Four reasons you need a focused, entrepreneurial getaway

You’re certainly not alone in how you feel. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It’s a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Trendy terms like “boss babe” and “empire builder” glamourize what is really a lot of sweat equity, late nights, early mornings, and even loneliness. While your friends work 9-5, you may feel like the clock never stops.

A retreat could be your answer.

If your hair is looking ratty, you go get a cut and color. If your office isn’t feeling fun, you run to Homegoods and add some style. If you’re feeling like you’re running on fumes, you need the tune-up a business retreat can provide.

Three years ago, I started running business retreats for women in the Tampa Bay area. As a long-time business owner, I started thinking about how much I love talking with other business owners and how conversations with them rejuvenate my ideas and spark my drive. Also, as Tampa is full of start-ups and holds a huge community of women who run their own companies, it was a prime location to host a grown-up girls’ work and slumber party.

An idea

So, then I thought, “What would it look like to put women together for a couple of days to take the time for themselves and for their businesses? How could they supercharge their year’s goals with dedicated time to step away from distractions and dive into their dreams?”

Certainly, I didn’t put together the first business retreat, but Leap Business Retreat was the first for many of the women in my circle. I, myself, had eyeballed beautiful retreats in other states, but time and cost were often prohibitive. Being that Tampa is on the water and close to so many wonderful hotels and rentals, there was no need to step far away from our backyard to find retreat.

Here are four invaluable benefits that you’ll get from investing time away from your office when you attend a business retreat:

1. Retreats create collaborative workspaces. When you attend a retreat, you will find yourself at a relaxing location primed for rich conversations and co-thinking. Workshops, breakouts, and even downtime with another business owner or two over a glass of wine beachside will replace the isolation you may generally experience in your day to day.
2. Women need reminders that they have allies in other women. Society primes us for thoughts that other women are out to compete and outshine us. Women’s business retreats can offer a lot to resetting our mindsets around trusting, sharing, being honest about our struggles, and allowing other women to cheer for us. A tradtion at Leap Business Retreat has become to leave words of encouragement and praise for others on tags we hang on a tree. At the end of the retreat, I read those words aloud, and I find that what one woman wrote for another generally resonates wtih us all. Retreats restore the belief that other women want to see us win.
3. You will realize you need more restorative time. I’ve seen many women convince themselves their families can’t run if they break away for a couple of days. However, I’ve also seen many women take the plunge to step away for time to themselves and quickly recognize the power of time away for restoration. I feel most women don’t even know how physically, emotionally, and spiritually depleted they are walking through their days and trying to serve their customers and families. When you take time for yourself in a beautiful, restful, and creative environment, you’ll realize taking more time for yourself makes you happier and serve better.
4. You will create an investment in yourself. Retreats have a pricetag attached to them, but I’d say that if you enter the retreat with intention (most retreats will open by helping you establish your intentions for being there), you will recoup your investment many times over. I attended a big ticket retreat event last year, and I don’t regret a cent I spent on the experience. While I was away, I talked out my business hurdles, found solutions through conversations, gained momentum for a project I was working on, and came home renewed. I implemented what I’d gained and can honestly say I recovered what I put in plus probably five fold. The intentional time to focus on myself was a smart business investment.

On April 28th and 29th, the third annual Leap Business Retreat will take place on the beautiful gulf shores of St. Pete Beach. We’re not bringing in out-of-town speakers. Rather, you’ll be hearing from women who are successfully moving businesses in the Tampa Bay market or are based here and serving global audiences. General sessions and breakouts will span topics of business finance, time management, branding, wellness, systems, delegation, public speaking, public relations and more.

Think about what two focused days could do for your growth in 2022, and maybe we’ll see you on the sand.