We all need a break from reality, but if you run your own business, and you wear all of the hats in the company, thoughts of a vacation are often soon replaced with, “I can’t leave. My business will fall apart.”

I completely understand that viewpoint because I used to feel the same way. When I finally made the leap to travel, I checked email every other day so that I could keep up with transactions. After a few more trips, I checked in only twice a week. Now, I don’t check in at all.

If you’re in a line of work in which you get emergency calls to rescue people and aren’t allowed to take a vacation, you probably won’t be able to do the things that I’m going to suggest. But if you’re itching to cut loose or you get the fantastic opportunity to go on an expenses-paid trip to somewhere exotic, I would hate for you to miss out on the chance of a lifetime. So, here are some tips for how a business owner can get away.

On the personal side:

Check the destination requirements for passport, visa, inoculation and other entry requirements. These can take up to ninety days to secure.

Proceed with your regular vacation planning: air transportation, ground transportation, hotel and sightseeing. Or, hand it all over to a travel agent to do everything.

Secure bookings with a house sitter, kennel, or any other service you deem necessary to take care of your home in your absence.

Make sure that any bills that are due while you’re gone are paid, or you’ll have access to pay them electronically while you’re gone. I prefer the former so that I don’t have to worry about finding an Internet connection on a specific day.

Put a temporary hold on the newspaper and mail so it doesn’t become obvious that your house is vacant.

Order any prescription medication that you’ll need while you’re gone.

Inform your credit/debit card companies where you’ll be so they won’t put a freeze on your card when you try to use it.

Everyone has other “details” that they’ll need to see to depending on their current life status, so there will I’m sure be other matters to which you need to attend. To prevent the need to reinvent the wheel each time you go out of town, capture everything that you do in an electronic list so that you can use it as a checklist each time. Modify the list as necessary.

Getting things ready on the personal side is fairly easy. But getting things ready on the business side takes a fair amount of thinking and planning. We’ll cover that in the next post.