"...with the holidays and all..." and other procratination excuses of Business Owners

[Harold Mansfield]

Every year I'm amazed at how so many businesses completely cease operations or lose the ability to make any decisions between the Monday before Thanksgiving till after New Year's Day. If I had a nickle for how many times I've heard "well, you know...with the holidays and all...", I'd be wealthy.

What does that even mean? That you've checked out from doing anything because there's a holiday coming up? That you have so many personal responsibilities that you can't concentrate on anything business at all?

And this isn't the only time that people use the calendar to justify doing nothing. It's kids starting school, kids on break from school, kids getting out of school, Summer starting, Labor Day, Memorial day, Veterans Day, President's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Snow, Rain.... It's never ending. How do people get anything done if they spend the entire year preparing for the next break from work?

If it's a matter of budget, then say that. But don't lead me to believe that Thanksgiving (which is literally one day) is the reason that you can't make any decisions for the entire month of November.

Thankfully not everyone is like that, but for the people who are I have no idea how they get anything done if every upcoming date is an excuse not to do anything until after it's over. Why even go to work or open for business? Just set up an email auto responder and voice mail that say "we aren't doing anything till after ( insert holiday here)" and just let it play all year long.

Are you one of those "well, you know with the Holidays and all..." people, or are you the kind of person that feels that if you are at work, that you should work? That Friday is not an excuse for not getting things done on Tuesday.

[vangogh]

I think it's just a convenient excuse for people. Since lots of people are busy doing something holiday related this time of year, they figure you are too and would understand why they're busy.

I'm guessing most of these people don't get much done at any time. Instead they work on their excuses for not getting things done.

It's funny. We all like to say if we only had more time, but none of us has more time than anyone else in a single day. Some people get a lot done. Some people don't. It has nothing to do with how much time there is in a day. It's always about priorities. When someone says they didn't have time to do something they mean the thing in question wasn't high enough priority for them to do. There's a lot of time in a day and I don't think there's ever been a day where I didn't waste at least some of time.

[Freelancier]

Having dealt with a lot of companies, it's not that they're too busy, it's that they often have a policy whereby unused vacation expire at the end of the year. So everyone really is gone those last few weeks as they eat up their vacation time. So it's hard to get everyone in a room to make a decision.

I have a friend who used to be high up at Cisco and he worked with a lot of overseas companies and he'd tell me that China was worse and pretty much the first two months of the year, nothing would get done (until after the Chinese New Year), because that was their traditional "holiday season". I've personally dealt with companies in Europe who disappear for August and the end of December. It's all in the local customs.

[Fulcrum]

I've found that many companies will use the holiday/time of year excuse as a way of hiding their own inefficiencies. I find it interesting how the excuses change depending on time of year:

Jan - March break - we're trying to recover from Christmas
March Break - we're taking the kids out for a week
March Break - End of School - Easter, Victoria Day, Memorial Day, kids have exams
Summer Break - all summer stat holidays, employees on vacation, summer shutdowns
Sept -November - Labour day, school's starting, Thanksgiving, my guys are out hunting
December - don't think I need to describe this

[Harold Mansfield]

I've found that many companies will use the holiday/time of year excuse as a way of hiding their own inefficiencies. I find it interesting how the excuses change depending on time of year:

Jan - March break - we're trying to recover from Christmas
March Break - we're taking the kids out for a week
March Break - End of School - Easter, Victoria Day, Memorial Day, kids have exams
Summer Break - all summer stat holidays, employees on vacation, summer shutdowns
Sept -November - Labour day, school's starting, Thanksgiving, my guys are out hunting
December - don't think I need to describe this

I know! It's a wonder any business gets done at all in this country. We're on break or preparing for break, or recovering from break more than Congress.

[vangogh]

it's not that they're too busy, it's that they often have a policy whereby unused vacation expire at the end of the year.

I can see that. If I worked someplace and had to take vacation days or lose them, I would take every last vacation day.

I do think most of it is just a convenient excuse, though.

[Harold Mansfield]

This is the week that the excuses really pick up. I've learned from experience that if you have any outstanding invoices due, to get them out in the next 3 days and make contact to insure that they have received them. The last 5 years have taught me that if you don't get paid by around Wednesday of this week, you won't be getting paid until after the 1st of January.

