The following is republished from The SitePoint Tribune #422.
The time between Christmas and New Year’s Day is an ideal opportunity to take a break and close the office down for a few days; this gives both you and your staff some time to relax and enjoy the fruits of all the hard effort you’ve put in throughout the year.
This sounds easier than it might be in reality, however there are a few tricks to help pass that message on to your clients:
- Give plenty of notice. Email clients with active projects now, letting them know that you’ll be closed over Christmas. Encourage them to provide everything they need, in order to wrap up the job, or alternatively, ensure you have enough leeway in that project’s plan to allow a week’s delay.
- Reassure them about emergencies. A client’s first thought will often be “what happens if my web site goes down?” In the same notice above, confirm that while closed, someone will be keeping an eye on the web servers, just in case. That’s assuming, of course, you’ve delegated that to one of your team.
- Encourage your clients to also take the time off. People burn out — it’s a fact. We all need a break once in a while to perform at our best. Not only will your clients be refreshed, they can’t criticize you for doing the same!
- Point out that this is the only office closure each year — assuming that’s the case, of course. Most offices, you’ll find, only ever close down during the Christmas period. Easter consists of public holidays, yet those eight or so days over Christmas and New Year’s Day are a fantastic chance to really unwind.
- Remind your clients closer to the date again. People forget, things change, and although six weeks out is a great forewarning, you need to follow this up again. I suggest about a week before closing, send out an email to say Merry Christmas, and let them know your official closing and opening hours.
Provide any emergency numbers they may need as well, however I’m a big believer in just diverting the office number, if you can manage it.
This year, for example, Christmas falls on a Thursday. My business is closing shop entirely from that day through to January 4th, making a total of eleven days off from work! This equates to only four actual business days, taking out weekends, and public holidays in Australia. Our clients won’t even notice, but my staff and their families sure will!
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Good point, but in this economy, many people have to keep running just to stay afloat….
November 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
It seems like it can be accomplished easier by smaller firms with less overhead. Seems odd for me to suggest that my clients close their doors at the same time I close mine.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am
you need rest to function well.stress kills people faster than any thing else inthis world.health is wealt, so the best to stay healthily is to have enough rest.
November 28th, 2008 at 6:36 am
If it were me, I would stay open for business over the holiday period but work fewer hours and take double pay.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:47 pm