It sounds great being able to work from a beach right? 

That’s what I thought too until I actually needed to work from a beach because I wanted to take a holiday but I had started a business that I couldn’t just stop…. This was mine & my brother’s reality in 2022. 

The pandemic was largely over & the world was largely going back to normal. 

The business we had started in 2020 was up & running but as entrepreneurs we hadn’t given ourselves a proper break since the day we started it. We realised that we couldn’t continue that way and we booked a holiday. 

The plan? 

We would take our laptops and provided we could find an internet connection for a couple of hours or so a day we would be able to continue with everything as normal (or so we thought). The reality is that this didn’t happen quite the way we had planned out…..

There are 3 things that trying to “work from holiday” taught me. 

I remember reading this type of sentence before we started our business and I wasn’t quite sure what it meant initially but now it is very obvious…. At the end of the day, if you are needed for your business to function, then you are essentially working on an employed basis. The only difference being is that it is your business which is employing you. If your business can’t serve customers without you it means you technically are your business. You haven’t created something which can be sold or passed on to someone else because you are needed for it to function. 

It’s not fun having this realisation and this was the realisation my brother & I had that first time we tried to take a holiday. We realised that if we stopped our business stopped which needed to change…. We wanted to be able to take a holiday! This encouraged us when we had returned from our holiday to brainstorm processes and things we could do to make sure our business ran itself. It was a very helpful lesson. 

It might be tempting to try to continue working on your business whilst on holiday but there is a problem with this…. The fact that you are trying to work on holiday means by definition you are not having a holiday. The expression “working from holiday” is a complete contradiction of terms. 

We tried during our first holiday to continue with the day-to-day admin of running our business but we found it just wasn’t sustainable. I personally didn’t holiday well & I didn’t work well. I ended up doing less and less as the holiday went on but felt more and more guilty for not doing it… It was a lose-lose situation. 

We’ve since realised that there wasn’t any point trying to do this work whilst on holiday and we now don’t plan to take work with us on holiday.… At times it might feel like we’re having to press pause on our business but actually this is better for us. We feel more relaxed whilst away & we don’t feel guilty for not doing any work. It does mean we have to get a bit more organised before we go away but that’s probably not a bad thing. This doesn’t mean that whilst away we won’t do any work at all though.

As entrepreneurs, we probably won’t ever stop ‘working’. We are constantly thinking about our business and trying to problem solve. We’ve found that when we go on holiday, after a few days our creativity levels are restored and we’re inspired by people or things around us. As Lawrence & I are usually on holiday together, we’ll use this opportunity to occasionally talk about things we’re doing or things we could do going forward. We’ll make a note of these things so we can implement them properly when we’re back. To others this might still seem like ‘work’ but to us this is just what we do. We both try to make sure that this is the only type of “work” we will do. 

The purpose of a holiday is the same for everyone….it doesn’t matter whether you are employed or running your own business. You need to use the time to reset, recharge and reset. It’s arguably more important for you to do this if you are a business owner. 

As I mentioned in the previous point, the time we went away trying to “work from holiday” we both found that we didn’t properly rest, recharge or reset. The truth is we both came back feeling guilty for not doing as much work as we had hoped to do… we can laugh at the irony of this now but at the time we felt very self-conscious. We felt like we had let our business down. 

We now realised (& have experienced) the value of taking a proper break from our business whilst going on holiday. The space it creates allows you to properly rest, it gives you the opportunity to reflect (if you want to) & it renews your energy levels for when you return. 

I think most new business owners will be tempted to work from holiday at some point… just like we were, you’re excited about your new venture and you don’t want to feel like you’re missing out on work or slowing things down unnecessarily. 

I hope this post will help anyone who has done this to relate & realise it’s okay to take a proper break. 

You really do deserve it and you might find (like we did) that taking a holiday actually helps you to make you & your business more efficient. 

Did you know? You can join me on the Business Idea Incubator programme where over the course of 6 weeks you will learn how to go from “no idea” to setting up your business in the most effective & efficient way possible. I will cover the different steps you need to take to launch your business & start serving your first-customers without breaking yourself or the bank. Learn more about the programme here. I also offer 1:1 coaching to help others start a business. Please just send me an email directly to elle@gabrielletodd.com if this is something you feel you would benefit from & would like to learn more about.