At the beginning of 2022, as I sat down to set my intentions and goals for the year ahead, I decided that I wanted to take more time off. 

I started this business in 2017 and it’s gone through various evolutions over the years (from freelancing as a VA, to having a VA agency, to becoming an Online Business Manager and Delegation Consultant, and shifting my agency to deliver funnel building services). One thing that’s stayed consistent though is my lack of true vacation time. 

As a service provider, I was afraid to take more time off because I: 

• Was afraid of having an income drop, as I believed not working equaled no revenue
• Felt I didn’t want to disappoint my clients, as I believed if I wasn’t around they couldn’t get support they needed
• Told myself that since I was only working 20 hours a week anyway, all of life was basically half vacation and I didn’t need to completely take time off

Can you relate at all? 

But I wanted to get back to one of the biggest reasons I started my business: To have more freedom. 

So, I set some time-off goals for 2022: 

1. Take one Friday off per month
2. Take one week off per quarter
3. Take all of July off

(And so far, as I write this in August, I’ve fulfilled all these goals!)

You may be asking (as my husband was), “When are you going to actually work then?” 😂

You may also be wondering if that would be possible for you (and, likely, you’re thinking of reasons why it isn’t possible for you and why your situation may be different than mine). 

I want to show you that you absolutely CAN take more time off, work less, and still grow your business. Today I’m sharing the key takeaways from my month-long vacation, so you can also start thinking about how to shift things in your business to create more free space.

First, here’s a rundown of how I set up my business for my month off and the three key areas you need to consider:

(1) SYSTEMS 

Some adjustments were needed for the systems/processes we followed to account for my absence. I looked at our recurring tasks and considered how they may be adjusted in cases where I had been involved previously. 

I also mapped out when I would be available for communication and for some work (in my case, I decided that I would be available for my retainer clients 2 days out of that month, to address any work that I personally needed to do and that could not be completed by other team members). 

We set up temporary systems for managing work during this period. For example, I had a separate List in my ClickUp, where my team could add in priority tasks that needed my attention either on my 2 partial work days or as soon as I returned. 

Finally, I outlined communication and task management systems for my clients, so that they knew exactly who they could contact if needed, how, and where they could send in tasks for the team to handle.

(2) TEAM

I prepared my team for my time off by setting expectations for them regarding work to be completed in my absence, as well as communications. We discussed how they could contact me, what kind of situations I considered urgent, which tasks or questions they could leave for when I return, etc.

I also worked through all my personal recurring tasks and re-assigned them to team members. I recorded training videos and assigned the tasks to them while I was still working so that they had a chance to try it out while I was still around for questions and additional training. 

As I was preparing, not only did I set up tasks in ClickUp to keep things organized, but I also created a separate Slack channel where I put updates and notes as I thought of them. This gave us a central place to discuss items and could serve as a reference for them while I was away. 

(Note: Even if you don’t have a team, I still believe you can take time off. Your clients are likely going to be very understanding and excited about you taking time away, and you can come up with creative solutions for providing any critical support while still getting quality time off. You can also plan ahead and hire temporary team members; who knows, it may even go so well that they stick around afterwards!)

(3) REVENUE

We want to make sure that we have enough to pay ourselves for our vacation time. There are various ways to do this, but here are the 2 things I did personally that you can draw inspiration from. 

First, I ensured that I had enough money in an account I have for “Owner’s Extra Pay” (which is a contingency fund I build up). I highly recommend creating a fund like this for emergencies and vacations. 

Second, I looked at how I could still bring in revenue while I was away. In my case, I was still able to provide some support to my retainer clients throughout the month, my team was able to execute on a half VIP Day, and I had some recurring affiliate revenue. 

If you plan ahead for time off from a financial perspective, you’ll feel more confident that you won’t come back to a depleted bank account.

Now, here are the 3 lessons I learned from this experience: 

(1) IT WAS EASIER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE

About a week into my vacation, I started to see how pulling this off was actually much easier than I expected. 

