Entrepreneur on vacation – when and how?

Summer vacations are here and there are lots of people already in town, enjoying their vacation. Is it possible for entrepreneurs to take vacation time? Who does the work while the entrepreneur is away on well-earned vacation? We asked a few entrepreneurs in the Vaasa region about their vacation plans this summer:

Jussi Lehtonen at the coach company Linja-autoliikenne Lehtonen Oy says that he has reserved one work-free week in July.
– That’s when we will head to the north, to a place with no mobile connectivity. School transports that keep us busy the rest of the year are on break for the summer, and we operate tourist tours by ourselves. Christmas time and Midsummer are also reserved for other things than working.

Tiina Haapala who is Managing Director at AHA Logistics will have a four-week vacation this summer.
– I’ll be enjoying the summer in the city of Kaskö and painting a house, she reveals. – My wonderful colleagues take care of the company while I’m away. I can be reached by mobile phone but because of the nature of our line of business I can’t clean up my desk but only give the tasks to my colleagues, as there’s so much going on all the time.
Logistics and forwarding do not slow down for the vacation months like many other fields do. In contrast, Haapala says that the amount of work merely increases due to customers’ and partners’ vacations, when there are substitutes taking care of the usual work.

Hanna-Leena Muurinen at AITO-Kotihoito offering care, nursing and home help services tells that the company operates normally during the summer.
– Our clients, of course, need services in the summer as well. We have hired substitute employees for the summer, and together with Maarit Kokkinen I share the administrative work so that we both get to have a one month’s vacation.
Muurinen says that they have done this way since the founding of the company, because even entrepreneurs need vacation. In the winter time they try to leave the work behind when possible by enjoying for example long weekends.
– I don’t have any special vacation plans. It’s all going to be extempore this summer. Sure it would be nice if the weather was so warm that you could wear a T-shirt! says Muurinen laughing.

A study (in Finnish) on small and medium sized enterprises’ summer employees and vacations in 2013:
www.yrittajat.fi/kesatyontekijat_lomat_pk_yrityksissa2013