You are not a direct employee of a corporation or agency, as a consultant or freelancer, so you are not entitled to holiday pay as a company profit. It doesn’t say, though, that there aren’t things you should do to provide a holiday free of pressures… In this post, we will provide you with all the details you need to take time off as a contractor or freelancer to feel secure, outlining what to do before after and after your holiday.
Why is it important to take time off?
For any freelancer, taking time off can be difficult, with feeling guilty about taking time off and simply not being able to afford any time of being cited as two of the main reasons for not taking a holiday. While there are plenty of reasons for not taking a break, it is important that you do, as several reasons need to take some personal time.
It’s important to understand that taking time off is so crucial before even worrying about planning your holiday. Most freelancers slip into the pit of “I’m too busy for a vacation,” and while it’s true that you’re going to be incredibly busy, you have to find time to take a well-earned vacation.
Before really thinking about planning your vacation, it’s important to realise why taking time off is so vital. Many freelancers fall into the “I’m too busy for a vacation,” trap, and while you may be going to be extremely busy, you also need to make time to take a well-earned holiday.
It should not be seen as a challenge to take time off regularly, as it gives you plenty to look forward to during the year thus and the risk of burnout. It’s incredibly crucial that you note that in a week or two that you take off, your company will not fall apart, so make sure to allow yourself a break!
In this post, we will give you some advice about how you can mitigate the effect on your workload when you want to take a vacation, how you can relax your vacation by placing contingencies in place, and some steps you can take when you return from your break to ease you back into freelancing.
How the self-employed should plan vacations
Planning is the secret to ensuring that you make the most of your break away from work when it comes to enjoying holidays as a freelancer. In this segment, when it comes to arranging holidays for a contractor, we will give you some of our best tips.
Project as far ahead as possible
When planning a holiday as a freelancer or contractor, giving yourself and your clients as much time as possible to plan for your break is the first and probably most important step to take. Giving a lot of warning to your customers gives them time to prepare for when you’re not going to be around, while also giving you the peace of mind that they are well aware of your break in advance.
Be sure to make the most of the time you plan to have off when planning your break, keeping yourself busy during your travels and taking advantage of your well-earned break. Holidaying as a freelancer or contractor can be difficult because, even when you are supposed to be relaxing, your mind can often be fixated on work, so keeping yourself busy during your break is a great way to ensure that you make the most of your time off.
When you have your vacation scheduled, make sure to stick to it. There may be a tendency for self-employed people to cancel holidays close to their due date simply because they are too busy, but you have earned the break do not fall into this trap.
For quieter hours, schedule vacations
There will be quiet and busy times in the year, no matter what sector you work in so schedule your holidays in those quieter parts of the year if possible. This would certainly not always be possible, but if you are a serial worrier when it comes to working, it will take some of the burdens off you. In quieter times of the year, taking holidays will put your mind at ease and result in a pleasant amount of time you can truly enjoy.
Draw up the finances
You will not be paying for the time you take off as a freelancer or consultant, so you must put arrangements into action to ensure that your financial position stays stable whilst you are gone. This could mean that in the weeks leading up to your holiday, you work extra hours to raise your profits, paying for the well-deserved time off you are going to take.
It is also vital to ensure that your contractor accountants are mindful of your days off, and they will give you some advice on the right ways to ensure that you have a reliable income distribution.
Get The Job Ahead
Before heading off on holiday, you should consider getting ahead with your work where possible. We suggest putting in some extra work before jetting off if you find yourself worrying about work while away, so you can rest assured that your absence will not affect your customers.
To get ahead of work, planning is vital, so be sure to spend a significant amount of time planning your day-to-day tasks in the most effective way possible.
Block out the day before walking away
This could seem counterproductive at first glance, but we would highly recommend that you block out the day before you go away as far in advance in your calendar as possible. The primary explanation for this is to make sure you have time to wrap up all loose ends without distractions.