Every year I always have one or two clients that leave me hanging until after "the holidays" and then balk at the late fees. Never fails.

[Freelancier]

The last 5 years have taught me that if you don't get paid by around Wednesday of this week, you won't be getting paid until after the 1st of January.
I shift revenue forward some years when I make more than expected or have lower expenses than usual. I do my final year-end invoices with most of my irregular clients (and any invoices I deferred because I wasn't in a hurry to get paid) around the first weekend of December, with a due date of Christmas Day and a note telling the client that they can pay any time between 12/25 and 1/10, depending on which year they want to recognize the expense. Either way, because we're always officially "closed" between Christmas and New Year's, I don't record those checks until the new year. Which gives me a robust start to the year while not obligating me to the tax bite until the following year. Been doing this for 10 years and my clients love the flexibility and I love the big pop of cash in January.

Only works, of course, with clients who use cash accounting. The rest don't care and just put it in their system to pay when it suits them.

[JonV6]

I feel it's unfair to judge all these people for either needing, or even wanting, to wind down slightly around Christmas time. For business that have staff, like Freelancier said, they may genuinely be very understaffed in the run up. For some industries or sectors things really do stop completely for a week or so. If that's the case why should you be open or have your staff in twiddling their thumbs? And of course, when it comes to small business owners, some of them work so hard the rest of the year that they want a bit of a rest. With all that being said I am also sure there are companies/individuals out there that do just use it as an excuse.

[Harold Mansfield]

I feel it's unfair to judge all these people for either needing, or even wanting, to wind down slightly around Christmas time. For business that have staff, like Freelancier said, they may genuinely be very understaffed in the run up. For some industries or sectors things really do stop completely for a week or so. If that's the case why should you be open or have your staff in twiddling their thumbs? And of course, when it comes to small business owners, some of them work so hard the rest of the year that they want a bit of a rest. With all that being said I am also sure there are companies/individuals out there that do just use it as an excuse.
I agree with you some what. This week I definitely don't plan on doing much because I know that no one else will be either.

[Fulcrum]

I feel it's unfair to judge all these people for either needing, or even wanting, to wind down slightly around Christmas time. For business that have staff, like Freelancier said, they may genuinely be very understaffed in the run up.

I wouldn't say that we're judging these people for taking some time off. It's more of an observation that we've observed over the years. As for the list I made, it was more of a tongue in cheek statement than anything else.


For some industries or sectors things really do stop completely for a week or so. If that's the case why should you be open or have your staff in twiddling their thumbs?

This is the perfect time for maintenance, retooling, training, etc. It's a lot easier to do these things when the workload is light.


And of course, when it comes to small business owners, some of them work so hard the rest of the year that they want a bit of a rest.

I remember being told one time that "when you're in business for yourself, you need to be working when everyone else is taking time off".

[Freelancier]

I remember being told one time that "when you're in business for yourself, you need to be working when everyone else is taking time off".I've spent a few Christmas holidays working at a client's manufacturing plant, because that's when they were "down" and available for upgrades and testing. Just the way it is.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm not judging people for taking time off by no means. I just find it funny that people use "The holidays" as a catch all excuse from around November 10th through January 2nd, and then for the entire month of January it's "We're still trying to catch up after the holidays". Really? You didn't do anything all of Nov and Dec because of "the holidays". Catch up from what?

So think about it. Out of a 12 month year, people like this are completely ineffective and unable to put in 100% for a full 2 months. 20% of your year is slow or low productivity because a holiday is coming up or has passed.

And that's just Thanksgiving and Christmas. How much productivity do these types loose throughout the year lurching from one holiday excuse to the next?

[Fulcrum]

So think about it. Out of a 12 month year, people like this are completely ineffective and unable to put in 100% for a full 2 months. 20% of your year is hobbled with an ongoing excuse about why you can't get something done quickly or make any decisions because a holiday is coming up, or has just passed.

I worked at a place that was always 2-4 weeks behind. When our customers went on shutdown during the summer and over Christmas (most of them which was over 80% of of workload) we would go on shutdown as well. Rather than getting caught up and staying ahead of things, we would shut down completely. The worst part with all of this, is that when we got back, we lost anywhere from a 1/2 day to a full day performing maintenance due to having things seize up.

[billbenson]

This is a great 'get caught up on BS week like rebuilding my computers. Phone doesn't ring much.

