Small business and holidays

[John Hesketh]

I am just about to launch a website with shopping cart facility using mrsite who I have used before and found reasonably priced and enables a professional looking site. That aside, I was wondering if anyone has a solution to the problem of going away on holiday. This will be initially a home based business with products stored at home and packed manually and posted via royal mail.

Is the only solution to temporarily close the site, or explain that orders recieved in this period will be subject to a 7 day delay, or is there another option

Thanks

John

 

[NuBlue]

Don't take a holiday is just about your only other solution! That, or employ someone to caretake for the business.

Or if you can not hold stock and dropship your products then you could take a lap top with you and run the orders whilst your away. Joining the rest of the self employed brigade on the beach (easy to spot, dark eyes and laptops!)

 

[SFD]

Someone has mentioned before that they post up a message on the homepage and checkout page saying that orders will be delayed due to stock take or warehousing relocation.

I thought this was quite a good idea as it gives the impression of a larger company, rather than a small one man band.

 

[SillyJokes]

Basically we didn't take holidays until we got staff. Long weekends were just about do-able.

 

[deniser]

We keep the site open to orders but post notices all over the place saying that we are a family business and on holiday stating the date when the orders will be sent out. This has no effect on orders whatsoever; they still come in at the same rate.

This appears before checkout as well as in the order confirmation email too. We deal with email enquiries as usual. We do try to go away during quiet times and use up the bank holidays for instance we are going the Monday before Easter to use up 2 bank holidays plus one weekend so that we only miss 5 working days maximum.

Many of the big sites make you wait this long for delivery anyway. The important thing is to maintain email contact. I don't go far without my laptop.

Then we have a nightmare when we get back as there are hundreds to pack in a hurry. But that's the price you have to pay.....

 

[quikshop]

We keep the site open to orders but post notices all over the place saying that we are a family business and on holiday stating the date when the orders will be sent out.

We recommend saying something along the lines of 'Seasonal Stock Check' rather than 'on holiday', you don't want unsavoury sorts visiting your address when you are actually on holiday

As long as your customers are aware of a potential delay in fulfillment and their expectations managed there is no reason to suspend ordering through your online shop.

 

[deniser]

We recommend saying something along the lines of 'Seasonal Stock Check' rather than 'on holiday', you don't want unsavoury sorts visiting your address when you are actually on holiday

Yes of course - ours are commercial premises open to the public so we have to say we're closed anyway - but you're quite right as the OP is working from home.

 

[stugster]

Is this really the best thread of UKBF? :/

 

[Matt1959]

Is this really the best thread of UKBF? :/

took 3 minutes to suss what you were on about there - great point. Perhaps theres a big list of threads and a pin

 

[taggingsupplies]

Simply state on the homepage " Hi sorry we cant process orders until we get back from our holidays" Once we get a tan we will come straight back and ship out all your goodies.

Its really that simple

 

[Nathanto]

Definitely don't close the site but do let customers know in advance that there will be delays.

I've found that rather than plaster the delay message on your homepage or product pages it works better to only raise the delay issue in the cart so rather than put people off while they are browsing they will have already decided to buy and can then decide whether a few days delay is acceptable to them or not.

If you're taking a laptop on holiday with you and don't mind 'working' for 10 minutes every day or so then you can always update your delay message - so it'll say a '7 day delay' before you leave, but in the middle of your hols it'll be down to a '3 day delay' etc which is a much lesser objection to most people.

Or do what I did for the first six years of my first business and simply don't go on holiday except for a week at Christmas.

 

[tony84]

have you nbot got a relative capable of spending an hour for say 2 nights during the week?
Say you go away on the monday, get a relative round on the wednesday and friday?

My mum used to run a website and if i stayed home she would ask me to do it, if i was away she would ask her sister to check emails and send parcels for her. You can answer emails from your holiday if you set aside 2 lots of 30 minutes a day it shouldnt ruin your holiday.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

It depends on the expected turn around time of your orders?

I currently work on a standard 'up to 10 days' which gives me just about enough time to get a 7 day break in

 

[4little1s]

Laptop with a 3G card, message on the website advising of shipping date will be xyz usually does it. Relative and friend with basic awareness of where the stock is and pack it up, take it to the post office. light aside, I read a Richard Branson book awhile ago and he said even on Necker Island he works 10 mins a day or something sending emails / doing stuff etc