Hi Reader,

It doesn't matter if your business is or isn't yet running.... we think it's really important for business owners to take a break over a Bank Holiday weekend.

From our own personal experience, it helps us in a number of ways.

It helps us to reflect, reset & recharge.

This has a positive impact on our business in so many different ways from our productivity levels to our creativity.

It can be a problem though, particularly if your business isn't yet live (i.e. you are still working on building it) or if your business needs you to be present to run it.

It can feel like you're pressing pause or closing your shop doors.

We would still argue that even if these scenarios apply to you, you should consider doing this to take the day off.

Here's why...

It’s really easy to quantify financial losses of having a business closed for a day but it’s arguably impossible to quantify the gains that can be made by giving your business & yourself a well deserved break.

Here are a few steps we take when trying to prepare ourselves (& our businesses) for this break:

1. Try to manage customer expectations.

It’s important to let customers know what to expect from your business over a bank holiday. Particularly, any new customers inquiring or existing customers who might be expecting correspondence from you. There are lots of different ways you can let customers know about your business’ working hours over a bank holiday. Let us know if you want our break down of the different methods we use & we'll share them in a future email.

2. Try to find an appropriate point to down tools.

It’s never nice trying to take a break when there is something on your mind that you’ve left half finished…. This applies to business owners taking a break from their business over a bank holiday. We know it isn’t always possible but try to use a bank holiday break as a deadline to get certain tasks completed or at least try to reach certain milestones. This will not only allow you to make the most of your break without that looming feeling of “needing to do x” but it will also give you a good starting point for when you return from the bank holiday! Think twice before starting a job on Thursday afternoon that you’re unlikely to finish.

3. Try to outline an action plan for when you return.

It might be that you find yourself full of energy & ready to go after a break. This is great! However, you might also find yourself left wondering what to do… It can really disrupt our rhythm when taking a break, especially if that break disrupts the start of a week (which lots of bank holidays do). It feels really unnatural to miss a Monday. It can really help to think ahead before taking a break & try to outline an action plan for when you return. This can give you clear direction & give you a boost of momentum! A well written to-do list waiting on your desk for you might be all you need.

As we explained at the start of this email...

We think it’s really important for business owners to take well deserved breaks & we wish you a lovely bank holiday weekend ahead, regardless of what you (or the weather) has planned!

Please don't forget if you are thinking of working your way through the weekend, that starting a business is a marathon not a sprint.

You need to make sure you keep your fuel levels topped up for the long journey ahead of you.

See you next week,

Elle & Lawrence

P.S Any time you need more help there are 3 ways we can help you....

1. FREE - Take a look at our Instagram (making sure to read the captions) where we share our learnings about all things related to starting a business & marketing it on social media. You can find our account here. You can also browse our resources including our blog & guides to download on our website which step you through various aspects of starting a business. Here's a link to our website.

2. 1:1 SERVICES including coaching & social media content creation - We've recently had some more availability to take on additional clients. We offer various services to help other existing or aspiring business owners. These including our 1:1 consultations or coaching where we can review business ideas, marketing plans or social media strategy as examples. We also work with clients to design them their very own social media content or websites - please send us an email if you would like to learn more.

3. The Business Manual (£20/month) - We will be launching as of April a special type of email where we breakdown a specific topic to help aspiring & new business owners. It will be a 10 minute read which we send out twice a month where we will be covering breakdowns on specific subjects such as ordering stock, marketing strategies, step-by-step content creation & so much more all based of real life examples from our own businesses. The reason for this paid newsletter? It keeps our weekly emails totally free of annoying sponsors & it means as our capacity to work with others 1:1 gets stretched, we can still provide very specific help as time & cost effectively as possible for us & you! Click here if you don't want to miss an edition of The Business Manual (you can read old editions too).​