Posted by As an entrepreneur, solo or part of a small team, the decision to slow down, even temporarily, often feels like a luxury we can’t afford. Time off can mean lost revenue or an increased burden on those around us. As I debated recently whether I could indeed slow down for a longer period this summer, I was faced with indecision. Can I do this? Should I do this? Will I do this?
Evolution tells us we should
Hunter-gatherers did not work around the clock. In fact, their lifestyle followed the seasons, and it was hardly built around a long schedule, 5 days a week and a break for 2. And there was no talk of a week or a month of holidays. They needed to bring food back to the cave at the end of the day.
As humans moved to farming, clocks and weeks stretched, but there were long periods of the year — such as the winter — where people would slow down their activities. Even if they did not stop them entirely, they would use that time to repair equipment and save energy as there was less food available. That got me thinking.
I wonder if I could use the summer time as a period of less focus on the doing, and more into the being — less about consuming energy and more about preserving and restoring it.
The Trouble with Holidays
To be clear, I was not debating whether to take holidays or not. I always take holidays. However, and especially in the last 2 years, I am not often capable of switching off my brain entirely. To be honest, I have not even often wanted to do that. I switch off a sense of obligation, of doing the routine, the meetings — that is a must. I even switch off a high sense of alertness. But the positions I have don’t just vanish and take a break. I am still an entrepreneur, a charity CEO, a writer, a mother and a house captain!
Furthermore, in particular for those with kids, holidays are not always relaxing. We over-schedule ourselves, we try to do all the things we don’t get to do during the year, and often just end up even more tired. Like needing a holiday after a holiday.
This year, I wanted something different. I looked at the full 10 weeks the kids get as the full span of my low time and I picked a few weeks where it will be more of a break than a slowdown (or as close to a break as it gets with me) and others that will be more of a slowdown than a break (as much as slowdown means to me).
But as I began imagining a different kind of summer—less packed, more intentional—I knew slowing down wasn’t just a personal decision. It had ripple effects across my work and team. Whether you’re leading others or managing a one-woman show, the way you slow down needs to be designed, not assumed. So I started looking at what it takes to make that possible—both for me and for those around me.
Sustaining a Company as a Small Team
I am not a control freak of holiday days at the charity. My only standard is that everyone takes all their holidays, ideally not all at the same time, but flexible to each person’s life limitations and choices. That means I reserve myself that flexibility as well. You may wonder whether things will get done in your absence and worry about all the problems you may have to deal with remotely. In my experience:
- If there are deliverables, people will do it with or without you. Really. If you are taking care of your team, they will probably go the extra mile to do more for you when you are away. They will take care of you as well. I know, you do not want to overburden already hard-working people. But they will only do it if you have earned it.
A giver needs to be a taker sometimes.
- If there are problems, you ought to leave an indication of how and when to escalate. I have always told people that I would rather a 5-minute call than to create extra hours of work on their end, even if it is a small thing. And you will find out there are fewer urgencies than you might have otherwise imagined. Or they can be solved in your absence. Empowerment (rather than just delegation) can go a long way to allow you to take time away.
Sustaining Your Solo Business
But I don’t even have a team! Often, you may be the only source of your business. If you are not there, you are not making money, developing your product, getting clients or paying bills. And that is possibly all true and impossible to argue against. Depending on the type of business, you may be able to see times when a slowdown is more feasible than others. The key is to define what slowdown means — you can still pay bills, work with clients or sell your products. But can you afford to schedule payments, expand order fulfilment times or concentrate client work in certain times or days?
To add to the possibility, there is also the strategy of bringing some work upfront and delaying other work. Or the option of saying you are closed altogether. Depending on what business you have, that may even be the right financial decision to make!
Redefining a Break
The reality is, slowing down does not have to be “doing nothing”. Slowing down can mean doing your core and not adding any bells and whistles. It can mean not changing your website, creating new products, learning a new service, changing your packaging, or rebranding. You are not out of business, you are out of frills, special enhancements. You are keeping the lights on, if you can afford it!
Most times we think we can’t, but a lot of times we really can.
Whether you choose to do it for a week every 3 months or for a month (or two) every year or 2 years, every answer will have to adjust to your business and your circumstances. What I would argue (even as I am just now working on building momentum in my own business) is that a slowdown is possible and often necessary.
A slowdown provides not only an opportunity to restore energy but also the space for your brain to take a step back and evaluate what you can eliminate. And by the way, each time you go through the process of monitoring what really needs to be done, you will realise some activities will just be gone — automated or outsourced or forever gone. And that, on its own, will make your business better. It will make your life better.
What About?
I know what you are thinking, I might even have said it before myself
What about using the slow months to finally advance that big project you wanted to work on?
Yes, you can do that. Do that once you have taken a great many things off your plate, as if you were indeed taking a break so you can make that project your full intention rather than still do the rest anyway.
What about the client momentum? I am building a business, I can’t stop that now!
Are you really building that momentum, or are you just starting more cold contacts, going through the motions? If you truly are getting engagement, then slow down all else, including new outreach and focus on converting and making these leads really count. With a clearer mind and not in between moments, as an afterthought.
What about investors? They want their money’s worth now!
Investors take breaks, whether they tell you or not. Again, maybe this is a good time to connect with some of your investors away from the tactical. And doing it intentionally and with transparency.
I have not yet closed on the shape of my slowdown. Instead, I am evolving it as I go along and get more comfortable choosing to postpone some meetings or taking meetings whilst I am away. I wrote a few articles in advance, which I still review and publish, but that removed a weight from my usual Mondays. I have not done it for the podcast, so I need to decide what I do with it over the summer slowdown. I am choosing what I will deliver at the charity. I am choosing which client engagement I will maintain. It will not all be up to me, but at least I will leave it open to the possibility of ‘less is more’.
At home, I have also slowed down everyone else. The kids are not overscheduled in camps; we are taking time to sit, not just doing, but also being. As I sat down in a garden bench in London after our spontaneous fruit picnic, fine-tuning this article, in a rarely unscheduled afternoon, Baby S went off to the swings, Little Girl C went out to be a gymnast in the grass. And we smiled.