Surveys have found small business owners are some of the hardest working in the country with many clocking up more hours per week than the average doctor. In fact, 10 per cent of small-business owners report working more than 50 hours a week.
But no matter how important your business is, it’s important to take time out to prevent burn-out and look after family relationships. It is also a chance to step back and reflect on the year that has past and what you want to achieve in the future.
Maintaining a work-life balance is crucial to staying healthy and energised, even when things are super busy. Here are five tips from dmca’s advisers to consider over the festive season.
1. When you take a break, really take it.
Sometimes it can be hard to switch off. Emails keep coming and staff keep calling, but it is important to establish boundaries. Remember to turn on the ‘out of the office’ autoreply before you leave. Tell your employees that you are really on leave and not to call unless it is urgent. Leave a list of other employees or contacts who can help with any non-essential matters.
2. Prepare a to-do list before you go
To avoid the mad rush before taking your holiday, make a ‘to-do list’ the week before which lists the most urgent tasks to finish up. If you are really organised, you could also compile the ‘put off for now’ list of the things to finish when you return from leave. That could prevent sleepless nights worrying about what you haven’t done yet.
3. Communicate festive opening hours early
Make arrangements to communicate your festive season hours in advance so people can speak to you before you are on leave and so customers know when you are reopening. Post them on your social media accounts, on the counter, and in your email signature. If you are personally taking leave, you could send a note to your most important clients letting them know and providing the name of who will be handling their business in your absence and when you will be back.
3. Enjoy some New Year reading
If you like reading and want some new ideas to transform your business in 2023, you might consider these top-selling publications to find some great new ideas.
Trust and Inspire, Stephen Covey. A new approach to leadership, Read how to create a leadership style that moves on from hierarchies toward a ‘trust and inspire’ leadership model. Putting employees at the centre of this model and working on trust it helps people to do their best work and to become more collaborative.
How to win friends and influence people, Dale Carnegie. Probably one of the most well-known business books ever written and it is just as relevant today as it was when first published in 1936. Want to learn how to handle people, manage complaints better, and influence staff and customers? This book could be for you!
Atomic Habits, James Clear. How tiny changes in behaviour can transform your personal and business life for the better. It isn’t the life-changing big decisions that are always the most important.