I knew it was possible (otherwise I wouldn’t have done it), but I did on some level think of it as something that would be difficult to bring to fruition, or that I would have challenges throughout the month that would prevent me from enjoying it. 

But all in all, everything went even more smoothly than I anticipated. 

There were no big emergencies. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. There weren't any mishaps or breakdowns. 

My team + my clients’ teams came to me for a few questions, which I was able to deal with without feeling the need to jump on the computer to take any action personally. 

I checked in on emails a few times. The first time I did this, I had a moment of anxiety, where thoughts crept in like “What if I have too much to do when I get back?”, “What if something got messed up?”, “Should I be checking in more often?”, and so on. But I was quickly able to detach from that, allowing me to pop into my email inbox periodically but from a place of curiosity and fascination at what was happening without me. 

Yes, I had taken time to prepare and make sure my systems and team were ready for me to be away. But as I lay on a beach in Greece, I realized that, while it took some preparation, it was preparation I could have done at any point in my business (not just now, 5 years in).

By the end of the month, I was amazed to realize that so much had happened inside my business, all while my family and I road tripped through North Macedonia, explored a beautiful lake, ate delicious food, made our way to Greece's beautiful beaches, played in the clear blue water with my kids, and so much more :)

With automations and clear processes for my team, my business still:

• Had leads come in from my evergreen freebie funnels
• Sold digital products
• Had consultation calls booked for when I return
• Delivered a half VIP Day (Kartra funnel build)
• Fulfilled on retainer client tasks (recurring and new items sent in)
• Helped people with Kartra through my YouTube videos (where people left comments and subscribed to my email list)
• And more :)

Pretty cool, right? 

It's possible for your business too, I promise :)

We sometimes overcomplicate and overestimate how difficult something may be if we have never experienced it before. This was proof for me that it’s always better to jump in and try it out, pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone and challenging our own limiting beliefs. 

(2) YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SET YOUR BOUNDARIES

People will stick to your boundaries, so long as you set them. 

In fact, my clients and team members actually contacted me LESS than I had anticipated or specified. 

I had set a system where I’d be available via Voxer at least 4 days a week for one of my retainer clients’ teams, and that I’d be available via Slack for my own team in the event of priority questions or issues. This boundary felt good for me, as I knew I personally wouldn’t feel burdened by answering a few questions daily. But, I barely got any at all!

And remember how I said above that I set aside 2 partial work days for my retainer clients? Well, when I sat down at my laptop on those days, I found that I actually barely had anything to do! It had all been taken care of, with me simply needing to answer some questions. 

I was able to handle some of the tasks that had been set for me to do when I returned, getting them out of the way quickly and making things easier for then I returned. 

After that, it was back to the beach 🏖️ 

(3) TIME OFF IS NOT OPTIONAL; IT’S A CRITICAL PART OF YOUR SUCCESS.

I know you already know this, right? 

But we often forget to put it into practice. 

It doesn’t need to be a whole month off, but taking time off on a regular basis is critical. These are the times that will recharge you in a way that allows you to thrive and take your business to new levels. They’re times that will help you get out of your own head, and come up with creative new ideas you wouldn’t have thought of sitting in front of a screen. 

The other benefit is that it will push you into creating a more streamlined business, in a way that you are less likely to do while you’re working. For me, this nudged me to delegate even more, create cleaner systems, and put in place some more automations. These improvements will stick around long after the time off, compounding the benefits. 

Once I came back to work, because of the systems I had in place and because I was able to trust the process:

• I had a clear list of priority items that needed my attention first (no overwhelming amount of messages, tasks, or questions piled up for me)
• I was able to book 2 VIP Days for Kartra builds within my first 2 days back

I hope this gives you a little bit of inspiration to shift the way that you work and to see what’s possible. You can absolutely work less without sacrificing your service delivery or your revenue. 

What’s the next step you can take towards creating more freedom?