- My husband and I became empty nesters last year and booked a big vacation to Europe for ourselves.
- As an entrepreneur, I feared ruining my business if I took two weeks off.
- But the vacation gave me valuable insight into my business and made me a better business owner.
Last fall, my husband and I booked a two-week vacation to Greece and Italy. We aptly coined this our “empty nest moon,” as we had just sent our 18-year-old only daughter, Hailey, to college. Lots of people take honeymoons, and some take babymoons, so we figured, why not take an empty-nest moon?
I’ve been dreading Hailey leaving the house ever since she started talking about her graduation a year ago. Although sending Hailey off to college was inevitably sad, our vacation gave us something to look forward to. Having a home without children was also perfect timing for this trip because we no longer had to worry about taking Hailey home from school, making sure she had her homework done, or not having a party. party while we were away.
But enjoying travel preparations as a business owner has been surprisingly difficult.
I was plagued by work anxiety before the trip
I knew that to truly enjoy my time abroad, I needed to completely disconnect. But this was the first time I had been away from my business for two full weeks, and I was terrified that, as an entrepreneur, everything would fall apart the minute I walked away.
I was plagued with questions like, “Who will respond to my emails?” and “What if unplugging for two weeks causes me to lose the income that funds trips like this?”
I started planning the trip five months ago to address these concerns. I hired a part-time online sales manager and a key goal of onboarding her was to include her in my sales operations. This meant she could handle customer inquiries while I was away, respond to all requests in a timely manner, and set up the appropriate channels when out of the office.
I also communicated my vacation dates to clients in advance. When I told my clients I would be offline for two weeks, they were supportive and proactively planned our engagements around my vacation.
Support from my clients gave me the confidence to move forward
I finally pulled the trigger and booked the trip. However, the night before we left, I couldn’t sleep. My mind was racing, thinking of things that could go wrong. What if it was a huge mistake? This work anxiety remained present for the first two days of the trip and I found myself wanting to check the email inbox app I had conveniently deleted on my phone. But I kept reminding myself that I had told all my customers that I would be offline and that I had adequate support processes in place. On the third day of our stay in Italy, I was able to completely disconnect.
Visiting Venice, a traffic-free city, made me feel like I was seeing the world from a completely different perspective. The town is quiet, with narrow lanes and bridges of all shapes and sizes, as well as beautiful Venetian Gothic architecture with intricately designed arched windows and painted shutters. Venice seemed like a welcome reminder that the world can function very differently from what I know in the United States, and still function extremely well.
My favorite part of the trip was signing up for “Olympic training” and learning how to throw a javelin in honor of visiting Greece’s Panathenaic Stadium, the first Olympic stadium. Our coach, Tonya, told my husband and I that we needed to extend our arms as far back as possible so the javelin could fly far forward. “It’s just physics,” she kept saying.
Tonya’s words turned out to be a metaphor for the journey. Just like the movement of pulling my arm back, away from work propelled my business is progressing.
Back at the office, I had much more clarity on what gave me energy at work
When we returned, the business decisions I had put off seemed light and easy. I knew what job I was eager to return to and decided to realign myself with the job that no longer excited me. This meant not renewing contracts with a few clients who didn’t suit me, ending certain projects and removing an offer I no longer liked.
All of this allowed me to focus on the core offerings I want to be known for, which ultimately helped me bring in more money for my business.
I thought taking time off would hurt my business. But just like pulling the javelin backwards to propel it forward, stepping back from my business had the same effect. The time off helped me refocus, open up my creativity, and clarify where I needed to focus my energy.
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