On vacation? If you’re traveling but can’t afford to let your new business branding slack off in the meantime, there are some ways to keep the ball rolling - i.e., maintain your brand name. Following are some (truncated) tips from an Entrepreneur Magazine article:
1. Keep email newsletters brief. If you usually include two or three features in your e-newsletter, write just one. Or, if you publish a monthly newsletter, combine two months into one.
2. Pre-schedule your social media posts. Remember that if you're going to start a conversation on social media, someone has to be available to monitor and respond to feedback. This may mean you need your Blackberry with you – sigh.
3. Set an email auto-reply that indicates you are open and haven’t stopped conducting business, or customers/clients may abandon the business.
4. Consolidate social media activity.
5. Schedule "work time" on vacation and stick to it. Check your email once in the morning and once at night.
6. Meet new people while on vacation – you never know who may be a good contact in the future. Bring business cards (this is recommended by Entrepreneur Magazine, but not by this writer).
7. Clear your head – relax and enjoy. Easy to say, not easy to execute.
If you can do it, leave all electronics at home so you can peacefully dive, snorkel, explore or lie on the beach with no worries. But if you can't prepare for an absence, heed some of the advice above.
