MBA1420 Q&A Wednesday: Do I close for the holidays and give my team time off?

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Visit Dell.com deals. Hey oh. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show.

Where smart business owners get even smarter every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zed home. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training.

And community online and today's episode is.

A Q and A Wednesday episode on.

Our Q and a Wednesday Episod Answer.

A question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over@omar mba.net.

Today's question is from Patty and Patty asks, do I close for the holidays and give my team some time off? A solid question. A timely question. In today's episode, I'll discuss the factors that you need to consider when answering this question and making this decision for you and your team. In business, there's always trade offs and it's your job as the leader to make the right trade offs for you.

And your team and pass on the.

Ones that don't help you out. Also, I'll share with you some strategies.

That have worked for us and our.

Team when it comes to our holiday schedule.

How to communicate that to our customers.

Our audience to make sure we minimize any issues if time off is taken. For many people, the holidays are a Special time, a family time. But for many businesses, it's also a.

Big money making time. We'll get into all that and more in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. In today's Q and A Wednesday, Patty.

Asks, should she shut down for the.

Holidays and give your team some time off? We get into this topic in detail in today's lesson.

The best way to do this is.

A pros and cons list. I know this sounds simple, but it's going to help you clarify the trade.

Offs that you're making with each decision. You want to ask yourself, what are the pros and cons If I shut.

Off, if I close for the holidays and give time off for my team.

What are the positives that will come from that decision? What are some of the negatives?

Now you're going to do the same.

Thing for the opposite decision.

What are the positives and negatives of.

Staying open during the holidays? And don't just say increased revenue.

How much increased revenue?

What's your educated guess?

Based on any information you have, any.

Data you have, this exercise is going.

To help you clarify in your head.

Hey, which choice is best for me.

My business and the team.

Now, I do want to say a lot of this has to do with the nature of your business, the nature.

Of your market, your audience, all that kind of stuff. If you're a toy store, for example, you're going to want to stay open.

All the way until Christmas Day, Christmas Day. The days after Christmas Day are big, big time for business, for movie theaters.

They'Re not gonna close down.

This is when they make most of their money, right? This is when they make all their money for that season. So obviously they're gonna have to put.

A plan in place to have some shift work and have people ready to take on the load.

And yes, that means that some people.

Will have to work during the holidays. But of course, as the owner of.

The business, you can make the decision to compensate these people a little bit.

Higher given the fact that they're working on holiday.

But if your business is none of.

The above, right, you don't really have high volume of sales during Christmas time. For example, Webinar Ninja, our webinar software.

Not many people are going to be.

Running webinars during Christmas and New Year's.

So to answer that question for us.

No, it's not a busy time and people are not really requiring as much.

Support or sales support for that matter.

Now, technically, our store is not closed. You know, people can buy our Software at any time. 24 7, 365. So the most critical aspect of our team when it comes to the holidays.

Is our support team.

Will they be working? Will they be there to help people as they have questions before they buy or questions as they use the software?

Well, over the years we did the.

Pros and cons list and we decided.

That, hey, we should have a set.

Amount of days that we will be off and our team can have off to be with their family during the holidays. Now it's irrelevant what days or how many days for you.

Our business is going to be different. It's up to you.

If you want to give Christmas Day off and you know, the day before Christmas, Christmas Eve or New Year's Day, and the day after, that's your decision.

But the point here is that you.

Need to plan for it.

You need to obviously communicate that to your team, but also communicate that to your customers.

So you want to send an email out maybe a couple weeks in advance saying, hey, heads up, these are our holiday hours. If you need any help beforehand, we're here. This is when we're going to resume. This is when support's going to resume and be there to help you out. You also can time all your promotions and your sales well in advance so that all your post support that often is required after a sale where you have all these new customers and all these new users that have questions about your product, you can kind of take care of them before, you know it's Christmas time or New Year's Day. We even have a automatic message on our website using Intercom that kind of gives them a heads up. These are our holiday hours. You know, if you leave us a message, we'll get back to you. This is when we'll get back to you. This is the day we'll be back at work.

