As business owners, Jake and Phoebe understand the challenge of taking a holiday while ensuring smooth operations and trusting your team to run the business. Your business is like your baby, and to leave it in the hands of someone else can be daunting! Temporarily closing up shop may be an option for some. But for others, like us—a home staging business with a team of over 25 staff—we didn’t think that was feasible. After all, the real estate market never takes a break! So, in this blog post, we want to share the journey of managing the team while the bosses were out of the country for Elite Retreat (a real estate conference held in Bali this year). We hope this might give you some insights into how you could implement these procedures to allow you to have a holiday too! So let’s delve into how we navigated this challenge and ensured business continuity.

During Jake and Phoebe’s time away, the team thrived thanks to the exceptional leadership of Cassie, Ebony, Russ, and Fletcher. As some of the most senior members who have been here for years, they really stepped up to the challenge. Cassie admirably filled Phoebe’s shoes. By shadowing her in the weeks leading up to the retreat, she learnt the intricacies of Phoebe’s role. Already confident with most aspects of the admin duties, Cassie just needed extra time with Phoebe in relation to answering phone calls. This helped to ensure a seamless transition of communication. Ebony stepped up to complete all the stock lists (lists of furniture selections for each property install). Meanwhile, Fletcher took charge of managing schedules, and together, he and Russ organised furniture swaps (when needed), and team allocations. They collaborated effectively together to make it feel like it was business as usual.

Effective communication was the key to maintaining a seamless operation of the business while they were away. Cassie took charge of important conversations with agents and clients, and organised and checked furniture and accessory selections. Then both Cassie and Russ stayed in contact with the team while they were out onsite. This involved tackling challenges like sorting property access, managing rain delays, and making informed decisions when issues arose. And while we attempted to limit contact with Phoebe and Jake to allow them a holiday, Cassie and Russ maintained communication to address pressing matters. Their exceptional communication and proactive approach was vital in the success of the business during Phoebe and Jake’s absence.

Trust was the bedrock of Jake and Phoebe’s ability to step away and entrust the team with running the business. While leaving your business in someone else’s hands can be daunting, the week proved that it is indeed possible to take time off and let your team shine! It involved thorough preparation, training, and ensuring that those in management positions were equipped to handle their responsibilities. Letting go and trusting your team can be challenging, especially when you’ve left big shoes to fill! But we hope Jake and Phoebe were able to relax knowing that the team were all over it. Their confidence in our team allowed them to step away with (we hope) peace of mind, knowing the team could handle their roles effectively. This experience reinforced the importance of building a reliable team, investing in their development and empowering them to enable them to carry out their duties.

For more information on how the team managed while Jake and Phoebe were away, watch the Foxy TV Episode below!

Learn more about investing in team development by reading this blog post. Or listen to this podcast to hear how Jake and Phoebe felt about their week away!

Thanks for joining us on the blog. We hope you’ve found some inspiration to try trusting your team to enable you to take a holiday from your business (even if it’s only for a couple of days)! And reach out to us on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn if you have any thoughts, comments or questions.