I have never heard any of my clients (or anyone I know) say, “I took too many vacations this year and my business really suffered.”
What I have heard:
- “I’m so glad you convinced me to take my family to Europe. Everyone had a great time and picked something they really wanted to do, while the rest of us followed along.”
- “The time I spent with my kids away from work and school is the most connected time we ever have.”
- “It is one thing to own a vacation home, another to go for a month (or more)!”
- “When I got back after being gone for two weeks away from the routine, I did what you asked: Before I returned to old habits, I figured out how it would be better to do things differently.”
- “After my vacation I saw my business more clearly. I felt refreshed with new ideas that I never would have identified if I did not take that break.”
- “My team really stepped up during my time away. We are all thrilled that they showed their true capability, so we will be celebrating that.”
- “My people did not perform as I had expected during my trip. This disappointment has focused me on what we need to change that I could not see without leaving.”
Your Summer Vacation Season 2024
This week marks the kickoff for summer vacation season, and, if my own block is an indicator, a lot of people have heard the message.
Within a few hours of school being let out last Friday, so many families I know were heading to the airport that I expected a traffic jam on the way out of the neighborhood.
If you’re a long-time reader of mine – or one of my clients or Restaurant Owners Success Club members, past or present – you know I always work to build your company so you can take advantage of the freedom and flexibility you have earned (and the benefits your business enjoys from time away) and create aggressive summer vacation plans.
Like the time I wrote to you imagining how you could take the whole summer off.
Or the time I wrote to you about how to free yourself up to leave.
I can easily tap into sense memories relating to some of my most valued times: summer travels with friends and family. As much as I enjoy my work and providing solutions, strategy, tactics, and overall help to people like you, I know that my vacation time is even richer.
And even though I have some fantastic sense memories of restaurant openings, too, they don’t feel as elevated.
Have you completed your summer vacation plans? Have you set up your organization optimally so you have the freedom and flexibility you have earned? If not, when do you start?
