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0:56

Hey-o! Welcome to the $100 MBA

0:58

show, the business podcast that's always got

1:00

your back. With our practical business

1:02

lessons, I'm your host, your coach, your teacher,

1:04

Omar Zenholm. And today's episode is Q&A Wednesday

1:06

where we answer a question from one of

1:08

you, one of our listeners. If

1:10

you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email

1:13

me over at Omar at 100mba.net. Today's

1:16

question is from Clark and Clark asks, How

1:19

do I take time off from my business

1:21

without everything breaking down? Thanks for your advice,

1:23

Clark. I want to start by saying that

1:25

this is a very common question. And

1:28

it's a good question because a lot of people

1:30

are suffering from this issue. They

1:32

feel like they're very integral to the

1:35

business running smoothly. And if they take

1:37

time off, things will suffer. They'll lose

1:39

money. They'll lose customers. It'll be more

1:41

work than it's worth. And

1:43

maybe they won't even enjoy the break because they're worrying

1:46

so much that the business is going south. This

1:49

is especially a issue if you're in the

1:51

first few years of business. There's three years

1:53

I would say, because in the beginning you

1:55

are doing everything yourself and slowly you start

1:58

working with a team and other people. people

2:00

on your staff and you're still very

2:02

much involved in the day-to-day. So

2:04

in today's lesson, I'm going to break down a step-by-step

2:07

plan to be able to take time off

2:09

from your business and not worry that things

2:11

are not going to go right and not

2:14

worry that the business is not going to

2:16

actually function the way it should. I'm going

2:18

to share with you exactly how I started

2:21

to do this in my first few years in

2:23

business so I can recharge my batteries and take

2:25

a break. Let's get into it. Let's

2:28

get down to business. After years

2:30

into running Webinar Ninja, the software company that

2:33

I built and sold recently, I

2:35

was dying for a break. Nicole, my business

2:37

partner and partner in life, was dying for

2:39

a break. I said it in passing

2:41

to another entrepreneurial friend of mine.

2:43

I said, man, I really need a break.

2:45

I'm burnt out, but I just can't afford

2:47

it. I just can't leave the business because

2:50

it needs me. This

2:52

friend of mine told me, that's a problem. I

2:54

said, yeah, it is a problem. I kind of just thought,

2:56

yeah, he's just sympathizing with me. He

2:59

was like, no, no, that's a problem in your business.

3:01

You should be able to leave your business. This

3:04

is broken. You need to fix this problem

3:06

because you don't have a business, you have a

3:08

job. That hit me like a ton of bricks.

3:10

I was like, oh boy, I really needed

3:12

to hear that because essentially, I built

3:14

myself a job. I was

3:17

self-employed, quote unquote. Even though

3:19

I had a team of people helping me build Webinar

3:21

Ninja, I was shackled to it.

3:24

I couldn't leave it. In that moment, I decided

3:26

I need to fix this problem. I need to be

3:28

able to step away from the business, at least for

3:30

a few days to a week,

3:32

to recharge my batteries and come back and

3:34

not really worry that things are going to

3:37

go south or break down. Not

3:39

only worry that's going to happen, I don't want it

3:42

to happen. I don't want it to actually happen in

3:44

the business. I'm going to share with you what really

3:46

works. The first thing is that you

3:48

actually have to change your mindset first because this

3:50

doesn't work if you don't believe it

3:52

will work. That was

3:54

that moment for me where I realized I have to change

3:57

this. This is wrong. The first thing you have to do

3:59

is you have to... realize that your business

4:01

is broken, your model is broken if

4:03

you can't step away for a week

4:05

without worrying or without anything going wrong

4:07

in your business that can't be fixed

4:10

by somebody else. Listen, a week is

4:12

not a long time, okay? A week,

4:14

even if there's a problem that only

4:16

you can solve, it can be

4:18

something that can get remedied in a week,

4:21

okay? People can wait. I know

4:23

that sounds really nerve-wracking just hearing that,

4:26

but your health and your

4:28

mental stability is the backbone

4:30

of the success of your business. Let me

4:32

say that again. Your health and your mental

4:34

stability is the backbone of the

4:36

success of your business. If that goes wrong,

4:39

if you are not healthy in those areas,

4:41

if you don't recharge those batteries, your business

4:43

will break down, not the other way around.

4:45

You see how this mindset stuff is important?

4:47

You can't think that if I go and

4:50

take a break, the business will break down.