On payments, since I do a lot of Net 30 deals (which are usuall paid in 45 to 60 days) that's cool. B2B companies will try to use up extra budget money before the end of the year. Door kickers are on vacation, and I get enough of the late payers who want to get the payment in this calender year to keep good cash flow during a slow time in my industry.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm looking forward to the down time right now and getting a lot of things done to hit the ground running the first of the year with no interruptions. I expect and count on this week being slow just to unwind too.

Before I started working for myself I worked in Hospitality, so I rarely ever had holidays off. Holidays were "go time". In my old life those were the busiest days of the year for me.

So I guess I'm still not used to other people who aren't in similar industries moving slow for weeks surrounding a holiday.

[billbenson]

I'm looking forward to the down time right now and getting a lot of things done to hit the ground running the first of the year with no interruptions. I expect and count on this week being slow just to unwind too.

Before I started working for myself I worked in Hospitality, so I rarely ever had holidays off. Holidays were "go time". In my old life those were the busiest days of the year for me.

So I guess I'm still not used to other people who aren't in similar industries moving slow for weeks surrounding a holiday.

Welcome to the club Harold. Just gotta manage that cash flow thing :)

[Brian Altenhofel]

When I worked retail, holidays were obviously the busiest. One year, the manager said we could have unlimited overtime (expecting people to log 1 hour of OT per day instead of the usual cap of 1 hour per week). I took advantage of it and worked 6AM to 11PM through December (pesky 7-hour rule got in the way).

When I worked in IT support at a school, I had two paid weeks off. It was nice to be able to take it easy, get the house caught up, and go into the school to do maintenance work that was much, much easier without anyone there.

Working for myself, it's mixed. I do a lot of e-commerce work and hosting, so the holidays are busy and stressful from that, but I also have more time available to work on internal or personal projects, so it's a bit of a breather.

Interestingly, I get a lot of new inquiries via text message around Christmas. Seems my number gets handed out at get-togethers. Usually, I'd go ahead and respond as usual, but this year we're hosting for family so I've been asking to do next week instead.

[vangogh]

I just find it funny that people use "The holidays" as a catch all excuse from around November 10th through January 2nd, and then for the entire month of January it's "We're still trying to catch up after the holidays"

Like I said, I think it's just a convenient excuse this time of year. In February the same people will have a different excuse for why they can't get to something. I don't think the holidays are adding to the excuses. More people are just using the same excuse, because it's convenient.

I tend to take the time off too. I guess I'm just wrapping up work today. (It's 4:45 here). Can't say I worked very hard today though. I like when the holidays fall on Tuesday or Thursday, because it's easy to skip work the day between it and the weekend. Next week I'll probably work a little Monday through Wednesday. Mostly on some projects for myself, though I'll be available to clients if they need something. I doubt I'll work hard, probably half days at most. It's a good time to get in a vacation and home and recharge my batteries for the coming year.

[David Hunter]

I just can't wait until the holidays are over!

[billbenson]

I hide in my house during the holidays except a beer with a friend. So far it's been a pretty good season from that standpoint. I don't think I've been in one retail store other than the supermarket.

The phone is my archenemy. I had 3 calls today and still made money! Had an RFQ at 5:30 today from someone who wants to spend $15k of year end budget money. He has 2 days to do it. I might get the deal and it's 15 minutes work.

I didn't travel to see family this holiday season. Just want to relax. Got up at 11am today (although my partner gets up at 7am everyday so I can get away with that). My plan for Wednesday is to tear my office apart. Its a small room with several computers, 4 phones, a TV, and a sound system. It wasn't very well thought through and I'm still thinking through how I'm going to organize it. Oh, and that doesn't account for a big snoring dog that takes up the middle of the floor space.

I rebuilt two computers during Christmas.

I don't mind working the holidays. It's just nice not to have the urgency of getting something done NOW.

[Harold Mansfield]

That's exactly what I've been doing. I rearranged my office and desk a couple of days ago, reconfigured my communications set up, restructured my wifi coverage around the house, and have been working on one of my websites.

Thinking about digging out my old XP Compaq Presario to see if I can use it for anything.

It's actually been very relaxing getting those things done without any interruptions.

[David Hunter]

Ha! I'm working rearranging my room, too! Out with the old and in with the new!