Solopreneurs can take vacations — if they have a plan
I blew the cobwebs off my laptop and turned it on.
I was a little nervous — I had taken a considerable risk and didnt know if it had paid off. With a quickened heartbeat, I logged onto one of the platforms I write for. I didnt know what to expect as I went to the all-important tab showing views and earnings.
Would I be faced with tumbleweeds and a plethora of zeroes?
My sweaty palms fumbled with the mouse as I finally clicked on the monthly figures. They were the highest they had been for six months.
I logged onto several more platforms, checking downloads, new subscribers, book sales, etc. They were all far higher than I had dared to dream.
My cunning plan had worked.
The quiet quitting trend has taken off in 2022 as people place more emphasis on their mental and physical health and less on accumulating work hours.
I joined this revolution in 2020 before it had a cool clickable marketing name. Back then, I had been running my own business for eight years and burned myself into the ground. My business was my life — 24/7; I was on emails, teleconferences, and phone calls. Vacation was for the weak, and time away from my phone or laptop was missed revenue.
I was part of the Elon Musk cult. If Elon works 120 hours per work, so I must also. For almost eight years, I didn’t take a break, and it took my business partner to force me to take leave.
For an allegedly intelligent person, this was a stupid mindset. And it took a global pandemic for this mindset to change.
I sold my business and decided to become a full-time writer.
The biggest pro of being a solopreneur: You are your own boss and don’t have to worry about staff
The biggest con of being a solopreneur: If you don’t work, you don’t earn
I enjoyed the major pro of being a full-time writer but was concerned about the biggest con. I was too afraid to take a holiday, for if I stopped writing, my income would pause.
I had bills to pay, and they didn’t take holidays.
But I didn’t want to fall into the same trap I had previously, where work equaled life and life equaled work.
And I had one big reason to ensure this didn’t happen.
I needed a plan.
In September 2019, I proposed to my partner, and we planned to get married the following September. We lived in Australia, but as my partner is Texan, we decided to get married in Texas.
Cowboy boots and all, y’all.
Of course, this didn’t happen. A certain virus began to spread around the globe, and Australia decided to close its borders for a while.
No problem. We moved the wedding to September 2021.
Australia closed its borders a little longer.
No problem. We moved the wedding to April 2022.
Let’s keep the borders closed just a little more.
September 2022 was the fourth — and the final date.
After three years of delays, we planned a month-long trip involving family and friends from around the globe, several wedding events, and a honeymoon.
I wanted to enjoy this trip and not have to worry about writing and publishing stories, so I decided I would make the bold move of taking the entire month of September off.
No drafts. No submissions. No planning. The whole month off.
To make this work, I had to have a strategy in place.
Six months before the trip, I decided to map out a plan to ensure September was an actual vacation.
I wanted to build up my catalog of earning articles, create more passive income streams and give my corporate clients enough notice to bring projects forward.
This involved:
- creating several products to have for sale on Gumroad
- finishing my first book and having it ready for sale on Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble
- increasing the number of articles I was writing by 25% to build my catalog
- doing extra hours for clients
- signing up to write for two new content creation platforms
- pitch new publications
I felt this plan would bring two benefits.
Firstly I would earn more in the months before my vacation, so should everything fall apart in September, my monthly average across 2022 would still be OK. Secondly, I would have a diverse range of income streams in place should one platform suddenly disappear from the internet.
Look, I gave away the results in the headline, but on every platform bar one, my monthly earnings increased from August to September.
Additionally, I had the biggest rise in subscribers to my Substack page — free and paid — since I launched my newsletter. My book sales also went up, and I had a couple of pitches accepted while I was away.
From a corporate client perspective, I had bookings for consultations and work for the first week of October. So my clients were respectful and aware of my plan.
While I had a plan, I wasn’t sure if it would work — stepping away from the laptop for a whole month was a risk.
Not only did I not write, but I didn’t log onto the writer’s forums, Slack groups, and Discord channels that I was usually active in — I took a break from the writing community, who are effectively my work colleagues.
Just like Ross and Rachel — I was on a break.
But the month off taught me a few valuable lessons— hopefully for you.
It’s essential to have a back catalog
Many new content creators dream of going viral.
But there is something much more important than one or two big viral hits — and that’s a solid back catalog. You need to have a good spread of articles that will continue to earn.
While a viral hit may score big for a few weeks, a back catalog will continue to earn over time. Focus on building yours.
Fans don’t take a vacation.
Just because I was taking time off didn’t mean my followers and fans were.
Cultivating your subscriber and follower base is important. Keeping them engaged with your work ensures they continue to read and refer even when you lie on a beach in Costa Rica.
Neither do algorithms
Writing with Google in mind is also important.
This doesn’t mean keyword stuffing to try and hack SEO but ensuring you optimize your meta titles and SEO descriptions and keep search engines in mind when writing headlines.
That way, the algorithms and search engines will continue to serve your work months after publication.
Diversification is key
I write across several platforms but made sure to add a couple of new ones before my break. This spread the risk as well as allowed me to test different niches.
It doesn’t matter if Russian hackers get to a website or VC capital runs out, and a platform closes, as long as your work is featured on several platforms.
Clients understand
I have a handful of corporate clients and explained my situation to them and the need to take a break.
They were understanding and recognized the need for me to log off and do a digital detox. Writing isn’t a life or death situation, and they could all cope without Ash for a month — but no longer!
If the founder of Patagonia can take several months off each year, then a freelance writer can take four weeks.
Passive income isn’t just for digital nomads and influencers
Writing a book takes a long time. Producing e-books and guides also is a time commitment.
Yet once they are done, available on platforms for sale and download, and marketed well, they can provide a steady income stream.
My books and guides certainly aren’t breaking sales records — yet — but they add to my earnings each month.
Solopreneurs and freelancers are often afraid to take a break of more than a few days. They worry they will be forgotten and lose traction if they hit the pause button.
For almost two years of writing, I felt the same way. I had never gone more than three days without publishing something.
This is a dangerous mindset and doesn’t give enough credit to your follower and subscribers.
In Australia, employees get four weeks of paid annual leave a year — and as a solopreneur, I was entitled to the same. So while it required extra work in the lead-up and some planning, I successfully took my four weeks of annual leave.
And thanks to a combination of followers, a back catalog, diversification, and algorithms, it was paid leave.
I have come back mentally refreshed and keen to write and publish again. Well, as soon as I stop planning my next block of annual leave.
