The first two years after he started his communications business in New York City, Kaminer never went away. Exhausted, he sought the advice of an executive coach, who suggested he make an effort to hire an employee able to take on enough responsibility to take care of business when he was gone. Since then, he's gone on many longer trips, including a month in India and two weeks in Morocco. Or consider doing the same thing as Shel Horowitz, a Northampton, Mass.-based writer. He takes a total of about six weeks of yearly vacation, and he'll suggest names of respected competitors to clients who call before he's going on vacation.
Vacation is too important to miss.
Naturally, you can't leave without making sure your customers know who's going to be in charge while you're off surfing in Sydney. Executive coach Riesenberg, for example, recalls a client who hadn't taken a vacation from his financial-services business in 12 years because he was so afraid no one could handle things without him. Before he finally took a break, he pinpointed seven important areas, such as payroll, likely to come up while he was away. He then delegated responsibility for each one to members of his staff. Finally, he contacted his clients to let them know who would be in charge of specific matters.