How You Can Prepare Your Business to Take Time Off

Goals can feel intimidating and exhilarating at the same time. Especially when you run your own business you can constantly feel like you’re on the hamster wheel.

Let’s keep going.

But I will tell you that just leads to continuous burnout (which was the reason I started my business) and frustration due to the lack of clarity. Strategically planning your quarter from an internal and external approach will set you up for success.

After scaling Hannah Nieves Consulting during turbulent times, I learned the benefits of preparing in advance, making data-driven decisions, and understanding that rest is productive.

As we near the end of 2021 and start planning for Q4 and 2022, we want to make sure our businesses are set up for success so we don’t end the year with overwhelm.

Here are some examples of how you can set yourself up for success by strategically planning your quarter. So you can take time off (real-time off) and still have happy clients and teammates who feel supported.

Audit your existing business year to date.

It’s important to know right off the bat that you always want to make sure that you are auditing your existing business year to date annually. One of the best ways to go about this is to conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a study done to identify internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.

I do this every quarter and for every part of my business. Sometimes we are too close to our businesses that it’s hard to distinguish the areas of improvement. So grab a whiteboard, paper, or Google Doc, and get planning.

Review your plan.

I love a good vision planning session. (You can ask my team, they can attest!)

It’s important to review your business plan for closing out the current year and preparing to step into the upcoming year. You can do this through several different ways like organizing and analyzing your KPI’s or sales data. Knowing and interpreting the data will help to indicate how to go about ending the year and stepping into the upcoming year with ease.

Schedule your time off.

Let’s be real for a second. We all need a break.

And I know as entrepreneurs (and especially for you manifesting generators like me!) Separating from work, your planning, and all the thoughts and ideas that dance around in your head is difficult.

But I promise it’s worth it.

As you wrap up the end of the year, make sure that you specifically carve out time to plan and prepare for taking time off.

I know if I don’t build it in, it won’t happen.

Put a vacation responder on your email AND your team’s email so if people contact they know you’re operating under holiday business hours or you will be available on X date. Make sure all client’s projects are up to date and communicate to them ahead of time that you will be out of the office for those specific days. The more transparent you are in communicating the better this process will be.

I would love to hear about your experience! What are some of the ways you have or plan to prepare your business for meeting goals in Q4 and preparing for 2022?

I’m going to be covering this and so much more in my upcoming Strategic Planning Masterclass on September 28th, 2021. Spots are almost full so click here to save your seat today!