Who'd have though that holidays could be good for your business?
OK, holidays are meant to be a break from work and business but here's an example of where an unplanned holiday natter turned out to be a good thing:
Having (a few years ago) spent a couple of weeks in southern Spain (close to Mojacar) I came back feeling reasonably refreshed.
Looking back I realised that I'd eaten more ice cream in those 2 weeks than I had in the previous 6 months combined, not healthy.
You see, there's a cafe bar called Blu on the front at Mojacar which serves up some very good coffee and also some exceptional Italian ice cream.
To me this is an almost irresistible combination. Even worse is that they make delicious crepes too.
So, I've hit the gym hard this week in an effort to fight back.
But anyway, how can a holiday be good for business?
While on holiday, my partner and I, managed to find quality time to assess our situation and also what we're planning for the coming year and beyond.
One of the topics of discussion was a new business project we're working on.
We both agreed that, even though a holiday is supposed to be work free, it was a good opportunity to think about and discuss stuff that we'd struggle to find time for during our normal busy lives.
There was no stress, no emails, no meetings to get to, no social media to update, no phones ringing etc.
In other words: no distractions.
Now, we didn't exactly plan to do this but we were just chatting and ended up getting into some relevant topics.
The upshot is that we now have a clearer idea of what our business is about and how it's going to function.
We're also working on a business and marketing plan to formalise the idea into something less ethereal.
We now have more focus on what we're doing and how we're doing it in our new business.
And this is so much better than just running a business based on a loosely put together notion of what it, and you, are doing.
So, don't dismiss the opportunities to let your mind and discussion wander a bit while on holiday.
You never know, you might come up with a great idea for building your business.
Want more on business planning? Check out:
Working on your business - what it means and what to do (video)