You built your business for freedom, but if you’re honest, the thought of stepping away for more than a day still makes your chest tight. We get it.
At Smart, Soulful Business, we help Christian women build businesses that are soulful, strategic, and successful, and one of the most counter‑cultural things we have ever done is plan intentional time off as an entrepreneur. And I’m not talking about a long weekend.
I planned three months of postpartum leave while my business kept running. Laurie gave her whole team the month of December off last year. This kind of rest does not happen by accident. It happens because you plan ahead, get honest with yourself, and put systems in place that hold steady while you step away.
Why You Have To Plan Ahead Instead Of Reacting
When you wait until you’re burned out to think about taking time off, you’ve already missed the chance to do it well. Rest that renews you and your business has to be proactive, not reactive.
If you leave it to how you feel in the moment, you’ll talk yourself out of it every single time. You’ll convince yourself that this isn’t the right week, that things are too busy, that you cannot possibly step away.
Planning ahead changes the entire conversation. You shift from asking, Can I afford to stop? to deciding, This is the time we are going to stop, so how do we prepare? When Laurie first considered giving her whole team December off, she asked herself, “What if I gave my whole team the month of December off?”
At first it felt bold, maybe even irresponsible. But once she started planning, it looked possible. She prescheduled content. She recorded episodes early. She gave herself and her team months to get ready, and by the time December arrived, the work was done. There was nothing left to do but rest.
This is not about having a perfect business or endless resources. It is about making a decision ahead of time and then letting that decision shape your workflow for the weeks or months leading up to it. You become the boss of your time instead of a victim of your schedule.
Get Honest About What You Can Actually Do
Once you’ve picked your dates, the next step is radical honesty. You have to get really honest with yourself about what you actually can do and the things you need to be okay letting go of. This is where planning meets humility.
I went through this in a big way while preparing for my postpartum leave. At the time, I was running two businesses. I had my own website with posts, social media, and products.
I also had a membership, courses, and a business partner. There was no way to keep all of those plates spinning while caring for a newborn. So I had to decide what would make the biggest impact and what could be paused, simplified, or handed off.
The process started with a list. I wrote down every moving piece of the business and then prioritized them by the things that made the biggest impact. That list became the foundation for everything else.
Some things got scaled way back. Some things got automated. Some things I simply released and trusted God with the outcome. The goal wasn’t to maintain everything perfectly. The goal was to protect what mattered most so the time off could actually be time off.
So ask yourself:
- What truly has to keep running?
- What can be paused?
- What can someone else do?
Be honest, not aspirational. Don’t plan for the capacity you wish you had. Plan for the capacity you actually have.
Create Systems So Your Business Keeps Running
Honesty without systems won’t get you very far. Once you know what you’re going to keep and what you’re going to let go of, you have to build the practical structure that supports those decisions.
This looks like getting really organized with all the pieces of your business. If you need content to go out, batch it ahead of time and schedule it. If emails need to be answered, set up an autoresponder or bring in temporary help. If you have a podcast, record several episodes in advance.
The work upfront is significant, but it is a gift you’re giving your future self. When the time off arrives, you get to step away without your business grinding to a halt.
One of the most important systems to set up is communication. Let your clients, your audience, and your team know what to expect. You don’t have to give every detail, but a simple heads up goes a long way. People are far more understanding than we give them credit for, especially when you communicate clearly and with confidence.
This is also the time to test your systems. Do a trial run a few weeks before your leave to see what breaks. It’s much better to discover a hole in your plan while you’re still available to fix it than to come back from a rest to a mess.
Prepare Your People, Not Just Your Tasks
If you have a team, or even just a business partner or a spouse who supports your work, your time off affects them too. Planning intentional time off means preparing your people, not just your tasks.
I struggled with guilt when I planned my leave because I had a business partner who would have to keep showing up while I stepped back. That guilt was real and heavy.
What helped was honest conversation early on, clear expectations, and a shared commitment to making it work. The leave wasn’t just a gift to me. It became something we rallied around together. When I came back, the business hadn’t just survived. It was stronger.
Laurie saw the same kind of shift when she gave her team December off. At first it felt like a risk. But the team felt honored. They felt seen. Their work rhythms actually improved because they knew rest wasn’t just allowed. It was built into the way they operated together. They started planning further ahead. They got more efficient. And when everyone returned in January, they came back with more creativity, more energy, and more commitment.
So if your time off will impact other people, loop them in early. Ask for their input. Let them help you figure out what’s possible. When people feel like part of the plan, they become invested in its success. And you might just find that what started as your break becomes a gift to everyone around you.
A Faith‑Filled Step Forward
We make so many decisions from a place of fear or a place of trust. Planning intentional time off forces you to choose which one is going to lead. Fear will tell you that stepping away means everything will fall apart. Trust will remind you that God is the one who holds your business, and He doesn’t need you to work around the clock to keep it safe.
Taking time off is not about abandoning your calling. It is about honoring the limits God gave you and trusting Him with the results. You can plan well, prepare your systems, and set your people up for success, and then you can actually rest. It won’t be perfect. But it is possible. And proving to yourself that it is possible will change the way you lead your business forever.
Start small if you need to. Pick one week, not three months. Tell someone you trust what you’re thinking. Open your calendar and begin to plan backward from that date. You don’t have to have it all figured out today. You just have to take one step toward the kind of business that actually fits the life you want to live..