4:52

No, if you don't take a break, your

4:54

business will break down because you will make

4:56

poor decisions when you're burnt out. You'll make

4:58

mistakes. You'll not be a great leader. You're

5:01

not going to be creative and innovative and stay

5:03

competitive in the marketplace. That's just not going to

5:05

happen if you are tired, if

5:07

you're fatigued. So the first thing is I

5:09

had to really believe that I need to

5:11

make a change, so therefore a change can

5:14

happen. Second, every business has some

5:16

sort of downtime in their market, and they also

5:18

have a busy time. Like if you sell toys,

5:20

then Christmas time is a very busy time for

5:22

you. But maybe February is not really a busy

5:24

time for you if you're a toy store. Or

5:27

maybe it's certain days in the week, maybe it's

5:29

a certain holiday. For sure, there's

5:31

going to be a couple days in the week

5:33

where it's slower than the rest of the week.

5:35

For example, the corner pizza restaurant near my house

5:37

is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Why Mondays and

5:39

Tuesdays? Because it's the slowest days of the week.

5:41

No one really eats out those days in

5:44

our community. So they take off those

5:46

days. So take a look at when is the

5:48

slowest time in your business in the year, as

5:51

well as during a week or a

5:53

given time during a month. Why? Because

5:56

you can bridge off those

5:58

days off that time. So stay for... For example,

6:00

for you, it's the least

6:02

busy on Saturdays and Sundays.

6:05

And Monday is the third, you

6:07

know, slowest time for your business

6:09

or slowest day. So you

6:11

have three days here in a row. Maybe

6:13

there's a holiday on a Friday that

6:15

you can bridge and just take one

6:17

day off, which is Thursday, and have

6:19

five days straight. That's almost a week.

6:22

That's pretty good. And if you leave

6:24

wherever you go to recharge on Thursday

6:26

afternoon or evening, you kind of get

6:28

five, almost six days off, almost a week.

6:30

This is just your first time doing this because I

6:32

know this is going to be nerve wracking. First

6:35

time going away, first time kind of stepping away from your

6:37

business, do it this way. So

6:39

you know that there's a holiday, no one's going to really be needing you. The

6:42

weekend is slow. Monday is slow usually.

6:44

You come back on Tuesday, you're going to be back at

6:46

it. Believe it or not,

6:48

those five to six days are

6:51

really going to make a difference if you do

6:53

this right. Your biggest worry about going away

6:55

is that if there's a problem, you're going to need to fix it

6:57

or you need to attend to it. So what

6:59

you need to do is before you leave,

7:01

you need to assign somebody to basically

7:04

have the keys to the castle. Be

7:06

the manager while you're gone. Make decisions

7:08

while you're gone. Or at least be

7:10

the person that you speak to while

7:13

you're gone. Okay, so this is what I

7:15

do. I actually assign somebody, say, hey, this

7:17

person is the person in charge while we're

7:19

gone, usually somebody who's senior in the business.

7:21

And I tell this person, hey, you can

7:23

contact me via email. Or

7:25

via WhatsApp or via phone. I like to just choose

7:27

one method so I could just choose one area so

7:29

I could say, like, just contact me on WhatsApp if

7:32

there's an issue, if there's an emergency. Now the

7:34

other thing I did in the beginning was I

7:36

just said, give me an update every day. Every

7:39

day I'm gone, at this time, just send

7:41

me a message and tell me, you know,

7:43

everything's good or there's something that needs resolving

7:45

but it could wait or whatever it is.

7:48

But just give me a daily update so I can

7:50

be like, okay, every 24 hours feel like everything's going

7:52

fine. I can enjoy myself. And this

7:54

is what we did after that three year stint with

7:56

no breaks. The call and I went to Costa Rica

7:59

and we just went. for six days really

8:01

but it really recharges batteries and we got

8:03

reports every day at nine o'clock

8:05

in the morning and it was like wow everything

8:07

is fine everything's okay and it was really relaxing

8:10

because I could relax knowing the business is fine.

8:12

Nowadays when I go away and I want to take a

8:14

break I want to shut off I

8:16

tell that person that's in charge hey if the

8:18

aliens take over then give me

8:21

a call meaning only if there's an emergency

8:23

give me a call and let me know.

8:25

So if I don't get a call everything's

8:27

going fine I'm happy they're happy everything's okay.

8:30

Have you ever told a friend? Oh I'm fine.

8:33

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8:35

this is your sign to reach out to

8:37

the 988 lifeline for

8:39

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8:41

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8:43

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8:50

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8:52

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8:54

the family vacation. We're

8:56

starting your dream business.

