We’re all aware of the effects of all work and no play. However, as a business owner standing at the reigns of a small but growing business, it can often get hectic. If it came down to the choice of staying home to keep the business running or taking a break somewhere far away from all the stress, many business owners would sooner stay; the idea of stepping away to go on holiday practically improbable.

Their nightmares are many; are employees going to stay polite to important clients? Will deliveries be prompt? Will everything descend into chaos the moment they leave? Will they still have a profitable business to return to at the end of their holiday? Many business owners admit to feeling this way—exhausted but also deeply fearing that their businesses may crumble if they aren’t there to keep a hand on everything. What then becomes the point of working so hard if you can’t take well-earned breaks to rest and replenish expended energy? What is the use of working so hard if you cannot simply kick back and enjoy life because your business needs constant supervision? If these existential questions follow along your recent lines of thought, we’ve put together a few simple steps you should follow.

Have Your Systems in Place

Your absence shouldn’t mean a lull in pace so the first thing you should do is make sure all your systems are in place. This would, first of all, take care of the instance where you’re the only one doing most, if not all of the the work. Systemising your business tasks will ensure your business is a smooth-running machine of many, well-oiled parts, everyone having been charged with an important responsibility or duty. This also ensures that everyone pulls their weight while you’re gone, when they know that every profit or regression can be tracked to you.

Meet with Your Staff and Team Managers or Leaders

Announce your break to your staff well in advance and try to get on top of as many things as you feel need to be covered before you close for work. This includes major projects that are halfway done, projects with tight schedules or deadlines, as well as the smaller but equally important stuff that may need your attention such as meetings that might have to take place in your absence.

Contact your Clients

Following from the previous point, make sure that your clients know that you are going to be away for a couple of weeks. Mainly, this is so that you’re not hunkered down with phone calls while you’re away. You may have to explain that emails sent directly to you may not get a prompt response, then redirect them to a staff leader who can handle things while you’re gone.

While you’re on call and on the job, it may seem like in the fast-paced world of business, nothing can wait; clients need results, projects have to come to fruition, the business must record this much profit by this time period. As business-owners, it always feels like a race against the clock; like nothing can wait. But more often than not, and usually much too late, we find that a lot, in fact, can wait. Only if we will it. It may hardly ever feel like it, but the businesses we run have the tendency to not only remain stable while we catch our breath: Provided these businesses are run properly, they even have the potential to thrive.