Most of us are busy not only within our business, but also have roles in family and community, as well. As our business begins to take off, we have less of the quiet time we need to work “on” the business rather than “in” the business.   And, because we expend a high degree of energy, we need respite.  In fact, where we get our new ideas and renew our energy is often while we are on retreat.

My formula for fantastic business success is to regularly pull myself away from my business. This stretches me in several ways.

1. It forces me to train employees and trust them to run day-to-day operations while I am away.
2. It forces me to clear my calendar and budget for personal business retreat time.
3. It helps me keep my own ego out of the business and put my attention on the present and future possibilities.
4. It forces me to change my daily environment, literally getting a fresh perspective for myself and my business.

In fact, one mark of an entrepreneur who thinks too small is one who insists he cannot get away from his own business.  This a sure sign of overwhelm, fatigue, and over-control.   Here are five tips for how to do quarterly business retreats that will refuel you and your business.

1. Decide what is really nurturing for you, and select accordingly. Your body and spirit may need anything from physical exertion to sunshine.
2. Stay within your budget.  Retreat centers range from free (monasteries) to the ultimate luxurious destination.   Don’t stress yourself more by going into debt.
3. Plan far ahead.  Clear your calendar 3 to 4 months ahead of time.  This gives you plenty of time to make travel arrangements and a bit of time put away some money.   It also gives you something to look forward to, a time you know you’ll rest.
4. Put away the guilty feelings.  It is a gift to model self-care and nurturing to those you care for.
5. Enter and come back lightly.  Schedule a lighter day before you go and when you come back.  You’ll reap more benefits if you are not pressed to the last minute before you leave, and have a day to acclimate when you return.

Think about your work style and take what you need with you.  A few pads of paper, pencils or pens, a computer, a list of ideas you’ve had and need to assess, a list of problem areas you need to think clearly about should all be in your briefcase.  Because I work on computer, I will only go places where I can get Internet access.   Which, these days, is just about anywhere!

Make your retreat a combination of rest, daydreaming, good food, activity, and work time.  Your mind will clear and you will gain instant focus on things that have been bugging you as your mind, body, emotions, and spirit relax and renew.   Things that seem truly frustrating and unending will suddenly become clear.  You’ll find yourself making decisions you’ve wallowed on about and wondering why you thought it was so hard!

I recommend quarterly retreats, a week at a time.   At the least, get away for 4 days.  Stay away from e-mail and the phone as much as you can, and at the most check it only once a day.  Take a break from social media, too.  Your business issues will lessen and juicy new possibilities will flow.  You’ll get back home enthused and renewed, and that alone boosts your business success.

(c) Sue Painter

Entrepreneur Number One (we’ll call her Melinda) has been in business a few years now but finds herself unwilling to face the new skills she needs to learn in order to handle the big growth that could come her way.  Eventually, the pain of not looking became stronger than the pain to look, so Melinda booked a day with me, fearful though she was.  One of the costs of her waiting was that her energy, enthusiasm, and belief in her business success had flatlined.  Melinda had taken on some debt to grow her business, but then because she felt guilty about the debt and didn’t really want to face it, she’d failed to keep up her bookkeeping and had no idea where she was in terms of sales, expenses, and accounts receivable.  Her guilt drove her to describe herself as “in debt and making no money.”  Yet she really didn’t know if that were true or not.  As we talked about this, her emotions came to the surface and she realized that constantly telling herself that she was in debt and a failure had drained her faith in herself – a far greater cost than actual financial debt.  Melinda needed to step up and act like the successful entrepreneur she is.  In her case, that means getting a weekly cash flow statement from her bookkeeper, keeping her pulse on her true operating costs, and letting go of trying to do everything herself in a wrong-headed effort to save money.  As we developed a comprehensive list of business systems that Melinda will put in place, she came up with an idea that not only would save her own staff production time, it could easily be a product that she could sell to others in her industry.  This one idea will more than reimburse Melinda for the day she spent with me – and more to the point, with sales to others she can probably erase at least half of her debt.  Melinda paid dearly for putting off this day – in energy, self-doubt, overhead that was increasing because it wasn’t being watched, production time for her staff, and a missed opportunity to sell to others. 

