We're heading into summer here, and we're craving a vacation. We have one planned in a few weeks with all of my brothers and sisters and their spouses, my nieces and nephews, my mom, and my grandparents. And I am really hoping that we can go. Our spring break trip was canceled due to COVID 19, and I am ready for a getaway. And I know I'm not alone. In fact, I'm sure you would be ready for your vacation too at the drop of a hat. The question is, is your business ready for you to take a vacation. As I record this, one of my clients is on maternity leave, and her business is running without her.

Leading up to her maternity leave, we prepped her business to be self-sustaining so she can relax and enjoy her new little one in the coming weeks. Yes. Weeks. Most entrepreneurs can't imagine a day off without worrying that the business will implode, much less a week or more. But that's the goal. Right? Most of the entrepreneurs I know created their business with freedom in mind but find themselves far from it. I'm going to outline the steps that I took with my client to prepare the business for her leave. And if freedom is something that you want more of, then listen up so your business can pass the freedom test too.

One, create systems. Everything required to run the day to day of the business needs to be systematized. That includes creating tasks, stand-alone operating procedures, templates, workflows, checklists, videos, anything that's needed so that the business doesn't depend on you or anyone else for that matter to know how to do something. Two, delegate. Audit every single action you take in your business. And if someone else can do it, then delegate it. Three, batch create what only you can do. If you're going to step away and there are certain things that only you can do, but you can do them in advance, like recording a podcast, creating videos, etcetera, then go ahead and batch those ahead of time so that the work is done in advance.

Four, determine criteria for communication. Here's the thing. You want to know that you can step away and unplug and trust that someone will reach out to you if it's truly an emergency. But you need to limit contact to one person. Only allow one person to contact you while you're on vacation, and only if needed. That means categorizing what actually constitutes contact. You need to talk in advance about clear expectations for what warrants them reaching out. Then you need to unplug from all regular forms of business communication, so you do not have to look for the messages.

If someone does need to get ahold of you, they need to get ahold of you by calling your cell phone or texting you, something like that. That means if you use Voxer or Slack or email or something else like that, a project management system in your business, you need to stay out of it and trust that if they need you, they will contact you. If you absolutely want to check-in, although I don't recommend it. If you really feel like there's a need to check-in, then define specific times when you're going to check-in and tell your team in advance that those are the times, you're going to check-in and that they need to be prepared with any questions or updates. Five, checkout. Truly back off. Let your business run without you. Don't keep checking in.

Don't keep responding when you said you wouldn't. That doesn't show trust in your business, your team, or your processes. Six, don't expect perfection. Expect that things won't go perfectly. The only way to see the gaps is to step back and let mistakes happen. If you can do that, you are going to learn so much and your team will too. Once you're back, you can debrief, and you can create a plan for improvement. So, give the team the space to figure it out.

Don't step in unless the business will truly implode. Let them work things out.

P.S - you wouldn't even know about these mistakes if you weren't checking in. So, if you have an upcoming vacation or a maternity leave or you just want a day off, give your business the freedom test.