Small business owner in need of a holiday? CTT Accountancy has your back!

“Sleep when you’re dead! Get in the grindset! Why do tomorrow what you can do today?”

We’ve all heard the hustle culture rhetoric, but in reality, these kinds of platitudes can lead straight to burnout.

As a small business owner, such a thing as a holiday can feel furthest from your mind. But you’re only human; you need rest. We all do from time to time!

The need to keep tight control of your business, especially if you are still within the first few crucial years, can feel like the most important thing in your life no matter how stressed you get. But taking a break isn’t just a luxury—it’s essential for your well-being and the long-term success of your business.

At CTT Accountancy, we don’t run your business while you’re away (we’ll leave the dog grooming or CNC machining to the experts!), but we do ensure that your finances, invoicing, payroll, and essential admin stay on track. With our strategic financial planning and process support, we provide back-up, take the burden off your shoulders and keep the wheels turning so you can enjoy some time off and return to your business refreshed, and ready to deal with anything.

One-fifth of small business owners won’t take any leave in 2025

As incredible as that might sound, it’s true. Most sole traders and small business owners take just two weeks off a year and even then, most feel guilty about it!

Not a healthy mindset, and if the justification is that you get to oversee the success of your business, in the short term you might get a real benefit from it but over time, it’ll start to wear you down. And it could get to the point that you start making errors because of it, or worse yet, experience burnout.

Not the best idea.

So, how can you avoid this? The only way is by taking a break.

How CTT Accountancy can help you prepare for time off

It might feel easier said than done, but by working with us at CTT Accountancy, we can generate a financial plan together. This will give you peace of mind that your business can run smoothly, even while you’re enjoying a much-deserved break from your business.

The financial plan will include:

• Cash flow planning – making sure your finances remain stable during your time off
• Automating invoices and payments so you don’t have to chase clients while on holiday.
• Payroll and staff payments – ensuring your team (if you have one) is paid on time.
• Reducing admin stress by helping your streamline financial processes so you can truly switch off.
• Tax and compliance oversight – we’ll prevent financial hiccups in your absence.

Go for a hike in the mountains, sit on a sun-soaked beach, however you want to spend your free time you can do so safe in the knowledge that CTT Accountancy will help keep the business moving while you’re away.

If you’re one of the 39% of self-employed business owners that worries about taking time off work because you lose income when not working, we’ll work with you to mitigate this as much as possible, putting in place processes to ensure the dip in income doesn’t affect you in any noticeable way.

7 steps you can take to put a holiday plan in place

With back-up from an accountancy firm like CTT, taking a holiday from your 24/7 job is easy.

Follow these simple steps, get in touch with us, and then book that holiday!

1. Plan early

Probably the most important step. You should make sure you give yourself plenty of time to plan before you go away. The last thing you want is to have to rush your planning before you leave and then feel more stressed on holiday than before you left!

We recommend getting all plans in place at least a couple of months ahead of time, if you can. Obviously, this is an ideal scenario, and life rarely allows us such luxuries but it’s a good target to aim for.

2. Create a list of tasks

This is an activity to do every once in a while, whether you’re going on holiday or not. Creating a list of all the current jobs you have ongoing, including all admin and financial tasks, helps give you a bird’s eye view of exactly how much work you have to do to achieve the all-important time off.

We want you to be realistic; if you have a difficult client with a looming deadline then it probably isn’t the right time to take a holiday just yet!

3. Identify what NEEDS to happen while you’re on holiday

Using the list you have created you can then get a sense of all the tasks that absolutely HAVE to happen when you are on holiday. You can plan to diminish your workload leading up to some time off but there will inevitably be some tasks that can’t be put off.

Highlight the tasks on your existing list or make a new one with only these essential tasks.

4. Can anything be automated?

Another useful aspect of making the list is to identify any activities that could be automated, either by an automated email service or updating your social media channels, for instance.

5. Consider additional resources

Armed with your list of tasks we can then work together to carry out the jobs that cannot be scheduled or automated. We will keep the engine greased, the plates spinning, the wheels from falling off the cart, while you’re away. It’s all part of the service and one that we are happy to provide.

6. Prep for your return

It’s a bad idea to go right back into the thick of it as soon as you return home; in many ways this will undo any benefits you gain from having a holiday in the first place.

Try to keep meetings and other jobs to a minimum for at least a week after you get back. This way you can ease yourself back into the wide world of work and still feel like you’ve taken a break, allowing the reinvigoration of time spent relaxing to translate into your working life.

7. Communicate with your clients

Think about who needs to know that you are away. If you work in a job that has a lot of client interaction, it will be a good idea to keep them in the loop. Even if you aren’t in a heavy client-facing role, setting up an email notification lets anyone know you aren’t contactable for the duration of your holiday.

Also, if you can, switch off your phone while you’re away. Sacrilege, we know, but having a break doesn’t just mean going to a different location. You need to cultivate relaxation, and let’s be honest, the internet simply isn’t built to allow you to switch off your brain.

Last but not least, enjoy your holiday!

We can help you with all of this; you needn’t go it alone. Switching off is hard during any time off if you’re self-employed. In fact, a full 30% of people find it hard to do so during any downtime. We are so indoctrinated to believe work shall set us free that it can be hard to accept that downtime is essential and beneficial.

Get in touch with us at CTT Accountancy today; take that holiday you deserve!