The Importance of an Owner Retreat for your Small Business

Intentionality as a Small Business owner means taking time to pause, reflect, and clarify

I saw the need to step away from my business periodically, to zoom out and detach myself from the day to day work so I could let insights rise from within.

The darker the days get the more I seem to come alive. I have this deep longing for warm, soft light in the darkness of the days. I think I would have felt quite at home in a long past time lit by candlesticks and scribing with an ink-dipped pen. I’m nostalgic for a time I never lived, but I fill my mornings with candlelight to conjure the feeling of warmth.

I have been dreaming lately of campfire nights under a starry sky. The thought of bundling in a blanket, keeping the cold from creeping into my bones. Craving the deep, thoughtful conversations that happen around firelight.

It strikes me how enlightened we can become when we’re free to see where conversation leads. Several years ago as I sat around a campfire on a cold January night with my friend Leana we pondered the pressure we felt each January. The pressure to have all the plans in place for our businesses right as the year began. Coming off the heals of the holidays we felt we needed time to settle in to the winter season, the new year, and a slower pace. Staring into the flames that danced across the logs we wondered what it would feel like to have more space to begin the year. And suddenly we asked why we couldn’t make that possible. An excitement brewed as we realized we could readjust our year and shift our perspective to begin our year in February and allow January the space to breathe and our intentions for the year to rise to the surface.

This wasn’t just a random night around a campfire. This was our quarterly business retreat together. A tradition that had began as a solo venture for me a year or so before.

I saw the need to step away from my business periodically, to zoom out and detach myself from the day to day work so I could let insights rise from within.

I practiced stepping away for a retreat by myself through each season that first year, but I wondered how my insights would be enhanced if I had conversation with a friend.

That first retreat with Leana proved that indeed, my insights we more substantial with a friend. I’m a great companion to myself, but having an outside voice to ask “why” and “what if” really expanded my vision of what’s possible.

Curious, I invited 2 more beloved friends to join me one-on-one for a virtual retreat that next quarter. Each of us strategic minded, valuing integrity in business, and highly self-aware. And again, the insights for each of us flooded in. We sat in awe at the simplicity of our next steps and clarity of our purpose each quarter.

I’d witnessed the value of these retreats for several years and I began implementing these conversations with the business owners I advised in Co-Packing with Ashley. The calm that settled over each of our businesses was noticeable and the focused intentions was powerful.

It’s as if these conversations sorted the jumbled pile of things we could be doing and laid them out neatly, the most important intentions sorting to priority quite easily.

In each of these retreat conversations, the intentionality to take a step back from our businesses has allowed us to realign with our desires time and time again.

To take a breath, see with clarity what the next step is, and set three intentional tasks to help us progress forward with focus.

Over and over these business owners and myself sit in amazement at the value of the conversation had. The lightness we each feel from finding focus. The surreal feeling that a few simple questions can guide a conversation to such a deep place and that our true desires can rise to the surface in this space.

And for the first time I’m openly offering these Retreat Conversations. I’d love to share space and deep conversation with you if you’d like to take a mindful step back from your business to let your insights arise and define the next quarter with focused intention.

I’m curious what do you desire? What is asking for your attention right now? What would you do if you weren’t scared?