Not Taking Vacations is Detrimental to Running a Business

Kerri Salls, the goal achievement expert behind the "4 Step Goal Achievement Guaranteed" program is advocating for every business owner to make time for vacations. In fact, Salls cites vacations as a key factor in achieving goals that relate to lifestyle.

The Massachusetts-based goal-setting executive says, for peak performance, entrepreneurs need real vacations. Studies show that each vacation results in 10 days of peak performance at work when business owners are most rested, relaxed, energized, and engaged. The return from vacation is also when entrepreneurs are most creative, productive and better able to problem solve. And yet, as many as 40 percent of the smallest business owners (AKA entrepreneurs with less than $200,000 in revenues) plan for no vacation.

A recent CNN segment, No Vacation Nation, compared the amount of vacation Americans take versus what's taken for vacation abroad. It turns out Americans don't take vacation and not taking a holiday results in a workforce that's distracted and irritable. CNN referenced the Vigilance Test that verifies an increase in sharpness in job performance by a whopping 25 percent upon a worker's return from vacation.

Entrepreneurs often either won't let go or don't know how to. Often, says Salls, it's their business model that keeps them a prisoner of the business. She recoimmends that business owners develop a foundation of planning and systems to achieve goals. 

Entrepreneurs are industrious and ambitious building a strong business foundation for their enterprise that can support its growth or potential size. Taking vacations is one of the easiest and quickest ways to see the holes in their organization and business model. All their excuses why they can't take a vacation point right back at the systems and processes that are working or not working to deliver the freedom, flexibility and control they want from their business, she says.

Summer is an opportune time for entrepreneurs to take vacation for three key reasons:

1.     Business does slow down as people worldwide take time off for fun, family, and friends.
2.     When business is slower, there are fewer tight deadlines, so there is less need for the entrepreneur to be attached to their desk/laptop/cell phone.
3.     Taking time off for a real vacation provides a change of venue, change of routine, and chance to act on the priorities entrepreneurs say' are the reasons they work so hard in the first place.

Kerri Salls, The Goal Achievement Expert, works with high achieving entrepreneurs around the globe to establish a strong foundation of systems, processes and productivity to achieve breakthrough results. She specializes in helping entrepreneurs to systematize and leverage their expertise to catapult their business to the next level and achieve every goal they set, to live life on purpose in the lifestyle they always dreamed. Salls credits her time serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, MBA theory and 34 years of hands on experience transforming lives as the catalysts for her success.

For more details, call Salls at 978.270.1524 or e-mail Kerri@KerriSalls.com.