Business Owners – How many annual leave days did you take off in 2024?
Actually off work. No emails, no phone calls, no business tasks.
Have you counted them up? It’s a great task to do.
My first year of business I took off less than 20 (including bank holidays), and it took me a few years to realise the impact of this on my wellbeing (hello Burnout).
In 2024 I took 50 days leave. I also took 10 days for business development.
Despite that, it’s been my highest income year to date.
As you go into 2025, I encourage you to do 2 things:
1. Pencil in your leave
2. Pencil in your business development days
As a business owner, you need more annual leave than if you were in an employed job, not less. There are many extra stresses and pressures with running a business – it’s harder to switch off when ideas are whirling, your job is unlikely to be a 9-5, you have to tolerate periods of uncertainty in the business, you require high motivation to succeed, and many other challenges. It’s a lot.
So time off work is vital to avoid burnout and to be able to keep doing what you’re doing (whilst still be able to enjoy it).
As a minimum, you want to plan in what you’d get in an employed job – 25 days plus 8 bank holidays. But ideally you want to try for 35 or 40+ if you’re in an established business.
Annual leave days should be days you are not working at all. No popping into the office, no checking your emails, no sending messages, no finishing off tasks. Actual time off. Time to relax and switch off.
Having learnt from my mistakes, I know pencil my leave in a full year ahead. Taking at least 1 day off every 6-8 weeks. I have pencilled in 40 days (including bank holidays). The other 10 days are used for things I value – a day off with family on their birthdays, a day at a spa when I need a rest, half day late starts or early finishes when needed for personal reasons.
Business development days are also important to plan in. Days when you don’t deal with the day to day doing of the Business, but instead do some development work or future planning. This might include looking at systems that need improving, setting yourself up automation processes, updating your customer contracts, working on your branding, marketing or website or much more.
As a minimum, I’d generally suggest at least 1 per quarter for this, but for many around 1x a month works best.
Barriers to taking time off
Most Business Owners know they are doing too much. They know they need to take more time off. But there’s so many things that get in the way. Here are 5 of the most common issues I see:
1. Judgement of yourself for rest
2. Excessive worry
3. Imposter Syndrome
4. Control tendencies
5. Not having systems in place to enable leave
The art of switching off
For those that do take sufficient time off, there’s another problem – being able to switch off.
I get many Business Owners telling me they feel they might as well be working, because they’ll only be thinking about work anyway, and they get more stressed when off work than in work.
Which of course is a huge problem, and a massive Burnout risk factor.
Therapy for Business Owners and how it can help
I work with Business Owners every week. The overthinkers, the can’t switch off crowd, then don’t know how to stop bunch. I can help. Therapy can help.
I can help you to tackle the barriers to taking time off, and the elements that stop you benefitting from the time off (and lots more too).
As a therapist specialising in working with Business Owners, I offer practical advice to do with running your Business from a Business Coaching perspective, as well as helping to identify and eliminate your road blocks to happiness and healthiness.
Therapy can help you improve your business, but also your emotional wellbeing, your relationships, and everything else. There’s not an area of your life it won’t help.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how I can help you, head to my website and book your free consultation call – hannahpaskintherapy.co.uk/book-now/
Want to find out more about Therapy for Business Owners? Read my blog here: Therapy for Business Owners
