Vacation 101

But, a relaxing vacation also allows you to see much further into the future than if you stayed at work for years on end. Why do you think that college professors take sabbaticals? Why do clergy and rabbis go on retreat? Even the President has Camp David. Why don't we all take vacations?

As I posed these questions to shops owners, a few of their answers rang true. Money is an issue for some; for others, it is staff. Some were afraid. Many didn't think they should go. But, if you don't deserve a vacation after a year of hard work, who does?

Success storiesJim Chew, the owner of two large repair/tire shops in central Massachusetts, recently assumed ownership of the business from his father. Jim hired me to train his sales staff, and during the couple of months we worked together, he told me that his business was so crazy, he hadn't taken a vacation in years. After a session with his staff, Jim and I talked about him. It was more personal than business. He was tired and needed a break.

Jim was listening. Last summer, he took two weeks off. Not a great adventure; he already had an adventure at work. Jim needed some real R&R - that is, not 'remove and replace,' but 'rest and relaxation.' Jim stayed home with his wife and kids. He also went to Cape Cod for a few days. He just relaxed. He had his cell phone if needed and called in on Wednesday, because it's bill-paying day. Only a few minor things came up.

Jim told me, "It was great for my staff as well. It allowed them to make decisions without using me as a crutch." Two weeks later when he returned to work, his building was still there. Rested, with a better outlook on life and his business, he was a new man. I asked him why he didn't take a vacation sooner and he said, "Something inside me said I couldn't do it. I needed to convince myself that I could. After that, it was just take care of some details. I already had the key people in place."

The world's best example of a 'vacationer' is shop owner Ed Ormstrom from Cape Cod. His small shop employs a couple of techs, including his son. Ed has watched people trying to take a vacation every summer and failing at it, and in the process, he has learned a thing or two. Try running a repair shop at a vacation destination during the summer, and you will see firsthand the screaming kids, frantic parents, cars that should have never left their driveways and traffic - lots of traffic. So, for a few years, Ed planned an extended vacation, while taking an occasional week off.

Ed owns a sailboat and, a couple years ago, he took his wife sailing for that extended vacation. His advice: "Never call in." He should know - he didn't call in for a year! His son knows how to run the shop, and that was good enough for him. Less than a year after he returned from the trip, he went sailing again, but this time for only a week. "Very relaxing," Ed said. And still no calls to the shop. He does carry a cell phone, but there is one stipulation: "The cell phone is for family business only."

Plan for itPlanning to take a vacation is the key to actually doing it. Fred Harlander from New Hampshire has it down to a science. His "Goal Grid" includes vacation time for both him and his lead tech. When Fred is gone, his lead tech takes over.

Fred offers some suggestions for shop owners. First, advertise just before you leave on vacation so the shop stays busy. Second, don't call in; let your staff make their own decisions.

Fred runs his business 12 months a year in a way that allows him to leave when he needs to. This is not to say that Fred isn't there much; he works as hard as anyone. He has created a structure that trains his staff to multitask. When I asked Fred what it's like to come back from a vacation, he said: "After my one-week cruise, I didn't want to go there Monday morning. I didn't want to go back to the rat race, but after two hours of pain, it was ok. On Tuesday, I was right back into it."

Positive effectsIf you are taking over the management of a business, take your vacation before you start the process. Shop owners I spoke with said that taking over a business is tough and vacation time is scarce. But what about the shop owner who has been working for decades? Is he or she getting the personal time they need in this stress-filled industry?

"Research suggests that people who take annual vacations are less likely to develop heart disease and more likely to live longer than people who don't take annual vacations. In a study of 12,000 men at risk for heart disease between the ages of 35 and 57, Gimp and Matthews [published in the "Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine," Sept/Oct. 2000] analyzed lifestyle and health data. The study found that the 13 percent of men who did not take an annual vacation were at higher risk of death," says Dr. Elaine Borgen, Fallon Medical Center, Worcester, MA.

Dr. Borgen also adds, "In another study, researchers showed that employees had fewer physical complaints immediately after taking a vacation. This effect continued for five weeks after the vacation. In general, I recommend to my patients that an annual vacation is important to their physical and mental health. I also recommend actually scheduling it into their time, just as we would a doctor's appointment or an important meeting. What can also be very helpful are taking those 'mini vacations,' or the long weekends that can help to rejuvenate you in the short-term and keep you going until you can take that annual vacation."

So what does a shop owner need to do to take some time off? First, unless you're closing the shop, you need some key people to take over. They must be well-trained and have the authority to make decisions on their own. You must trust their judgment and understand that their decisions might be different than yours, but are still valid.