The Holiday Week Test

If your business can't get through one holiday week without you answering the phone, your team isn't the problem. The way the work gets done only lives in your head. Here's how to test it, and where to start before Thanksgiving.

If your business can't get through one holiday week without you answering the phone, your team isn't the problem. The problem is that how the work gets done only lives in your head.

Your team isn't the problem

When owners tell me they can't take time off, they usually blame the team. Nobody steps up. Nobody makes a call without asking first.

I get it. But look at what actually happens when your phone rings on a day off. Somebody needs a price. Somebody needs a password. A customer wants money back, and nobody knows if they're allowed to say yes.

None of that is about effort. Your people are calling because the answer isn't anywhere they can find it. It's in you. Given what they have to work with, calling you is the right move.

That's fixable. And it costs a lot less than replacing anybody.

Why this year is tighter

Thanksgiving is November 26. Christmas is on a Friday. Those are the weeks you want off, and they fall right in the busiest part of the year. The phone doesn't know it's a holiday.

Extra help is also harder to count on. Challenger, Gray & Christmas expects retailers to hire about 450,000 seasonal workers this year. That's down from 461,500 last year, which was already the lowest number since 2008. Those are retail numbers, but most small businesses hire from the same pool of part-timers and students. There are fewer of them looking.

So the people you already have will cover more. They can only do that if the answers are written down before you leave.

Take the test

Here's a quick way to see where you stand. Check each statement that's true today. Not "true once I get around to it." True today.

What your score is telling you

Look at the boxes you didn't check. They usually fall into three groups.

Access. Logins, the schedule, invoices. The information already exists. It's just stuck behind your account. This is the fastest to fix, often in one afternoon.

Decisions. Quotes, refunds, vendor payments, complaints. Your people usually know what to do. They just don't know if they're allowed to. You fix that with a limit, and you don't need a manual for it. "Refunds up to [dollar amount] are your call. Anything over that waits for me."

Know-how. Answering the phone, the steps for the job, knowing what counts as an emergency. This takes the longest, because you have to write down things you do without thinking.

Fix them in that order. Access gets your team unstuck the fastest. Decision limits cut the most calls. Know-how is the work that keeps paying off long after the holidays.

Where I'd start this week

1. Keep a question log. For five working days, write down every question anyone brings you on one sheet of paper. Just the question. No answers yet.

2. Circle the top three. Write each answer the way you'd say it out loud, about a paragraph each. Put all three in one shared place your team already checks.

3. Set your limits. Pick a dollar amount for refunds, discounts, and supply orders your team can approve without you. Write it down. Then tell them out loud, so they know you mean it.

4. Get logins out of your head. Set up a password manager. That's an app that stores your logins and shares them with your team, so nobody has to text passwords around. Pick one with a team plan.

5. Run a practice day. Pick a weekday in early November. Keep your phone off until 3 p.m. Have the team write down everything they needed you for. Those are the next answers you write down.

Owners skip the practice day more than any other step. Don't. You'd much rather find the gap on a Tuesday in November than the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Steal this

The week you actually get

You don't need a perfect operations manual by Thanksgiving. You need the ten answers your team keeps calling you for, written down where they can find them.

Get those written down and the phone can stay in a drawer. If it rings anyway, it'll be for something that really needs you.

What we’re watching

• Retailers plan about 450,000 seasonal hires this year, the third drop in a row. They're leaning on automation, current staff, and on-demand gig workers instead (Challenger, Gray & Christmas). Plan to cover the rush with the people you already have.

• Adobe expects $47.5 billion in online sales over the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, up 7.4%. Black Friday is growing fastest, up 9.2%. The busiest stretch lands on the same week most owners want off.

• Deloitte forecasts $1.70 to $1.71 trillion in holiday retail sales from November through January, up 4.0% to 4.8%. The rush keeps going after December 25, so your cover plan should too.

Written by

Greg — the operator

Restaurants and retail taught him how teams really work. Anthropology taught him to watch the people. Now he fixes how your business runs.