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9:14

tools. Next

9:20

expectations and batching. So before you

9:22

leave you want to do what's

9:24

called a away from desk or

9:26

vacation mode on your email. So

9:28

anybody sends you an email they know that

9:31

you're not available right now. So this is

9:33

very easily done in settings in Google email

9:35

where you could just send an automatic reply

9:37

to any emails that you get to say

9:39

hey I'm away from the office or I'm

9:41

occupied or whatever message you want to say

9:43

I'll be back on this date to reply

9:45

to any emails. If this is

9:47

an emergency if you need urgent help speak

9:49

to so and so who is the person that's

9:51

in charge in your business while you're gone and

9:54

you set it up from this date to this

9:56

date whatever dates are going to be away and

9:58

that way everybody who gets that reply. when

10:00

they send you an email, they have an expectation that

10:02

okay you're not gonna reply right away. Life

10:04

is all about expectations. If you set expectations,

10:06

they won't get upset if you reply next

10:08

week or in a few days. And remember

10:10

you are doing this during a slow time,

10:12

during the weekend, you're not gonna get many

10:14

people that are looking for a

10:17

reply. Also you're giving them a way to

10:19

contact somebody just in case this is an

10:21

urgent matter. The next thing is batching. Batching

10:23

is one of the best things ever invented

10:25

in business which means you're going to do

10:27

all the work in advance in batches so

10:29

that when you come back from your break

10:31

you don't feel like you have a lot

10:33

to catch up on and there's so

10:35

much work to do and I wish

10:38

I didn't go away and all that

10:40

kind of stuff. So most work can

10:42

be batched whether it's emails, whether it's

10:44

writing copy, whether it's recording

10:46

podcast episodes like this or videos, whether it's posting

10:48

on social media that can be scheduled. And basically

10:50

it means before you go you do all that

10:52

work and you schedule it out while you're gone.

10:54

Now you don't have to do it yourself, you

10:57

can get somebody on your team to help you

10:59

with that and there's a lot of great tools,

11:01

software for that, Buffer does

11:03

great social media scheduling, the Edgar,

11:05

there's a whole bunch of tools out there that

11:07

do it. Most email software, email marketing softwares allow

11:10

you to schedule broadcasts so you can just schedule

11:12

your emails out so you don't have to write

11:14

it that day. You can schedule podcast episodes and

11:16

videos on YouTube. So a lot of stuff you

11:18

could do the work in advance to kind of

11:20

front load it so that when you get on

11:22

your plane or you're getting your car to go

11:25

on holiday all the work is done

11:27

for the days that you're gone. And even then sometimes

11:29

I could do is a little bit more than when

11:31

I'm gone so when I come back and I'm kind

11:33

of getting back into work I'm not burdened with

11:36

the work I normally do. Now when you're gone

11:38

I do this, I always bring my laptop, I

11:40

always bring my mic because I do a podcast

11:42

and sometimes I need to do an insert, a

11:44

fix, a last-minute read for a

11:47

sponsor, whatever it might be. I always bring

11:49

my essential tools with me. Now do I

11:51

use them? Most likely I don't. Sometimes I

11:53

don't use my laptop when I'm on holiday.

11:55

I just took a break for a few

11:58

days and I didn't open my laptop. laptop

12:00

at all but I like to have it

12:02

with me just in case. Why?

12:04

Because it gives me peace of mind and I know that

12:06

if there is an emergency I need to fix that might

12:08

take me five or ten minutes or even an hour I

12:11

can get it done quickly even if

12:13

it's needed. Now if it's not an emergency it could

12:15

wait I usually wait until I get back but

12:17

there's something about having the tools you need just in

12:20

case there is an emergency. It's like having a

12:22

you know a spare tire in the back of the

12:24

car. Just in case you have a flat

12:26

it's there. A lot of people they make the mistake and

12:28

say I'm not gonna take my laptop I'm not gonna take

12:30

anything that way I won't work that way I won't

12:32

be forced to do anything. You gotta have a little

12:34

bit more self-discipline than that. I bring my my laptop

12:36

I bring my tools I don't work

12:39

just because it's there but

12:41

it's there just in case. It's an insurance policy and

12:43

it allows me to relax better. It allows me to

12:45

relax and know that hey if

12:47

something happens I'm prepared I'm ready I can

12:50

help. So it's especially important when I was

12:52

running Webinar Ninja the software company because sometimes

12:54

I would have to go in and fix

12:56

something on the website or do something or

12:58

make a decision or jump on a call

13:00

real quick with my team to decide on a

13:02

you know a way forward with a fix to

13:04

a bug or something like that and

13:07

when that did happen when I was away when I was

13:09

on break it was a quick thing. It was a 5

13:11

minute 10 minute type of conversation. I was done my laptop

13:13

was closed and I was back to relaxing. Now

13:15

my last piece of advice on this

13:18

topic is training. You need to start

13:20

training your team to start doing everything

13:22

that you think only you can do.