Entrepreneur Number Two (we’ll call her Amy) mentioned to me that she had been wanting to go on a personal retreat to do business planning for a long time.  “How long,” I wondered out loud to her.  “Six months, at least,” she replied.  Amy’s willingness to let everything else come first before she took personal time for herself and her business came close to costing her the chance to more than double her income.  It’s not what you will SPEND on your personal retreat, it’s how much it costs you to remain in the same place and fail to take action for moving ahead.  Amy tole me that she wants to hit six figures in a year.  She has the capability to do that, but not if she doesn’t change her mindset and her business model quickly and drastically.  For instance, one reason she has put off going for a 3 day personal retreat is that she doesn’t want to lose work that in essence pays her about $25 per hour.  But during her “business makeover” retreat time, she can easily generate ideas and plans that pull her up to an average hourly fee of $100.  Until she plans it, that higher hourly fee won’t happen, and neither will her six figure income.  It COSTS MONEY to stay stuck.  Doing what you have always been doing is only going to get you the very same result you are getting now.  So, if you want a different result in  your business, take the time for that personal retreat.  Set your goals, make your plans, and get on down the road.  Your bank account will thank you in the end!

(c) Sue Painter

About 13 years ago now I became a member of a Quest group.  One of the first things the group’s leader had us do was to answer, in writing, a series of questions about our clearest vision of our life – how we would be living it in the coming years, what would feel the most satisfying and truest life for each of us, how our relationships would be, what our work would look like.  When I got this set of questions and was told to write an essay about them I was working in a very high-powered, high-stress position.  I was not happy doing it, but the money was very good and I had made the decision to do this work for a while so that my husband and I could buy lake property and build a house.  I worked 60 to 80 hours a week, travelled all the time, and managed a large group of people.  While I was very successful, I was also very exhausted.  So, to get this long writing assignment thrown into the mix didn’t make me very happy.  I was stressed out, pissed off at working so hard, and already lugging around a bulging briefcase as I flew back and forth to D.C.  I really DIDN’T want to spend time answering these questions.

So, in my best “I really don’t agree with doing this” manner, I answered – truthfully but also in a peeved tone.  I started the essay by saying that “I had no idea how I would ever get there, but what I really wanted was” — and I held forth for three solid, single spaced typed pages.  I folded it up, took it to the next group meeting, and read it aloud, unsmiling, when my turn came.  Then, I efficiently folded it into thirds, popped it into the back of my daily planner, and promptly forgot it was there.

Fast forward 10 years later.  The exhausting job was long gone.  I was home one day, bored, and decided to clean out my now-defunct daily planner (I was on computer now!).  I thought the planner was empty, and before throwing it into the trash I held it by the spine and shook it hard.  And, out from the last, back, hard to reach pocket fell that 3 typed pages that I had long ago forgotten.  I wondered what it was, and opened it up – and to my absolute and total amazement I read three pages of “what I really wanted” – and, point by point, every single one of my wants had come true!  It was and is crazy, unbelievable, ridiculous.  I sat there next to the trash can, holding what was my most precious possession – my vision for myself, my life on a page, my deepest heart’s desires.  And I realized in that moment how wise and special the leader of our little Quest group was.  How indebted to him I was.  How grateful, fortunate, and lucky I was to have secretly carried my dreams with me for all those years, and how writing them and speaking them aloud to that group had taught me that energy follows thought.

Yes, dreams do come true.  And as they do, we add more dreams.  There is always forward movement until the moment we give up, and begin to die.  One of the reasons I so believe in and support people in visioning is the lesson I learned myself – the one that took me a decade to learn.  My small group Visioning fron the Heart workshops are my own way of helping others to Quest now.  And my sincere belief is that the same dream coming true will happen to you.

(Credits:  With many thanks to my friend BJ Ryan for the use of her painting “Sunset in the Desert.”)