You need a vacation

Marty Grunder

With each year of experience, the entrepreneur sees things differently and generally more clearly. Things we used to not recognize, we now not only recognize, we also understand them and the impact they have on our lives and our businesses. For example, I always looked at training and education as an expense. Now, I realize and know it’s an investment that pays big dividends. I was the person who tried to do way too much myself, thinking no one could sell as well as I could and no one could talk with clients as well as I do and no one could buy trucks as well as I could.

I now not only realize that was wrong, I also understand delegating is my KEY to success.

Another area my perspective has changed is vacations. I take them now. I enjoy them. I need them, and they’re a critical part of my past, present and future success. In fact, I’ll tell you I can’t afford to not take a vacation and I want to explain why you can’t either.

When my wife, Lisa, and I talked about getting married, one of the items we discussed was vacation. She said, “My family takes spring break vacations and I know as a landscaper, that’s your busiest time of the year, so I want you to figure out a way to take a spring break vacation each year.” I loved Lisa so much I was willing to do that.

I remember the first time I did this after we were married. I had so much anxiety it was ridiculous. All I knew to do was prepare as best I could and leave my people with notebooks to write down what caused them problems when I was gone. What were they not equipped to handle? I told them in case of emergencies, call me on my cell phone. That first trip, my phone rang so much, it really wasn’t the relaxing vacation it could have or should have been. When I got back, I was greeted with all sorts of notes and issues that only happened because of my poor planning, lack of training, poor communication and resistance to let go and delegate.

However, a lot of good things were done because I wasn’t there. People just did what they thought was best and didn’t do too badly. The next year, we went through the same process. My phone rang less, and I had only a few notes to review. Fast forward to today and I can tell you I go away and my cell phone hardly ever rings and I rarely come back to problems, voicemails or a mountain of work that takes a week to dig out. And there’s something far greater I come back with – energy and excitement!

Poet Ogden Nash said, “If you don’t want to work, you have to work to earn enough money so that you don’t have to work.” Simple, but true. Our businesses are the conduits that take us along in life. Our families and the other lives we impact are what we’re after.

Running a business should be fun. Vacations show you that if you work hard, you can play hard. If you aren’t taking a vacation, you aren’t going to realize your company’s utmost potential. You need to have periods where your team is there to operate without you. They learn more that way and you do too.

You can’t do this alone. For you to be able to think about tomorrow, you have to have people who can handle today. And to develop the people to handle today, you have to extricate yourself from the business in some key areas. It’s a process and taking a vacation is one of the best ways to figure this out.

So, you can’t afford to not take a vacation. Plan one, maybe it’s simple, maybe it’s a staycation, maybe it’s several long weekends to visit family and friends – just take one. Plan well ahead of time and work right up until you leave (those who take vacations know we are most productive the day before a vacation). Get your team together and tell them when you get back, you want to know what went well and what did not.

The answers to those questions will clearly show you what you need to work on to have a company that runs without you. And when you have a company that can run without you, you have a very valuable asset that someone else would want to pay top dollar to buy.