As you read this I will just be finishing a 4 week vacation in Turkey. Vacations have always been very important to me as I have built my various businesses. When I take a vacation I recharge myself, which means that I return energized, full of ideas, and inspired. I know way too many business owners who have passed up vacations believing they needed to spend ALL of their time growing their business. By not taking a vacation, they may have actually set their business back.

A vacation can vary from a long weekend getting away geographically to a month or longer spent away from home. During the summer I routinely get away by going to our cabin for some 3 - 4 day weekends. During this time I tend to focus on the actions needed over the next 1 - 6 months and getting these down on paper.

When I get away for longer periods of time I find myself open to more unique ideas and I tend to focus farther out on my business such as 3 - 5 years out. I'm able to see concepts from unrelated businesses and how I might be able to apply them to my business.

This is not the only way to do business planning but it works well for me.

Action steps:

Set time aside for business planning.
If you need to get away to do this, plan that time now.
When you arrive at the time for planning, do the following:

• Think about where your business is now.
• Think about where you want your business to be in 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years.
• List the steps you need to take to get your business to these milestones.
• Put these steps on your to-do-list or calendar.