Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Journey podcast, I'm your host, Rebecca, and today we're talking about tips for taking time off in your business. I am so excited to dive into this topic. I'm super passionate about taking time away from your business and doing it in a healthy way, so I can't wait to really dive into this with you guys before we go too far. I did want to let you know about a brand new free guide I have just for you guys. It's called the three K Mini Sessions Blueprint. Basically, I have put together this step by step process completely for free that walks you through what you need to do to make your first $3000 in a single date of many sessions. So maybe you've already made $3000 in your Minis and you want to make sure that you're hitting all the steps and maximizing your profit? Maybe you're listening and you've never done mini sessions or you have and you've never made $3000 in a single date of Minis. So either way, this guide is for you, and it's completely free. No strings attached. You can grab that at Rebeccaricephoto.com/3K-minis. So that's the number three the letter K dash Minis. Be sure to grab that guide because I know it's going to be super helpful for you, and I can't wait to see how it impacts your business. Today, we're talking all about tips for taking time off in your business. And this was really inspired by the fact that my team is taking the majority of December off all of us. We're all taking the majority of December off where the last three weeks we're going to be completely out of the office, maybe checking in our inbox once a week or so. That was a goal of mine and very scary. It's a step away from my business for that long, knowing that we're like not touching it. And so I wanted to give some tips for being able to take time off. If you're wanting to take, you know, the month of December off, first of all, you absolutely can. Secondly, there are some very practical things that we're putting in place to be able to do that. And so I wanted to share those things with you today. This episode is going to be pretty short and sweet, but just kind of peeling back the curtain to see what our processes are and how we are able to take time off as a team and do so in a healthy way and not leave people hanging. So I have four things for you and a bonus thing. So if you're taking notes or keeping track. Here we go. The first thing that is super important to do when taking extended time off from your business is to outline your boundaries, think and, you know, discuss with yourself. If you have self discussions, what kind of boundaries do you want to set for us? I know our boundaries are that we are not going to be in office for the last three weeks of December. We will have one team member checking in to our inbox periodically, but they're not going to be actively responding to people unless it's an emergency. And so that's our boundaries. I do not want my team in the business every single day. I don't want them, you know, worrying about our inbox or worrying about clients or having a book sessions or anything like that. That's our boundaries. We're not going to be booking any photo sessions in the month of December, meaning we're not shooting in December. We're not taking on any new clients. We're not booking anything in the month of December. So we're not going to be marketing. Our Facebook ads will be turned off like all the things. So that's the boundaries that we've chosen to have. Ask yourself, what are your boundaries? Is it maybe you only want to check into your business once a week or a couple times a week? Maybe you want to take certain days off whatever that looks like. Outline your boundaries so that moving forward, we can take steps to protect those boundaries because not just from other people, but protect ourselves from ourselves, because I know it can be so easy to open up your computer. And oh, I just had this tab open so I can just, you know, glance at my inbox just once and whatnot. You want to protect yourself from yourself that it could be so easy, especially running a business that you love. I know for me, I love my business like I have so much fun doing, you know, the business side of things that it's hard for me to step away from my laptop and to keep those boundaries that I had set. But it's so important to me that I prioritize my rest in this season that we're taking off. And so I'm going to take steps to protect those boundaries. So number two, for tips for taking time off that really helps protect those boundaries from other people is to set up an auto responder for your email. I know people love to hate on auto responders. I get it. Listen, but I'm a big fan of auto responders, and the reason is that it protects your boundaries and it sets expectations for the people that are dropping in your inbox. Because I think we live in such a like my. Microwave society that they expect interaction now everybody does that whenever they send an email, they expect a response within 24 hours, if not that day. And when you're taking extended time off from your business, setting up that auto responder is really, really helpful to be able to let people know they can get an immediate response. So that like helps that microwave mentality. They get an immediate response that says, Hey, I see you like you are not forgotten, you're not lost in my inbox. I see you. But also, here's my boundary. I am only checking in once a week, or if this is non-emergency, I won't be responding until January. Like whatever it may be, setting up that auto responder really, really helps set that expectation so that people aren't upset and wondering, like, am I lost in your inbox? Like, what's going on? And I know I was having a conversation with somebody recently where I was, you know, we are emailing back and forth, and I was concerned that I, you know, had sent an initial email. I filled out a contact form