I never considered that before - how DO entrepreneurs take time off? Is this done post-post-/Ramen profitability? Never? Just for a day at a time? Or does the flexible schedule prolong burnout?
This is one of the first things you'll notice being in business for yourself. It's hard to arrange time off. One of the benefits of working for a company is that there's a team in place to make sure the train stays on the rails while you're gone.
That's one of the hardest parts of running your own business IMO. I had to have an op, recommended recuperation was 2weeks of bed rest, I was back working the next day; yes there were deleterious effects on my health.
And yet, you'll probably find as I did, that if you disappear for a week or so, nothing really terrible happens. With clients, it's easy - tell them you're gone. When you run an SaaS, it's not as easy, but I became so ill I wasn't able to do a thing… and we lost maybe one customer.
The others who were waiting on my emails got a very sincere apology and explanation, and we were all good.
This goes to show that you only think you have to be there all the time.
Automate everything that can possibly be automated, and when one goes on vacation, check email a few times a day. Might even be able to get some work in during the evenings.
Also, the flexible schedule allows for mini vacations whenever you need it, which helps a lot. It's great to be able to blow off work whenever an opportunity to do something great comes up, as long as you're disciplined about getting things done other times.
You can look at it that way, but not so much true. The great thing about being a self employed is that it doesn't matter where you work.
I take my computer with me everywhere I go, even on vacation. I've had conference calls in the morning and hit Disney World in the afternoon. Usually my customers don't even realize I'm out and about.
So while you could say that your not really on vacation just remote, you could look at it the other way and realize you could spend a month in Florida on vacation and still make a few bucks in the process. I've been on vacations that have paid for themselves simply by putting a little work in for half a day here and there.
This is basically exactly what I was going to say. I'm currently spending a week far from home base wind and kite surfing. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, I answer customer questions/suggestions, and after dinner I spend 4 or 5 hours fixing bugs and working on implementing something.
It's really hard, especially during the first couple years, but my only perspective is as a bootstrapper, I think funded people maybe have more flexibility (or maybe not? I dunno).
My experience is that you just have to force yourself to stop working. It's terribly easy to let your business tak over your life. Me, I just force myself to forget about everything but the bat-phone on Sundays.
I can't reply as a funded person since I'm also a bootstrapper, but having done work for some startups they typically have directors which work for the funding group that sit around and make sure their money is working hard. So I imagine they have less flexibility.
