From the point of view of a student struggling to juggle not only several school performance tasks but also social responsibilities for the family, or even from the point of view anyone who is plain tired and just wants a break, a holiday is truly a heaven-sent blessing. Yet from the perspective of a striving businessman, on the other hand, this “blessing” could either be extremely favorable or terribly unfortunate. It all depends on the timing.
Most business owners prefer to continue working during the holidays. Breaks are a rarity. Maybe several people would not immediately understand this, but if this is to be discussed realistically, there is only a very tiny window for “breaks” in a business, if none at all. There are several concerns to attend to, even if the business itself is closed for a month, a week, or even just a day. While others would feel sorry, there are actually a number of good reasons why one would prefer to continue working on holidays. Neil Patel, a small business owner, has given his personal testimony on the subject.
According to him, work never stops. Just because you are taking a break from your work, it doesn’t mean your work is taking a break. “No matter what holiday it is, I always have new emails coming in that need a response. I also have new tasks that are assigned to me. So if I take a few days off, all I am creating is a pile of work that I’ll have to get to when I go back to work. Because I hate that feeling, I always make sure I get my work done on time instead of having stressful workdays with a double workload after the holidays.”
Patel has also said that it’s better to be ahead than behind. For most businesses, holidays are slow…extremely slow. “Even though I work during holidays, my work doesn’t take up that much time. For this reason, I am able to catch up and even get ahead on my work. During these slow times, I am able to get my inbox down to zero unread emails and my to-do list down to nothing.” You want to get ahead and be on top of everything because it sets a standard for your company. If you are always behind in your work, how can you expect your team members to be on top of things?
The last thing you want is to create a company culture where it’s okay for everyone to continually miss their deadlines.
Another good reason is that even though a business is on break, learning never stops. Learning could also be considered work. “Almost all of my friends are entrepreneurs. They are really smart, and they love helping me out by giving me free advice. But there is one big issue with learning new things only from my friends. Do you know what it is?They are all entrepreneurs, which means they aren’t always my ideal customers. I also need to get feedback from regular people as many of them are not only my customers, but they are also a great source of feedback and ideas that I wouldn’t think of.During the holidays I get to hang out with my family, nephew, family friends, and a ton of everyday people. Don’t get me wrong: these everyday people are smart, but they have a different perspective on life from my business friends’ perspective. It’s great to get their feedback as in many cases they are my ideal buyers.”
During the holidays, Christmas, for example, if one tries to work, even if it is just for an hour or two, a great sense of accomplishment could definitely be felt. One should keep in mind though that work during the holidays is not only for self-benefit. When you run your own business, you are never your own boss. All of your customers are your bosses. If you don’t keep them happy, you will watch your income go down the drain.
