Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Alisa McCabe and welcome to another episode of Financial Snickens. Today, we're going to be talking about going on vacation. Now, I know as an entrepreneur, you might think, I don't know, can I really go on vacation? Yes, you can. And you should. It's one of the important things that actually big companies do they make employees take a two week vacation so that they can do two things that they can have someone else learn what that person does, and it also allows them to check the process to make sure that the process is working that they put in place all the things that they've done the standard procedures, the automated processes, is.
And everything that that person does can now be done by somebody else. So it's important to do this. So I have an upcoming, upcoming [00:01:00] vacation and it's an important one. Um, my husband and I are celebrating 20, our 20 year anniversary, and we are going to visit my son and his family. And we're going to be away for two weeks.
Because we're going to Japan. Yes, two weeks. Am I stressed about it? Uh, a little. It just comes with the territory. But planning and delegating things to run smoothly in my absence are really going to make this a much better vacation. So these are the steps that I'm taking ahead of time to make sure that my team and my company will stay on track while I'm away.
So first we're planning in advance. My chief of staff, my leadership team, even if you have one person on your team, make the plan ahead of time. So, and make it well in advance. So, I chose a time when our business is typically not busy. And then part of the planning process is to go through the [00:02:00] tasks that you are responsible for and then create a process around those tasks and then delegate them.
Give them to somebody else to do. And if you have more than one team member, make sure you delegate those tasks to more than one person. And then they can help each other while you're away. Also set clear expectations of what you want to happen while you're away. Provide guidelines for instructions about if something, if some emergency occurs.
happens. Um, you know, and also set the expectation of when they need to reach out to you. So while you're on vacation, you don't want to get phone calls or texts or emails every day saying, Oh, this is happening. What should I do? You want to empower your team or empower the person who works with you to make decisions.
While you're not there, make sure all your processes as best as possible [00:03:00] can be automated so that even if there's something that you normally do, if you can automate it while you're away, do it. Set payroll to run. If you, everybody's on salary, make sure it's on automatic run. Make sure that there's enough money in the bank to cover all the bills while you're away.
Set up all your bills to be automatically paid. Anything that you can do to set it up ahead of time so that you don't have to worry about it. This is a big one, an emergency contact list. Now I have this for my team. I have two people on my team. One person has part information. The other person has the other part of the information, but if something happens to me, they actually have access to all of my information that I keep.
So this way, if something happens, the company can continue to go. Now, one of my colleagues has a list that's called, Oh, no, Renee is dead. Now what? [00:04:00] And she has this list and she, her key people have access to it so that in case something happens to her. The company can continue when you start to have employees, you are responsible for them.
You want them to make sure they get paid, even if something happens to you. Now I'm going on vacation. Nothing's going to happen. But in case something ever does at any time. They have that backup, and they have this emergency protocol that can happen without me. Another thing that I'm going to do is notify my clients.
I'm going to let key clients know that I'm going to be away, here's the key person for you to contact. So that they know I'm away, and they appreciate the communication, and who can they reach out to. Also, trust your team. They got this. You are their leader. You have done a great job empowering them, [00:05:00] inspiring them.
They're going to be able to get through this without you have confidence in their abilities. If you start micromanaging them, you're going to cause so much stress for your team and yourself. Also test your plan before you go. Maybe take a few days. Even while you're still there and work on something else, but have someone else run the key responsibilities that you have, have them run payroll, have them pay some bills, have them do something that is important to you, and that you are the only one that does it, and that you'll be passing off that responsibility while you're away on vacation.
Most importantly, Relax and unplug while you're away. You will come back feeling so much better. You will feel that you are rejuvenated. You've invested in yourself. You've taken a step [00:06:00] off of that hamster wheel and you will come back and you will feel so empowered and creative and ready to take on. The next task, the next challenge, whatever you have going forward, you will feel so good about taking it on.
And again, planning is the key, having a great team and investing in them and empowering them to be able to take over responsibilities are going to make your vacation amazing. So I will let you know how mine goes. If you want to chat more about going on vacation, head over to my website, Elisa at First Steps Financial.
If you want to chat more about going on vacation, head over to my website, FirstStepsFinancial. com, or you can email me, Alisa at First Steps Financial, and we can talk more about taking that vacation.
