How do you maintain that holiday vibe?

Last week, I was lucky to get away and spend a week enjoying all that South Australia has to offer. It was a well needed recharge, but this week, I have had to pay for it. I have been running around like a headless chook all week. Don’t get me wrong, holidays are great, but I always find that it is really hard coming back to work. Not only because you would rather be fishing, reading, socialising or relaxing. But also, now you must catch up on all those things that kept piling up while you were away. Working as a bookkeeper, I have to be OK with there always being more stuff to do because transactions never stop. It is kind of like washing. As soon as it is all done, more dirty clothes magically appear. But it made me think how many other business owners have this problem and can we find a way to have our holiday cake and eat it too? That is, maintain that relaxed holiday vibe associated with pina colada smelling sunscreen for more than 24 hours on our return.

So here are my top tips. Not surprisingly, they are all about pre-loaded organisation

• Nominate a stand in – Find someone you trust who can keep the basics going while you are away. They do not have to do everything but if they deal with the basics, your holiday glow will last a little longer. If you are a sole trader, maybe a friend in the industry can cover for you. If you have staff, choose a trusted employee. They may even enjoy the extra responsibility which will give you the possibility of taking more time off in the future.
• Prepare payroll in advance – these days, you can prepare pay runs in advance and set up the bank payments for future dates. Even if things change while you are away, you can make any amendments on your return. So long as employees are notified beforehand, they should be fine with this arrangement.
• Set up batches of future supplier payments – Just like payroll, work out which suppliers require payment while you are away and set up future dated payment batches. Your suppliers will not even realise you are gone.
• Set up automated collections – no-one wants to come home to cash flow issues. To avoid this, raise as many sales invoices as you can before you leave then make sure your accounting system can collect the payments with no human intervention. Use apps to handle the collections. They never go on leave.
• Hire an external professional – whether it is an admin assistant to handle your emails or a contract bookkeeper to keep the finances ticking over, do not be chained to your desk. There are always talented professionals who will take this work off your hands. This could be a short-term or a long-term solution.

If you have any tips on how I can stay chilled after my next break, I look forward to hearing them. I am now off in search of holiday cake. I don't know what it looks like, but just the mention of it made me hungry.