As a business owner it’s easy to feel like your work is never done – because no matter how much you do, there is always more that could theoretically be done. Many business owners we’ve spoken with also feel that they have a responsibility to be available to their team and that if they step away they are putting an undue burden on their team. So, we wanted to hear from a broad range of business owners on whether they take vacations and we’ve shared some of their responses below.

Sue Vicory

I travel a LOT because I am a wanderer by nature. A few years ago we took off to travel all 48 state’s continuously. It took us 9 months and we drove 30,000 miles. I love roads trips but have also been to Europe 1/2 dozen times and to South Africa. Read more>>

Gary Peterson

Absolutely. After all these years, I have realized that I need a solid one week vacation each quarter, just to clear my head and rest. If I don’t take that time, it leads to more stressful, less productive, and poor decision making. We preach at gap intelligence that vacations are good for all involved. Vacations are good for the person taking them to catch up on rest, clear the mind, and refresh. The tasks that person delegates to team members benefits them because they are challenged to learn new things and more often than not make those tasks even better, which benefits the company in the end as the entire team is cross trained and ready to scale. Read more>>

Debbie Calabro

My family loves to travel and explore new places! My parents, who met in Germany, always took us places to enrich us. When covid hit and many could not travel, we would play 20 questions using a memory from a trip we had taken. It focused on all the fun we had and got us excited for more adventures when the world was safe again to travel. Anita Desai once said “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” and it is very true as these memories you create in a new place, with new foods,new people will last a life time! Read more>>

Rasheed Hamid

This is an interesting question due to the nature of my business. As the owner of Extra Hands Virtual Assistants, I can work anywhere on the planet at any given time, as long as they have strong wi-fi. In 2019, I walked away from a six-figure, 25 year-long fine dining management career. I had worked for companies such as The Marriot, The Four Seasons, BLT Steak, and many other 5-star, high-end luxury hospitality companies. I had no real plan at the time, other than, I wanted to take a year off and travel the world. Read more>>

Gunter Jones

I think this is a very topical question as I’m about to go on my first real “vacation” in probably… 4 or 5 years? Certainly COVID had an impact on that for a couple years as we weren’t even able to travel really, but it’s very hard to disconnect in today’s society—especially for one or two weeks at a time. It feels as tho we’d be missing out on income, clients, opportunities, etc. Read more>>