Advisors, Do This Before Your Next Vacation

I just got back from a 10-day vacation and it was great – it was relaxing and there were no fires or anything like that to put out at work. But as I think back about previous years and previous vacations, it wasn't always that way. It wasn't until a few years ago that I started to take actual, real vacations where I could unplug and relax. Before that, thinking about work was really what I was doing during vacation.

If you've ever felt that way, if you've ever felt that worrying feeling while you're away on vacation, thinking about clients or worrying people are reaching out, or about what's happening at the office, this post is for you. I'm going to give you a practical tip you can do one or two weeks before your next vacation to truly unplug and enjoy it. So you can be rejuvenated by your time away and know that everything's handled at the office, even if you're a solo advisor.

These days I'm very fortunate because I work with an amazing team at Streamline and we all cover for each other. My team can help the clients who reach out while I’m out of the office. But this practical tip isn't about having a team; it's really meant for a solo advisor or an advisor who doesn't have someone to cover for them.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're on vacation and your client has something important to ask, so they email you, but they get that auto out of office reply from you. And they're caught off guard, or they're surprised because they've got something important to talk about. It can cause stress for you as well, just thinking about this situation.

The way to avoid this is simple. All you have to do is just send a mass email to your clients about one week before you leave for vacation. Something simple like this:

hi, Mrs. Client. I hope you're doing well. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be out of the office from this date to this date. Is there anything you'd like to talk about before I leave?

And 90 percent of the replies that you're going to get are from clients saying things like:

Have a great vacation!

Nothing needed here!

Enjoy your time away!

And about 10 percent of clients might have something on their mind, or they might have been thinking about you in the previous week. These are the ones who will reach out and then you can have a call or a meeting with them the week before you leave. That's it. Everybody knows that you'll be out. You can talk with the people who need the help. And that simple mass email really helps connect to each client and get them prepared, so that they're not caught off guard with an out-of-office auto reply while you're away. This has allowed me, and now hopefully you, to enjoy vacations so much more – relaxing and rejuvenating, and being ready to return to work afterwards.