It’s hard enough being a mom. You’ve got all of that mom guilt to deal with, and you never have a real day off! If you’re a small business owner on top of that, then you’re doubling or even tripling your stress. Forcing yourself to work constantly without a break is absolutely terrible for you, and you need to take time off. It’s important for your mental health, and it will refresh you physically.
But, how do you do it? How do you balance your duties as a working mom with relaxation? Well, after our two month vacation, we learned a lot, and we’re ready to share it with you!
Reshape Your Mindset
Small business owners are always under pressure. Working women are expected to provide for the family as they’re running a business, and it’s easy to assume that you, as the working mother, are the only person who can provide for your family. That’s not true!
Take a moment to take a step back. Look at what is around you. Speak with your husband, and talk to him about your concerns. Together, you can work out how to handle the duties of parenthood. If you’re working with him, you can also arrange for some of the business responsibilities to be rearranged while you’re off.
It’ll be easier to do this as your business grows, as you’ll have more employees to rely upon. Moreover, as your portfolio grows, you’ll likely have more sources of passive income. For example, our family has a few AirBnB properties, and those provide us with a source of income as we take time off.
Nonetheless, everyone needs vacation time. Do what you can, and let what you cannot handle go.
Plan in Advance
Obviously, you need to make sure that everything is ready for your vacation.
Before you take time off, arrange for your business to undergo training. Plan for courses on efficiency and leadership and seek out the most trustworthy members of your staff. These folks will be your wingmen, and they’ll keep an eye on your business when you’re gone. If you feel so inclined, you can even ask them to text you updates while you’re away. However, if you want to really unwind and relax, then you need to fully trust your people.
Before we took our two months off, we made sure that there was a plan in place for all of our employees. We trained everyone, and we made sure that we had someone to handle any questions and complaints while we were out. One of the best things that we did to prepare was create checklists. We made so many checklists, and it almost seemed a little excessive, but it turned out to be the best idea we ever had.
Why?
Because people need structure. These checklists ended up being lifelines for our employees. When someone had a question, they could consult one of the checklists or process documents. This decreased the amount of work that our team leaders had to handle, which meant that everyone was much happier.
Trust Your People
Now, we’ve already said it, but it needs to be said again. You have to trust your people. If you can’t trust your workers, then you’ll spend your entire vacation worrying about how things are going back home.
The goal of a vacation is to relax and forget about things!
So, how do you trust your people?
Well, you need to hire the right ones! When you’re looking for new employees, find people who you want to work with. You need to be surrounded by people you enjoy spending time with, but those same people must also have a good attitude. It will likely take some time to find that perfect candidate, but you’ll know when you find them.
Remember You Can Take Mini-Breaks
Sometimes, a full break just isn’t in the cards.
That’s okay! You can still take mini breaks. For example, while our kids are napping, we’ll often enjoy an hour or two off. This gives us time to unwind, and it breaks up an otherwise long and tiring day. Even this tiny break is enough to energize us, and it helps us remember where our priorities are.
Learn to Build a Better Business
Maybe you don’t have rental properties to bring in cash while you rest from work. We’ve learned passive income can be generated in a number of ways. One of our favorite methods we’ve used to build passive income for our family is Amazon FBA. We have shared our proven system in The Rainmaker Family Challenge for years now and celebrate with thousands of families who are now doing the same thing. Click the link to join today and we will teach you how to get started over the next seven days!
