This is a holiday salute to all you men and women who work for yourselves. I hope you're reading this column while sitting around the kitchen table in your bathrobe and drinking coffee. However, with Christmas rapidly approaching, I know that many of you will be hurriedly page-snapping through the newspaper at the counter at work ... if you get a chance to read it at all.

That's because, while most of America slows down to enjoy the year-end holiday, this is the busy time for many small business owners and self-employeds. Besides, there’s no such thing as an "I've-got-two-weeks-off-and-it's-on-the-schedule-so-I'm-going” vacation for business owners. When there's work to be done, you do it.

I recall my first Christmas in business. I worked out of an office in my basement. My entire Christmas vacation consisted of a two-hour break on Christmas morning to open gifts around the tree, plus another two hours for dinner with my family.

Over the years, things got easier. I got to travel and take pretty good vacations now and then. Still, some things never do change. That’s the funny thing about business. Sure, it can provide a great lifestyle, but ONLY if you keep pushing it day after day after day.

Because of the state of the economy this year, a lot of us are making a Hail Mary play (a go-for-broke, desperate and long football pass with only seconds left on the clock). After all, if it’s not a good December, January could be one tough month.

Recommendation: First of all, do what you have to do to capture the holiday business. If it means working 16-hour days between now and January 1, so be it. The Nike folks said a lot when they said, “Just do it!” Then when you’re ready, when the dust settles, take a nice vacation … but do it in January.

The idea is to (a) give you something to look forward to while you’re double-timing it through December and (b) reward your hard work with a late Christmas present. Oh, and it doesn’t have to be a week in Tahiti or a cruise around the Caribbean. How about a few days in a B & B in Door County? An overnighter in Chicago for dinner and a play? Or even a mini-escape to the Dells?

Two rules: First, do not go alone, but with your spouse, significant other or just a good buddy. Second, turn off your e-connection. Leave the computer home and the cell phone in the glove box.

So, back to December. Here's to the hard-working business folks who would rather work 18 hours a day for themselves than eight hours for someone else, and who may in fact be working on Christmas Day.  To entrepreneurs who keep their restaurants open late and open early just to boost their top and bottom lines by one or two percent. To the convenience store owners who will be there on Christmas Day so that those families that run out of butter can be sure to have it. To the self-employed men and women who have a drop-dead deadline of December 24 … even though the client will be taking the entire next week off.
And to the thousands of other business people throughout Wisconsin who make sure that — when the consumer wants to order a nice meal, get a good deal on a new car, wear clean shirts, have the dog groomed or schedule a long vacation next month — the product and service will be there.

So, to all of you, the best of the holiday to you ... whenever you get the chance to celebrate it.

By John Ingrisano

John Ingrisano is a small business owner and the author of The Back to Basics Book of Selling: A Guide to A Successful Sales Career. Contact John at john@ TheFreestyleEntrepreneur.com.