13:25

Okay believe it or not

13:27

you are not special. Okay believe it

13:29

or not anything can be trained. You

13:31

can teach anybody to do anything. For

13:33

the most part all the tasks that

13:35

you do they can do. So start

13:37

forming out these tasks. Start documenting how

13:39

you do anything. Even if you just

13:41

do it by video and then you

13:43

get somebody or team to document on

13:45

a document taking that video and making

13:48

it into a standard operating procedure in

13:50

SOP document. That is gold. It's gonna

13:52

seem tedious. It's gonna seem hard work

13:54

but it's worth gold. I'll tell you

13:56

why. There's a few reasons. The

13:58

first reason is your business. now has an

14:00

instruction manual. Anytime it has

14:02

any questions, they can go to the instruction manual. They

14:05

can go and see how anything is done, how to

14:07

do anything. There's an emergency and they've never done it

14:09

before. Go to the instruction manual, step by step, they

14:11

could do it and emergency avoided

14:13

or catastrophe avoided. Easy, but that's only because

14:15

the instructions were there. If there's no procedures

14:17

documented, it's very hard to do. You're going

14:19

to have to step in. You're going to

14:21

always say, oh, I'll just do it rather

14:24

than tell somebody else to do or show

14:26

somebody else to do it in the moment

14:28

while you're away. You're going to be frustrated,

14:30

be like, I could be faster if I

14:32

do it myself. No, no, no, no, no.

14:35

Have everything documented and this is something that

14:37

happens over time. You don't have to have

14:39

everything documented before you leave on your next

14:41

holiday. But my point is, is that you

14:43

can start documenting so that you start building

14:45

this library over the years. And it's not

14:48

only the things that you do, but the

14:50

things that other people do in their jobs

14:52

as well. So everybody can technically look into

14:54

the manual and do somebody else's job or

14:56

task. Second thing is that by

14:58

having this manual, having all these procedures,

15:01

it adds an incredible amount of value

15:03

to your business. When one day you

15:05

want to sell your business, this is

15:07

gold. I know because I sold Love

15:09

and Arninja. And when we

15:11

have everything documented and we have everything

15:14

recorded, everything set to go, it made

15:16

the acquire, Pro Pro's super happy that

15:18

everything was organized and easy to pick

15:20

up and follow. And it made the

15:22

sale easier for them, easy

15:24

for us. So it adds a lot of

15:27

value to your business. Thirdly, everybody

15:29

who joins your business is now going to work there

15:31

until they die, right? They might leave, right? And you

15:33

need to replace them and replacement is going to have

15:35

to learn how to do something. And if everything is

15:37

documented, it's going to be easy for them to be

15:39

trained up and they get up to speed quickly. Well,

15:42

there you have it, guys. I hope that answered

15:44

your question, Clark. And I encourage you to set

15:46

a date in your calendar right now to take

15:48

your next break, even if it's just a long

15:50

weekend, three, four days and you

15:52

implement these practices and these strategies I shared

15:54

with you today. See it as an experiment.

15:57

Go for your little break, recharge your batteries,

15:59

come back. A couple months later,

16:01

extend it a little bit more. Go five,

16:03

six days. Go a week. Next

16:05

time around, go two weeks. You get the point.

16:08

Here is the chance for you to do it, but put

16:10

it on the calendar so it happens. If

16:12

you want to get really bold, book a

16:14

ticket. Book a flight so that you have

16:17

to go on that holiday. If

16:19

you have a question you want to ask here on Q&A

16:21

Wednesday, just go ahead and email me over at omar at

16:23

100mba.net. Or

16:26

if you just have a shrub that you're having, send

16:28

me an email. I actually reply to all the emails

16:31

that I get personally. It takes me a bit of

16:33

time, so have patience with me. But

16:35

I like to reply to email. I like to be in

16:37

contact with our listeners and be in contact with you, my

16:39

people. People that are working hard,

16:41

dreaming big, and are willing to fight for

16:43

their dreams. So go ahead and send

16:45

me an email if you need some help. Before

16:48

I go, I want to leave you with this. Remember

16:50

business, this whole idea of building

16:52

a business, being an entrepreneur, is

16:55

a vehicle. It's a means. It's

16:57

supposed to work for you, not the other way around.

16:59

You build the business so it works for you.

17:01

So it's an asset that runs on

17:03

its own with its team so that it

17:05

earns you an income, earns your revenue, and

17:07

earns back your time. You hate to have

17:09

your own time again. Now trading time for

17:11

money anymore, that's a job. You're trading value

17:13

for money. You create value by creating a

17:15

great team that provides that value to others.

17:17

Thanks so much for listening and I'll check

17:19

you in the next episode. I'll see you

17:21

then. Take care. Have

17:45

you ever told a friend? Oh, I'm fine.

17:49

When you really felt... Just

17:51

so overwhelmed. Or sent a

17:53

text. Can't sleep. Are

17:56

you awake? When you couldn't find the

17:58

words to say. scared

18:00

to be alone with my thoughts right now.