How to Take Time Off as a Business Owner | Get Ahead
Taking Time Off: A Business Owner’s Guide to Switching Off (Almost)
Every business owner I speak to says the same thing: “I need a holiday.” And yet, when it comes to actually booking one, taking time off, and being fully present somewhere other than their inbox, most of them find a reason not to.
I’ve been running Get Ahead for over a decade. I’ve had to learn, sometimes the hard way, that taking time off isn’t a luxury. It’s a business decision. The planning, prioritisation and delegation that makes a holiday possible are the same disciplines that make a business scalable.
Here’s what I’ve learned, and what I now share with every business owner I work with.
Why do so many business owners struggle to take time off?
Because the business feels like it needs them. And often, it genuinely does, but usually because systems, handovers and trusted support haven’t been put in place yet. The business isn’t the problem. The infrastructure around it is.
When I talk to owners who haven’t had a proper break in years, it’s rarely because they don’t want one. It’s because the idea of stepping away feels riskier than staying put. That’s the thing we need to solve.
What does good preparation actually look like?
It starts well before you pack. I’d suggest a minimum of four weeks’ lead time if you’re going away for more than a few days. The core areas to address are:
- Priorities: what absolutely must happen while you’re away, and what can wait
- Delegation: who is responsible for what, with clear authority to make decisions, not just to escalate
- Systems: are your CRM, accounts, files and shared drives in order? Can someone else navigate them without you?
- Communication: who is your point of contact for clients, and what’s the protocol if something genuinely urgent arises?
The key word in that third point is delegation with authority. Handing tasks to someone and then remaining the bottleneck for every decision isn’t delegation. It’s just distributed stress. Trust the people you’ve briefed, and let them get on with it.
What about HR considerations when you’re the one stepping away?
This is something business owners with small teams often overlook. Before you go:
- Make sure any team members or contractors have a clear point of contact in your absence, with the authority to make day-to-day decisions
- Set clear expectations about what warrants contacting you and what doesn’t
- Check that any outstanding HR matters (appraisals, onboarding, contracts) are resolved or safely deferred
- If you use a virtual team, ensure they’re fully briefed and have everything they need before you leave
The businesses that run smoothly in an owner’s absence are the ones where the team has been trusted, briefed properly, and given room to act. Not the ones where the owner is fielding WhatsApps on the beach.
How do you handle the personal side of being away? The dog, the cat, the house?
This is where our Lifestyle Manager service comes in, and honestly, it’s one of the things I’m most proud of offering. The mental load of a holiday isn’t just professional. It’s personal.
Sorting pet care, ensuring the house is looked after, managing deliveries, handling the things that pile up at home while you’re away: these are all things that can be handed off. A good Lifestyle Manager takes the whole list, not just the work side of it.
When the personal logistics are sorted, you actually get to have a holiday. Not just a change of location where you’re still mentally juggling everything. And knowing that Sydney (aka The Prince) is in good hands and enjoying himself means that I can too!
Do you ever stay contactable while you’re away?
Yes, deliberately and on my own terms. I make sure someone knows how to reach me if something genuinely needs a call. In practice, in all the years I’ve been running Get Ahead, that call has never come.
But knowing it’s possible if needed means I can actually relax. It’s a safety net I’ve chosen to have, not a leash. There’s a difference. And building the right team around you is what makes that distinction possible.
What’s your pre-holiday checklist?
Here’s what I work through before I go anywhere:
- Goals reviewed: what needs to be done before I leave, and what can genuinely wait
- Delegation confirmed: named people, clear responsibilities, authority granted
- Systems in order: shared drives, CRM, accounts, inboxes all accessible and up to date
- Social media scheduled: posts queued for the duration, evergreen content repurposed where needed
- Client communications sent: anyone who needs to know I’m away has been told, with a named contact
- Virtual support briefed: telephone answering, email management, any ongoing tasks handed over with a proper brief
- Personal logistics sorted: pet care, house, anything domestic that would otherwise be sitting in the back of my mind
What’s the business case for actually taking the holiday?
You come back better. Clearer thinking, more energy, more perspective on the things that actually matter. Every owner I know who has properly stepped away and come back says the same thing: they could see the business more clearly from the outside than they ever could from inside it.
The planning that goes into a good handover also tends to reveal gaps in your systems that you’d been papering over. It’s an audit you didn’t know you needed.
And frankly, if your business can’t function without you for a week or two, that’s the most important signal you could have about what to fix next.
How can Get Ahead help?
Whether you need telephone answering and email management while you’re away, a virtual assistant to keep things ticking over, or a Lifestyle Manager to handle the personal side of life, we’ve been helping business owners take proper breaks for over a decade.
Talk to your local Regional Director about what cover would look like for your business. You might be closer to a real holiday than you think.
www.getaheadva.com or call 0330 223 7580
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