the team is that we can be completely off - or only popping into the inbox once a week. We seriously want to limit our time working over the holiday season. It's been a huge goal of mine for this to be a possibility and I'm SO happy to say we're there. There's a few practical ways we've accomplished this!

Outline your Boundaries!

Whether you're having this conversation with a team member or yourself, ask what does time off look like for you? For us, it was that the last 3 weeks of December, we'd be out of office. Someone will look in our inbox but ONLY respond if it's an emergency. Otherwise, it can wait. I don't want my team in the business every single day. We aren't taking any sessions this month and those are some of the big boundaries we've set for our time off. Decide what yours look like. Maybe it's taking 3 solid weeks off or just certain days. And on the days off, what are you going to do or not do in your business? Once you know what your boundaries are, you can take steps to protect that time.

Set an autoresponder in your email.

One easy way to protect your boundaries is to set a digital reminder through an autoresponder. I know people love to hate on autoresponders but I'm a big fan of them. They easily protect your boundaries and help set expectations for anyone contacting you. Make it clear you're out of office and will respond when you're back in - unless it's an emergency. It gives your clients or students peace of mind to know they reached you at the very least - and they'll hear back soon.

Get ahead on content and/or work!

The third thing you can to do to take extended time off is getting ahead on your work and content. You need to plan ahead so that you're not scrambling the week before you go out to publish content. You still want to stay consistent and be in the front of people's minds - so schedule ahead. Spend time batching your content so you can knock it all out. Then you can pre-schedule your social media posts and not have to worry about it while you're off!

Bonus Tip: Hire help!

If you're really anxious about taking time off, consider hiring a subcontractor who could check in on things for you! They would be in charge of putting out fires that pop up while you're out of the office. This isn't necessary but if it helps you feel more relief and comfortable with time off, do it! If you're in the place to make this happen, I encourage you to if you need it. And if you aren't, know that is truly NOT a big deal!

It's easy to feel like we can't step away or the business will crumble. But I'm here to give you permission to take a step back. Set boundaries you're comfortable with and give yourself that freedom to rest going into the new year. I know it can feel scary and like you're going to miss out on something big, but the right people will wait and respect the fact that you're taking care of yourself. Running a business isn't about working non-stop. It's about building a life you love! I hope these tips for taking time off help you realize it IS possible to run a successful business without being burnt out.

Links Mentioned

+ My $3K Mini Sessions Blueprint

What We Discussed

Outline boundaries (3:10)

Set an autoresponder (5:12)

Get ahead on content (7:10)

Bonus tip: hire help! (9:28)