In September, when the kids start back in school, my skatepark was slow, even on the weekends. Kids who normally would be coming to the park were active with school friends doing things outside, or somewhere else. For this reason I recommend that in late August, early September, it is OK for you to take a break, have some vacation time with your loved ones, see your family, recharge. When I was running the park I took off very few days, and this is not healthy for your relationships, your health, and your sanity. While I understand the need to stay open, such as high rent, not wanting to miss out on potential members, or whatever, I also understand that the energy you need to meet the busy winter, the resetting of your moods and whatever else a little time off would do are also important. There are several ways you can take a break and still feel like you are doing something, but you don't have to. Your staff could use a break too, so why not now?
1. The working holiday- Take a break yourself from all that you have to do with the park while your expert builders redesign a new obstacle, or have your manager rework your inventory, inspect and justify all your supplies, and design and implement a new fall sale. The idea here is that others can keep working to have a great kickoff for fall while you take a needed break. Hopefully you ended the summer with a flush of summer camp money, and this can help take care of these expenses.
2. The total break- everyone is off for a week or two (or 3 if you can afford it). This will help everyone get things done they have been putting off, see their folks.
3. Trusted management keeps the place open. This is an owner's break and doesn't mean that you have to not keep running. If you have staff you trust, then they should be able to keep the park running while you are away. Several things are needed for this to work however. As I stated earlier, if you end of summer was anything like mine, it could be really slow and then having a staff on would be costly for what little gain you would have. Plus what would having it open do to your anxiety level? Ask yourself if you would constantly want to know how things were going, and whether this would interrupt your break. If you are OK with this type of stressor, then would having a check-in plan help? Maybe you have a call to you every other day, or something like that. You can also install, if you haven't already, web cams to watch what is going on in your park. These could be a good idea for security purposes anyway and could be hooked up to a website that would record days worth of video. Whatever you do, think of your sanity and peace of mind first.
In the end you are looking for a good time to catch some rest. By taking a slow time of year off, you can address your personal needs while not hurting your bottom line. The thing you want to avoid in doing this, is taking random breaks that are unannounced and not really posted. Don't just lock your door and go on vacation, give the people proper warning first, say 2 or more weeks of notice.
