We all need a good vacation - but as an entrepreneur - or a solo-preneur, how do you prepare for it? How do you stop feeling guilty, or stop feeling worried that your business will slack-off while you’re sunning-up?
First, you need to feel prepared for your vacation - and prepare your customers for it in order to stop the guilty gremlins. To do that, you first need to find a good ’substitute’ for your services. For instance, when I sprained my ankle a few months ago, I immediately called my chiropractic, but he was on vacation for the next two weeks. Rather than leave me in pain, his voice mail explained how I could contact a chiropractic that he recommended along with their contact information for those with immediate needs. I called the recommendation, and they were able to see me the same day - and gave great notes to my chiropractic when he returned, so I didn’t have to explain much of what happened. I was impressed by this, and was sure to tell him thank you when he returned.
Which brings me to my second point: voice mail. If you don’t have a professional call center taking your calls yet, than your personal voice mail should be informative. Let the caller know that you are unavailable with the exact dates of departure and return; let them know who the caller can contact if it is an emergency that needs immediate attention - if you don’t know who to recommend than hire a virtual assistant and give her phone number on the voice mail to call for emergencies and she/he can screen if it really is worth bothering you; then let them know if they should leave a message or just return you phone call after your return date. Realize that if you ask the customer or prospect to call back after you return, you may not get that call - so, I’ll leave that up to you.
Do the same thing with email as you did with your voice mail: create an AutoResponder message to go out to anyone that sends you an email with the same information you have in your voice mail.
Rather than have a lack of new and returning customers when you come back from your vacation, create a great marketing campaign to run while you’re gone! Using your email database, and the help of an email database program like iContact, you can create emails to promote your business and then set the release dates for during your vacation. If you have products, then you could have a ’special’ when you return - so orders must be placed during the time of your return (make sure to mention that in your voice mail and email). Or, if you’re a service based entrepreneur, you can have a teleclass on a subject your audience would find fascinating. (A ‘Teleclass’ is a class you hold for your prospects or clients - either paid or free - that is held using a bridgeline. A free bridgeline can be done with www.freeconferencecall.com. )
Lastly, let your customers know when you are going on vacation - either in person or over the phone if you happen to be talking with them, and through an email blast (again, using your email database software).
Have fun!
Tags: , email database, entrepreneur, vacation, voicemail