While the end of December means a well-earned break for many Australians, not everyone is putting down the tools – small businesses included.
Recently, a study by Dayforce found that sixty per cent of employees don’t unplug from work completely while on summer holiday. If regular employees are finding it so hard to step away from work, how are self-employed small-business owners – a group historically lacking in break time – faring?
“This time of year varies so much depending on the industry,” said Therese Ravell. Ravell runs a HR consultancy, which supports SMEs across Australia. “In the building industry, many clients enforce a mandatory shutdown period of between two to three weeks. For those in outdoor recreation, this period is the lifeblood of the organisation. A bad summer season can put the company in serious financial trouble.”
December is a peak period for many small businesses
It’s not just outdoor recreation businesses that rake in most of their money in this period. ISB heard from tech specialists, HR consultants, tuition providers and retailers who said the latter half of December was a crucial period.
Avi Efrat, Founder, Fantastic Framing: “As a small-business owner, Q4 and especially December are crunch time and it’s all systems go, go go!”
Rachel Lake, Founder, Rachel Beth Jewellery: “December is one of our busiest months, as many of our customers choose to propose over the Christmas and New Year holiday period. We work closely with clients to ensure their special pieces are ready on time, making it a rewarding but hectic time of year.”
Several small-business leaders said that they continue working while their staff takes time off.
Pulkit Agrawal, Founder, UR Digital: “While my employees enjoy a well-deserved break, I’ll be hunkering down on planning and projects that were sidelined during the year’s hustle. If a client rings me at the first wink of dawn – or even Christmas Day – I’ll answer.”
Charlotte Brett, CEO, BnB Butler: “While I don’t personally take a break during Christmas and new year, I do ensure my staff can have some time off, and then I take leave later in January.”
Another small-business owner told us that she feels she can’t take a break because her business is still new.
Monique Elyce Jeremiah, Founder, Diversity Models: “I will only be taking a break on the public holidays of this season, as we run all through the year and are a growing business. Our growth is thanks to being flexible and accommodating to our clients needs. I don’t mind this situation as it is my passion business, so it doesn’t feel like actual work – it’s more rewarding.”
Unable to step away
While some small business owners are prevented from taking breaks by business operations, others find themselves fighting more of a mental battle. Suzana Mihajlovic, Founder of Your2Minds, tells us that her passion for her business makes it hard to step away.
“This year I will ‘try’ to take four weeks off,” Mihajlovic said. “I say ‘try’ because, as someone who is extremely passionate about my business and does not have children, I find it difficult to completely ‘withdraw’.”
Mihajlovic admitted that she hasn’t had more than seven days away from the business since she started. She thinks part of the reason is that running a service-based business means she can work from anywhere.
Small-business owner Sam Driessen, who runs SEO agency MonoRail, said similar:
“For a lot of people, myself included, the business is as much a hobby as it is a job, so it can be hard to take time away and unwind. The business is always in the back of my mind and it’s hard to take attention away from it.”
Taking a break
Those small-business owners who are taking a break these holidays shared strategies to keep business going in the time off.
Kirsty Mastores, Co-Founder, Work Chapters: “Part of our business is tech-enabled (automated) so it can run itself in the background, which is great (customers can ‘self serve’).”
Lucy Lines, Founder, Two Lines Fertility: “I have built a system that means I can easily take a week or two away with my kids over the summer break. I ensure that I have strategically planned and scheduled my social media presence and have automated as much as possible so that people can seamlessly find all my free information, access my emails and book appointments directly into my calendar.”
It seems that, while some business owners do step away in the Christmas period, their businesses are often still ticking away in the background.
