Getting away helps to keep cylinders firing

For most small businesses, the holiday season brings feast or famine.

Many find their resources stretched to the limit, particularly before Christmas, with a quiet period following hot on its heels.

Large companies often wind down for the "silly season", rewarding staff with some time to get away and recharge the batteries as the year draws to a close.

But for the self-employed, the holidays aren't automatic.

Home Business New Zealand managing director Heather Douglas said the difficulties facing small businesses at holiday time were often underestimated.

"A lot of small businesses are seasonal. A bed and breakfast or holiday tour business may be flat out at the moment, while a consultancy or winter-sport focused businesses may be experiencing a dearth of work," she said.

Although larger companies also have busy and quiet times, small businesses are more susceptible to these fluctuations and the income roller-coaster that comes with it.

"The problem is many small businesses don't have a strategy which allows them to take a holiday or, conversely, to cope with a quiet few months," she said.

Others just find it hard to justify time away from the business.

Despite the difficulty, regular holidays are something Auckland corporate stress consultant John McEwan advocates as crucial to business survival.

"Small business people often pressure themselves to be successful but don't take time off to recharge their batteries. So then they burn out," he said.

"But in business, your market edge is your fitness and alertness - so you can be better than your competitor. For small business owners, it's especially important to keep that market edge. If they take time out to fully recharge, they can come back firing on all cylinders."

He encourages small business owners to ask themselves the classic time-management question: what is the best use of my time right now?

"Sometimes the answer to that will be relaxing and recharging your batteries," he said.

"No stress management tricks can support an exhausted person who has not rested and recovered as we were meant to."

Throughout the year, he recommends one day away from work every week and setting aside a long weekend to rest and recharge after 12 weeks of hard work.

"People who believe they can work through will lose their temper, at least, their health and marriages at worst."

Managing the holiday

Douglas says just as a lot of planning goes into a holiday, businesses need to be meticulously planned for the owner's absence.

"Getting away from it all is less appealing when you know the business is running away on you, there's a backlog piling up on our desk or that you're losing customers," she said.

But, with planning, a holiday needn't harm the business.

On the Home Business New Zealand website, Robert Gerrish outlines some essential structures to enable an enjoyable holiday:

* You've planned the holiday, now plan the business. List the basic, regular business functions, such as ordering and invoicing. Draw up a step-by-step guide for each, stating who is responsible and when. Writing this down can diminish anxiety.

* Complete unfinished business. Make a list and prioritise tasks that have built up and be realistic about what can and can't be finished before the holiday. Unfinished business can hang around for years so, in some cases, allow "unfinished" to be the finish.

* Set up systems for how basic functions will run during the holiday, such as phone answering, mail collection and handling email.

* Security check. Business owners should check what they need to do to help them feel safe about leaving the office. Has the computer been backed up? Is the office secure?

* Prepare for homecoming. Clean the office - there's nothing like walking into a clean, tidy office in the new year. Write an action list to help quickly tackle the tasks at hand.

Establishing boundaries

Douglas said during the holiday, most small business owners found it hard to step back from the business and really relax.

"It's common to find a laptop at the bach or they'll spend an afternoon at the desk while the rest of the family is unwinding."

Establishing clear boundaries between holiday and business can be the difference between a short pause from work and a real recharge-the-batteries break.

Operators need to decide how accessible they will be when they're away: will they be accessible to staff, customers and suppliers? Will they accept phone calls at any time of the day? Will the computer stay off?

Boutique soap-makers Greg and Sophia Cooke will close the doors of the INI Body Care factory in Kumeu as they head away for a two-week holiday this month.

Although they won't be nearby if the business needs them, the couple said they planned to keep their cellphones on and, if emergency orders arose, they would talk a family member through the process to fulfill them.

Interruption-free time

For the business owners facing a quiet holiday period, it can be an opportunity to work strategically on the business, rather than in it.

Douglas said there are many ways to be productive in the leaner months, such as attending to tasks sidelined during the year, like creating or updating promotional material, maintaining databases, refining systems, spring cleaning the office or learning new skills.

Douglas said be specific about what needed to be achieved to make sure the time was used effectively.

Using down time

Airport shuttle business AeroPort Shuttles experiences a lull over the new year when English-language schools, which provide the bulk of their business, are on holiday.

Owners Diane and Ron Parker have accepted the downturn in income this brings and have chosen to work through, using the time to review the year and for "housekeeping" such as updating tour packages. They will also prepare for busier times in February and March.