With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about what your practice needs to do to prepare, and how you can wind down so that we can all enjoy a well-deserved break over the festive season. Before you know it, the time will be upon us which is why it’s important to start planning now.
Prepare your clients
If you haven’t already, now is the time to decide your opening hours for December and January. And more importantly, let your clients know! Let them know well in advance so that they can prepare any questions that they want to ask you before it’s too late. This will prevent them from calling or emailing during the holidays when you want to spend time with family and friends instead of answering work emails. It will also help them plan ahead so that they won’t need to contact you or anyone else while they’re away from work.
Turn off work notifications
Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or not, be sure to take some well-deserved time off! If you own a business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of checking notifications and replying to enquiries. But it’s important to think about how vital it is to do this. Can it wait a few days to be responded to? The answer most probably is yes. Give yourself the time to relax so that you feel replenished for when you return. Remember: when you’re away from the office and relaxing with loved ones, it is vital that you disconnect from work as much as possible. It may seem like an easy task but there are many ways that people can stay connected while away: turn off notifications on your phone or laptop so that they don’t distract you while trying out new recipes!
Make sure the workload is up to date
There’s nothing worse than thinking of all the work that needs to be done when you’re trying to relax and all that you can think about is the mountain of work that you have waiting for you. To prevent this, it’s better to get this work completed and done before you take your time off. If you’re struggling to meet deadlines, it might be worth considering taking on more staff over the festive period. Totus Finance can help you by proving bookkeeping and payroll services, ensuring you keep up to date with your workload and meet your customer’s needs.
Review previous years
If your accounting practice has been established for longer than a year, you have a great advantage as you’re able to assess last year’s festive period and plan for this year. Maybe you had clients dropping you a quick email that you’d respond to at all hours- this year you can be sure to set out of office and an automatic email so that they know when you’ll be in touch next. Fear not if this is your first year at it, there are plenty of helpful tips in this blog that’ll help you make the right decisions during the holidays.
Prepare now for your return
The last thing you may want to think about is returning to work, especially when you haven’t had your break yet! But we all know just how difficult it can be to get back into the swing of things once we have let ourselves relax. Therefore, it is important to think about small things that you can do to make your life easier on your return. For example, planning ahead and completing all the paperwork that you can before your break, creating a review of your year and assessing what went well, and what areas you can improve on next year, and setting goals so you know what you need to do in order to achieve your targets for the year ahead. These may seem like small insignificant tasks, but by completing these you’ll be on the track to a smooth transition back to work.
Understand your client’s needs
In the accounting field, the most important thing is always to cater for your customer’s needs. As well as letting them know what days and times you’ll be working, be sure to plan ahead for any help they might need during this time. It might be helpful to both of you if you create a list of important dates such as tax returns so that they know what is expected of them and when. Keeping everyone in the loop will ensure relaxing time off.
Find time to relax and recover
As mentioned previously, it’s important to allow yourself time to recover. Work can often get busy and overwhelming, especially when you’re a business owner- this is why it is so important to take that time to fully relax. Take some time to do things that you enjoy- we can often get caught up in the world of business, but the reality is, we are so much more than just our business. Think of the things that make you happy that you don’t often do because of time restrictions which are a result of work.
Set goals for the new year
Part of preparing for your return after your break involves setting new goals. Firstly, take a look at the goals that you had for last year. Did you achieve them all? If not, you might want to consider which ones to take forward into 2023. Maybe your priorities have changed since you last looked at them- don’t be afraid to adapt your goals to your needs right now and let go of past goals. Just because you do this, doesn’t mean you have failed. Some things might work out better than others, there’s no harm in trying different methods. Be sure you’re realistic with your goals and set steps in order to achieve them. Look at areas that you can involve experts in so that you can be sure that you’re meeting those deadlines. For example, if you’re looking to hire more staff, Totus Finance can help you with this task making it easier and more achievable.