Taking this time to make sure it is taken care of before you will help to put your mind at ease and allow you to relax properly from the beginning of your holiday.
When you’re gone, set a schedule in motion for
Now that you’re confident you’re completely planned ahead of your break, it’s time to think how you’re going to plan while you’re gone. When you’re on vacation, you must have a few contingencies in place, so you don’t think about your phone ringing or your emails getting stuck with customer messages while you’re away.
Here are only a couple of the arrangements that you can set up ahead of your trip:
Make preparations for emergency scenarios
Inevitably, when you are abroad, your customers will come to you with emergency issues but don’t fret, there are ways to combat this. If there is a truly urgent problem that happens, that needs to be resolved immediately; for instance, if you are a PR specialist and there is a brand situation, before going abroad, you should have a strategy in place to fix this.
This could mean that you have provided a comprehensive action plan for such circumstances to someone else in the company, or you could have another trusted freelancer on hand ready to step in and handle the situation. Remember that when you are on holiday, it is important that you have the opportunity to genuinely switch off, so it is essential to have someone on hand to pick up the pieces in your absence.
Managing Consumer Perceptions
Until leaving, make sure to point out the sort of break you’re going to be on with all your customers which will help ensure that they are well aware of whether you’re going to be free to answer calls and respond to emails. Make sure to let your customers know this while you are going on a full digital detox vacation, as it will mitigate the chance of them keeping in contact with you after your break. If you’re going to track your emails but aren’t going to do any hard work, make sure you let them know this too.
A quick email to all of your customers will do, but it will spell out just what you’re going to do directly and won’t do when abroad.
Set an automated response to your email
This could be called a reasonably straightforward suggestion, but you’d be shocked by how many contractors fail to send an out-of-office letter. If you fail to let somebody know you’re away, your out-of-office note will save you a great deal of hassle, such as customers asking where you could have gone.
Auto responses from outside the workplace are the perfect way to put a brief message that gives your customers an indication about how much (or little) you will work over your holiday, so don’t be afraid to put in your auto-response all the detail you believe is important. The dates you are gone, for instance, and when you are expected to begin picking up your emails again.
When you are back, make arrangements for
Although you probably don’t want to start thinking about being back from your break, you must plan this for your next break, as once you’re back, it will make life much easier for you.
Here are a few suggestions for arrangements you’ll want to make in advance of your holiday return:
Give An Full Day to Yourself
There may be a temptation for freelancers or consultants to dive right back into the everyday job grind as you get back from your holiday. We will, however, warn against this. When you return from your break, consider giving yourself an extra day off, because it will make a big difference to your mental health.
Let’s face it after a nice weekend. Nobody wants to go right back to work, so having an extra day will help you to catch up on sleep after a long vacation, allows you time to unpack and get the laundry finished and also gives you more time to get through your emails, helping you to schedule work for the coming week.
We can’t stress enough how helpful this extra day off can be for you, so be sure to consider taking it even though you don’t think it would be helpful for you.
Before moving abroad, schedule your workload
There is a fair possibility that if you come back before you go out, you will already have an understanding of the job you want to prioritise. When you return from your holiday, clearly writing a list of work that needs to be prioritised when you return, and adding a due date, will give you more clarification.
You will have a comprehensive action plan ready to go as soon as you return, allowing you to hit the ground running right away, providing nothing urgent has arrived since your travels. There is nothing worse than coming back from a holiday and meeting a lengthy list of things you weren’t planning, so it can be a saviour to prepare ahead.
Hopefully, you’ve found this tutorial useful for taking a break as a freelancer or contractor. Although it can be overwhelming for any self-employed person to take a holiday, it does not need to be, if you have taken the time to prepare properly. Make sure to take some time after your holiday to refuel your battery fully, turn off and enjoy your time off to the fullest. You will feel completely rested and happy to get back to work when you return from your holiday.
We have professional accounting for contractors at Future Connect, so if you are interested in learning more about how to optimise your take-home pay, why not take a peek at our tax calculator for contractors?