Christmas is due in a few weeks, and most people seem geared up to take the time off and just enjoy the holidays. Still, some people would rather keep working. We are talking about entrepreneurs in this context, and there are various reasons why they’d rather keep to their desks instead of tuning out over the holiday season.
Why do these folks prefer to work during Christmas, you ask? We will look into this phenomenon in this article and talk about how different entrepreneurs behave during Christmas and other important holidays.
Reasons why entrepreneurs keep working during the holidays
A survey made by LinkedIn News Australia revealed that 20% of the responding entrepreneurs identify themselves as those who would plough on through the holidays. They have different reasons, but here are a few common ones.
- Less competition.
As approximately 80% of all entrepreneurs will take the time off or will take a less active role during the holidays, expect less competition in the market. Of course, the decrease in competition largely depends on your industry. People in the customer service industry might have a very profitable holiday, while competition may still be alive and well in retail.
- They get to play catch-up.
There is typically a slowdown in business during the holidays. Entrepreneurs often take advantage of this time to take a breather and catch up on some aspects of their business that they have not been paying attention to. This ensures that they remain productive even while they’re not making as much profit as they do at other times of the year.
- They simply work out of habit.
Some entrepreneurs work during the holidays merely out of habit. Some merely feel like taking a break during Christmas is totally unnecessary, while others are doing so to appreciate the holidays more. In this sense, they’d rather spend time working on their venture even as business has slowed down than take the time off.
What other entrepreneurs do during Christmas
The aforementioned survey also detailed the things other entrepreneurs do on the holiday season. They tend to take on the following out-of-office personas:
- “Just-looking” lurkers
Roughly 27% of the respondents, lurkers monitor their business during the holiday season, though they may not necessarily take an active role. They are essentially treading the middle ground between managing their business and having time off for Christmas.
- “On for crises” only
Comprising 27% of all the surveyed entrepreneurs, these people tune out, but will not hesitate to come running if something goes wrong and needs to be addressed immediately. This is a very reasonable attitude towards one’s business during the holiday, especially since you really can’t expect things to go right all the time even if you have closed up shop for the season.
- Totally off, folks
When these entrepreneurs close up shop for Christmas, they really mean it. Phone calls and emails to their businesses will go unanswered until they are back after the holidays. What’s more, is that they comprise the majority of the entrepreneurs in the survey at 29%.
Christmas is arguably the biggest holiday season in the West and many parts of the world. However, it’s unreasonable to expect entrepreneurs to have the same attitude towards this holiday. They have a business to worry about and would rather work on it during the season than tune out.