A retreat for business owners who can see burnout coming

The stage before the crash

You know the signs because you have been ignoring them. The Sunday night dread. Waking at four with the business already running in your head. Decisions that used to take a minute taking a week. A bit more wine than there used to be, a bit less exercise, and a sentence that begins 'when this quarter is done'.

Burnout does not arrive. It accumulates. The useful moment is now, while you still have the energy to do something about it, and while the business is still doing well enough to pay for the fix.

Why a month, not a week

A week off makes you feel better and changes nothing, because you come back to the same week you left. A month is long enough for three things to happen. Your body comes down: sleep settles around the second week once the alcohol and the four o'clock emails are gone. Your habits shift while somebody is watching, which is the only way habits shift. And the business shows you, day by day, that it survives without your fourteen-hour days.

What changes in the business

Burnout in an owner is usually a structure problem dressed up as a personal one. You are the bottleneck, the business is built around you being the bottleneck, and every month of growth makes it worse.

Three business mentors come during the month, one a week. They have scaled and sold businesses, and they are good at a particular question: what here can only you do, and what have you kept because nobody else would do it your way? Twice a week the group takes one real problem from one business and works it. You leave with a 90-day plan with fewer things on it than the one you arrived with. More on the mentoring in the founder retreat note.

What changes in you

Savi's holistic and mental wellbeing coach stays the whole month and works with you one to one on the practical things: sleep, stress, the routines that have fallen away, and the head. Mornings are breathwork, yoga, mobility or a swim in the sea. Dinner is at one long table with eleven people who understand what you carry, cooked by a chef. Nobody will ask you to journal about your inner child. It is practical.

Not a clinic, and not a holiday

Two honest limits. Sojourns is not medical treatment. If you are already in crisis, see your doctor first. This is for the stage before, for prevention and for rebuilding the business so it stops doing this to you.

And it is not a holiday. You will work. The day has a protected block for it, with a desk and a connection, because owners who cannot disappear for a month are exactly who this is for. See running your business from the retreat.

Who it's for

• You own a business that works, pays well and is growing.
• You have let the body slide and you know it.
• You can run the business from a laptop for a month, with a few flights if needed.
• You want the next stage to go better, for the business and for you.

Questions

Is this a treatment programme for burnout?

No. Sojourns is not medical and does not replace a doctor. If you are already in crisis, see your doctor first. This is for the stage before: prevention, recovery of your routines, and redesigning the business so it stops burning you out.

Will I have to stop working?

No. The day has a protected block of hours for your business, with a desk and a connection. The sessions sit either side of it.

Why is it alcohol-free?

Because sleep is the first thing burnout takes and alcohol is the first thing that stops you getting it back. The month is alcohol-free in the house and out of it, for everyone.

When is it?

Twenty-eight nights in spring 2027. Applications open on 24 November 2026. Register your interest to hear first.