“So, how much vacation time do you get every year?”
I was manning the barbecue at a family birthday party last weekend, and my nephew asked this question.
My relationship with time off can only be described as “it’s complicated.”
Every entrepreneur can relate: In theory, you have unlimited time off, right? You work for yourself. You’re the boss!
In practice, you have the toughest boss in the world—and you probably don’t take any vacations or time off.
As the owner, no one gives us time off, and no one enforces a break when we’re burned out.
Here, I’ll show you how we approach it at Two-Brain.
Time Off: The Step-by-Step Plan
First, we break down the roles in your business. Think of it as listing all the “hats” you wear, such as cleaner, billing, group coach, personal trainer, sales, marketing, etc. Write them all on a blank sheet of paper.
Beside each role, write the replacement value—how much you’d have to pay someone to take each job off your hands.
For example, a cleaner should make around minimum wage, so write $15-$20 or so. If you’re not sure what minimum wage is in your area, check.
Someone who does the billing should be slightly higher, like $21-$25 per hour.
Now rank those roles from low to high replacement value.
Replace yourself in the least-expensive role first.
For example, hire a cleaner. While they’re cleaning, use that time to do marketing (or reinvest it in a higher-value role on your chart).
If you’re paying someone $20 to clean while you earn $70 for a personal-training appointment, that’s a win. You might have heard this called “buying back your time.” We call it the Value Ladder because you have to implement the plan one step at a time.
In a few months, replace yourself in the second-least-expensive role, and so on.
As you do this, your time becomes more valuable—but you’re still working just as much. You get time off after the next step.
Delegate and Test
Every time you delegate one of these roles, you have to clearly map out a set of instructions for your replacement. They should be so simple that a 12-year-old could follow them and so complete that no gaps exist.
When you hire a cleaner, you give them a cleaning checklist. When you hire someone to do billing, you give them step-by-step instructions so simple that a child could follow them, complete with pictures and video.
This process ensures you don’t skip steps. Every time you generate a set of instructions, you are creating a system—and your business is the sum of the systems you create.
How do you know when your systems are good and your business is legit? You test the systems. You take time off.
We tell Two-Brain gym owners to take four days off to test their new systems—no texting, no email communication with the gym, cell to be used by staff for emergencies only.
After four days, they return to the gym and check up on things. They find the gaps in their systems (“Whoops, I forgot to tell the cleaner where to buy soap!”), fix the gaps, update their systems, and improve their businesses.
After another couple of months, they take a week off. Eventually, they schedule a week off every quarter to recharge and fall in love with the gym again.
You Have Permission to Take Time Off
If you’re the boss, that means you don’t have a boss.
No one is giving you permission or forcing you to take time off. You know you should, but there’s always something that seems urgent. Right?
If you view time away from your gym as a test, though, you’re more likely to do it. At least that’s my secret.
(I also like to tell my team I’m taking a “think week” because that’s what Steve Jobs did, but I’m riding my bike, reading and thinking. I’m not checking Slack or answering emails or taking meetings. That, to me, is a great vacation.)
So when my nephew asked the vacation question this year, I said “I’m taking a week off at the start of every month!” and was happy to say it.
Three years ago, I’d have made a joke like, “Ah, my boss is a jerk. I never get time off!”
In case you need me to say it:
You need time away from your gym.
Your gym needs time away from you.
You have permission.
Go away.
