Hey Food & Beverage Buddies!
I'm writing this from the road, as I'm on a 2-month long road trip down the East Coast! I'm super fortunate in that my Ice Cream store is seasonal and closed for the winter, so I get 3-4 months off where I don't need to worry about the shop, and I can travel almost carefree.
So how do you manage to take Time Off?
Do you have staff & managers in place that can watch things for you while you're away?
Do you close down while you're gone?
Do you just not take time off?
I'd love to hear about what you do and I'm sure your tips can spark ideas for other business owners here!
Thanks friends!
Pesso
Here's my current view from my Myrtle Beach hotel balcony:
As with most small business owners Time off is a luxury.
The way it works around my businesses is there isn't ever a good time to be away or even possible to be away.
Things got incredibly more complicated when we opened out bakeries, when it was just the farm we always took 10-14 days off in November or December and do our vacation then, but that isn't possible as that is prime season for those businesses. A lot of time what we do is I stay and hold down the fort while the wife and kids do to national dance competitions or Disney World Etc. other times I take them to something Like Wisconsin Dells for water park fun while the wife holds down the front. Now we work vacations into work, like in July and august I am in Kentucky 4 days a week hauling produce from Amish auctions with our semi so I take a kid or 2 with, or the wife drives down also with all the kids and get a hotel and swim, etc. We have a couple of industry trade shows that we attended every year for the Garden Center and we take the kids with us for that and try to do stuff with them in the afternoon after cramming in the trade show floor in the morning.
none of it is ideal and hopefully, in a year or 2, we will be able to get away a bit easier if the supply chain and labor, etc calm down. We run lean businesses meaning there is us and then all the employees, we don't have the bureaucracy of managers and assistant managers and floor supervisors. This helps us run a much more financially efficient business but also is the weight of not only being the owners and what comes with that but also being the managers and the people that fill in uncovered shifts, etc. I tell everyone that I hire there is nothing here that I will make you do because I don't do it. So they like the fact that their boss cleans the bathrooms on closing shifts etc so that buys more respect than just telling them what to do over the phone or via message. But it also keeps us tied down. If shifts are covered and there aren't any supply issues which both will hopefully be gone soon then I can see getting away for a week here and there in the future so that's something to look forward to.
As I type this I'm in Carona virus lockdown at our farmhouse away from the family so they don't catch it. I'm one of the lucky ones who gets it and had their shot. Thanks J&J 😉
