No matter how much you love your job, everyone needs a break from work now and then. Whether you’re vacationing for a few days or a few weeks, it’s important to know how to keep your mortgage business running without the wheels falling off. This is even more important during peak busy times like we’re in right now.

With a little bit of planning ahead, you can be sure your business stays track while you’re taking a break. Even better, this also makes returning to work so much easier because you’ll know exactly what you need to do when you jump back in.

Here’s what you can do right now that will help you get maximum enjoyment out of that upcoming vacation.

Set and Honor a Schedule

The mortgage industry is currently the busiest it’s ever been, which is fantastic! But the extra work does make it harder to step away. This means that you may opt to do some work while you’re on vacation.

If you decide to take a working vacation, set a schedule for yourself before you leave. You might want to wake up a few hours early before everyone else and jump in and tackle your inbox, check in with your team, handle any new leads, work on new applications and finish up any other current client work. Or you may find that it works better for you to do some work as you’re winding down in the evening.

No matter what you decide, set boundaries around this time and honor them! Don’t let work take up your whole day and dampen your summer fun.

Keep Your Clients “In the Know”

Communicating with clients in advance can prevent time-consuming problems while you’re gone, making things a lot easier for you and your team.

For your clients who are currently in the process of getting a loan, let them know whether or not you’ll be working during your vacation, and if so, when and how they can contact you and when they should expect to hear back. If you’d rather have them contact someone on your team, be sure to give them a name and contact information.

If there are any other questions or issues that may come up while you’re out, play it safe and address them with your clients in advance. Remember, proactive communication is the name of the game.

Be sure to tell clients when you’ll be available for them again. It’s smart to give yourself a couple of days to get back into the swing of things in the office before you get new issues on your plate. If you’re arriving back on a Monday, consider telling clients you’ll be available to help them starting on Wednesday.

Last, don’t forget to cancel or reschedule any recurring meetings or standing calls. Nothing’s worse than sitting on the beach, book in hand, and having to rush to cancel an appointment.

Make Technology Work for You While You’re Gone

Technology helps keep your business going even while you’re away, so utilize it to make your job easier while you’re gone. This might require you to do some extra work before your vacation, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind you’ll get. If you want, plan to spend an extra hour or two on these tasks each day before your vacation so they’re all done when it’s time to relax.

Mobile App

Our Mobile App allows you to connect with new or existing customers by simply leveraging what’s in your back pocket. You can leverage this for all your incoming applications and get status updates for you, your client and your real estate agent. This full-service app allows you to truly run all aspects of your business without ever leaving the beach!

Email Management

If you send out emails to your database on a regular basis, consider scheduling emails to continue to send while you’re away. You can even reference some of things you’ll be doing while you’re on vacation to keep them personal and engaging.

APConnect

APConnect allows you to continue to build a pipeline of new business while you’re busy working with existing clients (or, you know, are enjoying some time off). With APConnect, you keep building and nurturing purchase business for the months to come with our team of trained sales professionals. When they’re ready for a warm transition to you, our team will let you know.

Social Media

Social media schedulers like Buffer, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite allow you to schedule social media posts in advance so you don’t have to take a hiatus from your followers. If you want to pop in with photos of your vacation, that’s great, too. People love seeing what you’re up to outside of the office!

Leverage Your Team

Decide who will do what while you’re out of the office and set those roles with your team members ahead of time so they can ask questions and feel fully prepared, even when emergencies come up. A little preparation will ensure that your team knows how to handle various problems while you’re away without needing to involve you.

It’s a smart idea to appoint a second in command who has the main responsibility for solving problems or needs that come up, but let the rest of your team know that they may need to jump in and help, too. You’ll also want to assign someone to answer emails, handle incoming leads and deal with other tasks that you do on a daily basis.

Tell the team what needs to get done while you’re gone and how to accomplish tasks if they’re not ones they normally handle. Leave detailed instructions, or better yet, give them video tutorials so they can re-watch them if they need to.

Let your team know when they should get in touch with you, and tell them what emails you’d like to be included on (consider asking that they include you only on essential emails so you won’t have as much correspondence to catch up on when you get home). An end-of-the-day summary email can be a helpful way to stay in the know about what’s happening back at the office.

Last, give your team any outside resources or contacts they may need so they can solve problems without having to get you involved.

A little planning and preparation can go a long way toward helping you get the most out of your vacation. And the more you enjoy your vacation, the more your business will benefit in the long run.