Shmalance

August 22nd, 2008 Chris Posted in General | No Comments »

I was out for a beer with a friend the other day (surely not again) and I mentioned my upcoming vacation to P.E.I. I was recounting how it’s always a bit of a challenge finding a place that works for us. We have very specific requirements: must take a dog, must be near the water, must have a dishwasher (I gave up “roughing it” years ago), and must have high speed Internet.

He thought I was insane. Why Internet?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Neither of us can stand being out of contact with the business and there is always something that needs to be done.

I’d like to say it’s unique to our micro business but I’ve actually always found it way less stressful to stay in contact with the office and not come back to a mountain of issues. Just an hour every day to knock off some emails and ensure someone takes care of any urgent issues.

But with our micro business, it’s really not an option. There is simply stuff that needs to get done. Stuff that can’t wait two weeks. It’s really the downside of your vacation partner being your business partner – there is no one that can handle all the issues while you’re gone.

I’m not complaining. I love the lifestyle of having our own business. I bring the dog to the office, have shaving down to a semi-weekly ritual and don’t even ask when the last time was that I wore pants. Of course, Colleen has it tougher as she actually has to travel around and meet with clients. And wear pants.

It is just the simple fact that your back-fill is limited and so there is never really a complete “down-time”. And given that our business is the sole source of our livelihood now, I’d rather bring my laptop, connect up and do a bit of work on vacation.

And besides, without a laptop, how could we have settled our debate yesterday on who sang “Take On Me”?

C.