I wanted to touch on a topic that sooo many people that have build successful online (and offline) businesses usually negate to talk about. When reading a biography or a “my story” page about a professional blogger, real estate professional, or any work-at-home professional they mention the countless hours they spent in their downtime to startup their company.

Business owners in the early stages will work nights and weekends (and any other times around their fulltime job) to just find one more piece of the puzzle. To just put together one more item, or educate themselves on cutting-edge technology, or to learn people skills, or to learn the newest marketing tactics. You get the picture.

Many entrepreneurs got started in their endeavor on a part-time basis while still working a fulltime job. One thing that I have never seen mentioned is the fact that many up-and-coming business owners do this will actually take time off from their fulltime jobs to work on their business.

Why? If you haven’t already figured out if you’re an employee, your purpose at the company you work for is to grow/maintain the equity in that company. If you’re in sales, you need to expand the company’s incoming revenue stream. If you’re in marketing, you need to continue to get the leads for the reps and/or brand your company or product (and many other things). If you’re in customer service, you need to maintain your company’s clients. I could go on forever.

The whole thing, though, is you’re growing the assets of the company (and hopefully your income as well) but you have no control over your role because you don’t OWN any part of it! Working in sales, I had a control over how many phone calls I made, appointments I setup, and sales. Thus, I thought I had control over my income. More work, more money. But if somewhere up in the company they decide they want to make some plans to expand, but lack the capital, who’s to say they aren’t cutting my commission? Great news for the company; it’s growing. Bad news for me, the employee.

By using your vacation time (and your off-hours time) to create your own business, you’re creating an asset for yourself. If you don’t want your job you can quit, but you won’t continue to receive compensation from it. If you sell your business, you can get a chunk of cash. Make sense?

By utilizing your vacation time to work on your business, you’re growing an asset that will continue to bring you income in the future. Now, I’m not saying don’t take a trip or relax when you need to. I’m saying invest in yourself and your business. Create an asset for yourself, not someone else.