Monday 6 August 2012

Keep Your Business Running Smoothly While on Holiday

With the summer period in full swing, many people are looking to escape the damp British weather for a holiday away to sunnier climates. For online ecommerce store owners, while a week or two away could be a much needed break from the stresses and strains of work, it is two weeks where you won't be to keep track of customer orders and sales in your store. However, if you do decide to take a trip away, there are ways to ensure that your business doesn't suffer.

Take a laptop with you - I know the whole idea of a holiday is to get away from the stresses of work, but not knowing how your store is doing can be a stress in itself, making it difficult for you to relax. Working on a laptop as you relax by the pool is not only going to annoy the people you are on holiday with, but could lead to your equipment becoming damaged. However, there's nothing stopping you from quickly checking your orders and sales when you have 10 minutes free on an evening. That way you keep yourself in the loop while still being able to enjoy your holiday. 

Clear your workload - The last thing you want to do is return from a relaxing holiday and find that you have mountains of paperwork that you need to complete. Before you go away you should complete all your paperwork, handle all of your correspondences and set up and automated email to go out to customers letting them know when you're going away and when you're returning.

Set up holiday mode - If you are using some online ecommerce shopping cart software to help run your business, many of them now offer a holiday feature designed especially for when you go away. Essentially what this does is places a message on your store to let your customers know that you are away and their orders will be processed and dispatched upon your return. Although customers will still have to wait for you to return from holiday to receive their products, they won't become annoyed thinking that your store is just being incredibly slow in processing and distributing their order. 

Employ someone to run your business - When you are planning to go away, you can look to employ someone to run your store for the week or two that you are away. However, this option does leave you with a number of issues that you must address. When going down this route, you must make sure that the person you choose to run your store is someone you trust. This person will be solely responsible for running your store while your way as well as handling as problems, queries or concerns that crop up while your away. As they are only a temporary worker, any issues that do occur over this period are going to great impact you buy damaging the image of your business that you have spent years creating. Make sure that you are 100% happy that they can not only do the job, but do it well before you employ them for the temporary cover.

After exploring all of the options you may decide that it might just be better for you to not bother with a holiday in order to focus on your business. However, what you must also consider is that if you are stressed and tired from work, your own relationship with your customers may suffer. Regularly taking a break from work allows you to relax, unwind and come back to work feeling refreshed and more willing to meet the needs of all your customers. 

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