and I didn't hear anything. And I'm like, What is going on is their contact form broke? And so that's one way to ensure, like, give people a peace of mind of, yes, your email has landed in my inbox. Don't worry, I did get it. But also, I will not be responding because I'm out of the office from this date to this date. And so by setting up those boundaries, it really, really helps. The third thing that you can do and this is more for internally is get ahead. You need to plan ahead so that you're not scrambling and trying to make your business run while you're gone. So this is things like schedule out your blog posts. If you know that you blog once a week, let's say you're taking the whole month of December off, but you want to be consistent in your content and make sure that you're staying top of mind for people. You can batch out your blog posts, get them all done and schedule them and then, you know, schedule the corresponding social media with it and all that stuff so that it can be done and it goes live and it publishes ahead of time. And you know, it posts to your Facebook page and it posts your Instagram and it shares it wherever you want to share it. But it all happens automatically, so you're still serving people. But because you were ahead, you're not having to be in the business, be the one pushing the buttons and typing the blog and, you know, hitting publish and then figuring out your social media situation. Like you don't have to do that. If you plan ahead, you can batch those things. So for us, we are batching all of our blog posts. We're batching our podcast or batching YouTube videos. Like Literally, this week I am in full on batch mode so that I can get all this stuff done and we can still serve you in the month of December. As you know our students, we want to give you valuable content, but also we're not going to be in the business during that time. So we are scheduling everything ahead of time so that we can still serve you well but hold our boundaries. So whatever that needs to be your blogs, your emails, your social media, whatever schedule ahead of time. The fourth thing that you can do to take time off in your business well is leave and stick to your boundaries.
Like I mentioned, it's easiest for us to kind of say, Well, I don't have to be in my business, but I want to be in my business like nobody's forcing me to open up my inbox or to, you know, whatever, talk to this potential client, but I'm here to give you the permission that you need to stay out of your business. Right? Stick to your boundaries. Hold them. Does that mean that you're you may miss out on potential clients that are inquiring for next year? Yeah, but you know what? That's OK, because what's more important is that you rest, that you hold your boundaries, and if that person is super interested in working with you, they will still be interested in working with you after your vacation is over. So stick to your boundaries now. A bonus kind of thing that I have for taking time off that it's not, you know, required. But it is helpful is to have somebody on your team to put out fires while you're gone, that if for whatever reason there is an emergency, something's happening, a client needs to book you tomorrow or, you know, somebody is having a problem with their gallery from two months ago that they never download their photos or whatever if there are fires in your business. It's helpful to have somebody there to put out those fires for you. So if you're not in the place to be able to hire team members yet, that's OK. You don't need somebody to put out fires. It's going to be OK. You'll just put out fires when you get back. But if you are in the place that you can bring on a subcontractor for that season, even if it's just for a month or however long you're planning on being gone, maybe it's, you know, a sibling or somebody that you can say, Hey, would you step into my inbox and handle this if anything comes up, that's super helpful. So for us, like I said, we're going to have one team member in our inbox periodically checking in just to make sure there's no fires, and if there are, she'll deal with them. That's an expectation that I set at the beginning of our vacation, where I said, Hey, you're on vacation, but also I'm going to need your help periodically to go. And, you know, I'm telling her, hey, don't respond to anything that's not an emergency period, like, don't do it. Hold the boundary. But if they're for whatever reason, is an emergency, she is first in line to handle that. So that's kind of a little bonus for you. So I hope this is helpful for you. Let this be an encouragement to take time off this December, for sure. You know, with the holidays being around, go spend time with your family. It's going to be OK. If you don't book anybody for a few weeks, take time off, take time off well and in a healthy way that still serves people well, but with boundaries. I can't wait to see how this goes. If you need extra accountability or you're like, Yes, Rebecca, that's me, I'm going to do it. Tag me on Instagram, posted to your stories, or, you know, die me on Instagram at Rebecca Rice Photography, and let me be your biggest cheerleader in taking time off because I know that for me, I am the best version of myself when I rest, and I would venture to say that you are probably the best version of yourself when you rest too. So let's do this together. Take a season of rest. Let's do it well. Prepare ahead of time to be able to do it well. And I can't wait to see how it goes for you. So that's all I have for you guys today. This is a great episode, short and sweet, like I said, but packed with value. So actually next week we are taking off because it's Thanksgiving, so we will not have an episode next week. But you guys have an awesome Thanksgiving, awesome holidays. And then we'll be back the following week with another podcast. So we'll see you then. Bye Guys!