For us, we felt this is the.

Best thing for our team to be able to have some time off across all departments so people can have some time with their friends and family and a bit of time to recover and recharge their batteries. I think the earlier you communicate, the better when these days are. So at least a couple weeks so that your team can be able to plan accordingly and plan their holiday.

I think as long as you communicate.

To your audience, to your customers what's happening, they can kind of make sure that they work around it. We're actually quite transparent with our email.

To our customers and say, hey, it's the holiday season.

It's important to us as A team and to allow each other some time with family and enjoy the holidays. We are going to be working hard for you up to this day, so please ask us any questions you have. We'll be back on this day at this time. We're very clear about time zones and.

All that kind of stuff.

So no matter where they are in the world, they know when we'll be back in service and back to answer their questions. So communication is super key and it really helps lower any issues or any kind of disgruntled customers. Now, it doesn't mean you're not going to have any unhappy customers. Some customers will be unhappy. They're like, hey, I sent an email. I didn't get a reply until like, you know, 72 hours later. Even though you've sent them a message and you've told them all about, you know, the holiday hours, you got to be ready to be able to respond to people and let them know how much you still, you know, value their time and their, their business. But these are their, your holiday hours. And let's see how we can help you now.

Now, to directly answer your question, Patti.

It is hugely beneficial for your team to have time the holiday hours if you can afford it. If it's something that's not gonna break your business, if it's not a busy time for your marketplace, for your business itself, then having an organized rotation where people are off during a period of time, it really helps boost morale and also helps them come back recharged after Christmas or after New Year's. If you run a remote team, this is just as important. And it's also great to, you know, share pictures from the festivities. Even from af. I learned throughout my experience as an entrepreneur, there are two things that you do not want to mess around with when it comes to your employees. One is their salary. You want to make sure that they get paid fairly and paid according to what they expect. And number two, their time, their time off. People covet their time off when they're working for a company. They want to make sure they have enough time off and that they have the right rest and recovery time.

So if you're able to give your.

Team that gift for the holidays, it's going to pay dividends. And of course, do that pros and cons list. Make sure you know how much of a loss your business is going to take and you can evaluate, hey, that's not much of a loss. The return on investment I'm going to.

Get from the goodwill and the dedication.

Of my team is well worth it.

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To wrap up today's lesson. Today's question from Patty Do I close for the holidays and give my team time off?

Do the pros and cons list for both situation if your business is not in dire need to be open if.

You'Re not a huge economic loss, it's going to be a great investment in morale, in team and employee satisfaction. It's also going to give them a chance to recharge and come back stronger after the holidays.

And you are the one who will.

Know how many days is fair and.

Enough and doable in terms of financially.

For your business to be off that long.

Something is better than nothing.

So if you can do two or three days, that's better than no days. So don't feel like you need to like be off for two weeks or nothing at all. Thanks so much for listening to the Hundred Dollar MBA show and thanks Patty for that awesome question. If you have a question you want to ask on Q and A Wednesday, just email me over at omar@100mba.net I'll make sure I answer it right here on the show. Don't forget to hit subscribe right now on whatever you use to listen to podcasts, go ahead and do it right now. By hitting subscribe, you tell whatever app you use, whether it's Apple, Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio, Spotify, Himalaya, Overcast. Whatever podcast app you use by hitting subscribe, you're telling the app, hey, I love this show. When the next episode is available, make sure that episodes are ready for me. Before I go. I want to leave you with this. If you're gonna give your team some time off, you should take some time off as well for the holidays.

Recharge those batteries. Step away from that computer.

Step away from that office. Step away from that storefront. Enjoy time with family and friends.

Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's a good chance for you to just.

Enjoy life and enjoy what you're working so hard for. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then.

Take care.

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