Taking a vacation is difficult to do when you are self-employed or the sole proprietor of your own business.  However, just because you own a small business doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever be able to go on vacation.  You ought to be just as able to go on your dream holiday in Lake Louise, Canada or go on a train trip in Canada as the next person.

Of course, for the sake of your business you will have to take certain extra precautions.  Here are a few tips for planning vacation time as a sole proprietor.

• Give clients plenty of notice.  For example, as a freelance writer I need to let clients know as soon as possible if I won’t be around to take on work at a certain time.  I usually like to give my clients at least a month’s notice when possible.
• Have a plan for handling business while you’re gone.  If you have an ecommerce website and you are concerned about orders being placed while you are gone, have an employee or a friend monitor the business and take care of any orders that come in.  You might also want to have a way for employees and/or clients to get a hold of you in an emergency.  For instance, you could commit to checking your email once a day or once every other day, or give clients a colleague’s contact information in case of an emergency.
• Be back at work when you say you will.  This is the hardest part for me.  It’s easy to say you’ll be back at  work the next day, but I usually find that it takes a few days to get back into your old work routines.  It is best to anticipate this delay and build a cushion into your time estimates when telling clients your return date.

Just because you own a business doesn’t mean you’ll never get to go on vacation, but it definitely does make it harder to get away.  Following these tips should help you to plan your vacation time while keeping in mind the needs of your business!

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