Do you hire seasonal employees during summer or the holidays? How do you handle your own or full-time employee's vacations at those popular times of year?

We are all trained to work extra hours and just know that this is the time of year for hard retail and no one goes anywhere the last quarter! If someone must go, we work around it. The owner (me) is usually left working when the others travel for the holidays to see family.

I have never taken a real vacation from my shop in eight years. Every time I leave for one, I end up working the entire time. I took six days off last September and there was a major fire to put out while I was gone.

Unfortunately, if you are in business for yourself without a partner, this may always be the case. This is why I always try to schedule two days before or after market to visit the city I am in, sleep late, discover new restaurants and try to relax. It is short lived, but it is something.

My business is fairly steady from May onwards because of the way our town is set up with our Shakespeare festival. I don't hire anyone as intentional seasonal employees, but often that's what happens because I have four college students who are part time employees, and they become available for full-time work during the summer and the holidays, which works out nicely. They are also available on evenings and weekends, which tend to be our busiest times. We have a nice relationship with the college students and they often fill most of our seasonal needs because of their availabilities.

Vacations are always a challenge. We ask our employees to let us know as far out in advance as possible when they want to take their vacations because that allows us to plan and make sure we don't have any shortages on the sales floor. We recognize how important it is to accommodate our employees and we haven't had too many problems with that. Because I have school-age children we try to get away for at least a week during the summer, and other than that it is whenever it fits in.

We are fortunate that we do not have to deal with the problem of full time employees and vacations, nor do we hire seasonal help. The size of our store limits the number of employees we have (it is only 500 square feet). During peak times, such as holidays and our special events, we are fortunate to be able to draw on our family to assist us. We can also count on their assistance when we attend any buying shows. They are more than willing to work at the store for us. They enjoy the break from their children for a while and to them, it is fun. So while we can manage this way, we will continue to do so.