My Best Maternity leave tips
Earlier this week, one of my business friends shared with me that she is pregnant and asked for my advice about navigating maternity leave as an entrepreneur. If you didn't know, I love it when people ask for my advice. So I spilled my most valuable take-aways, and I thought you might like to read 'em, too.
If you (or your partner) are expecting, or you're hoping to get pregnant soon, this blog is for you.
HANDLING SALES
My plan was to take three months of leave and not be involved in my business at all, so I hired a contractor to perform the role of “salesperson” while I was away. I also had a team of writers, so if the salesperson booked any projects the work could be done immediately. If this is not your situation, though, the person could book the projects for when you return from leave. I paid them per lead, since they would be emailing back and forth with every inquiry, and awarded an additional bonus if the lead advanced to the proposal stage, even if they didn't book. To me, this pay structure was the ideal way of compensating for the level of work they put in while also incentivizing them to feel invested in the sales process (without rewarding for the sale itself, because that's not in their control).
If I were to do it all again, I think I would maintain the sales work myself. Babies sleep a lot in the early days, and it only took me four weeks before I started to go stir-crazy and want to work. To do this, I would probably check email once a day or every other day, and then schedule sales calls for one day a week with a lot of notice so that I could guarantee childcare was available.
HIRING A VA
I think having a VA around while you’re on leave can be helpful if:
you’re actually going to take the time off and not be involved in your business at all, and
the person is well trained before you take leave so that part A can be successful.
Here’s an exercise I’d recommend to see if hiring a VA would help you: write down a list of all the things you do in a week and then mark whether each item can be delayed, delegated, or if you and you alone must do this task. From there, you may feel more confident with your VA needs.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
I'd recommend saving enough money to cover your salary while you're away, and then not spending it in advance of leaving. Which is something I didn't do. 😬 I did have enough saved, but unknowingly spent it in the months leading up to my leave by anxiously hiring help too early and training them thoroughly. If you've been on this email list for a while, you may remember when I shared about having to cut the team's rates (a humiliating experience where I felt bad for me and even worse for them), and I ended up having to come back from leave early to help cut costs with the hired help.
Continuing with the money topic, I believe my business growth was stunted (and therefore has financially suffered) because of my leave. Here I am, almost a year later, and my business still hasn't recovered. And I'm not sure that it really will until I'm back in the office for 8 hours a day, which is something I don't plan on doing until Leo and future Baby #2 are both in school.
As we all know, money issues don't just impact your bank account. It's also affected my mental health, as a lot of my identity is wrapped up in being a successful, capable small business owner. I knew going into this that my business would take a hit, and I'm willing to make that sacrifice to take an active role in growing my family, but I didn't anticipate how much of a mind-fuck it would be. In the early days, I would feel jealous of my partner who could leave and go to work where he was respected, experienced, and knew the right answer, while I was stuck with a baby who cried perpetually and I had no idea why. Those feelings of frustration have since subsided, but have been replaced with resentment for his career growth while my business has been stunted. Tackling these emotions is a daily journey, and one you should be prepared for.
OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Send your clients personalized emails in the months prior to your departure with your pregnancy announcement, departure and return dates, how their projects will be handled, who to contact with an emergent issue, alternate contacts, etc.
Around the same time, you should also add a P.S. to your email signature with a reminder about your upcoming maternity leave.
Find fellow parent entrepreneurs who you can connect with upon your return. I especially recommend these parents having kids the same age as yours. Not that it isn't helpful to hear from folks with older kids, but it's not the same because they're not living with the frustrations at the same time as you. They'll keep saying "that's normal" and "they'll grow out of it," and sometimes that was really hard to hear when I was in the thick of it.
IF YOU WANT EVEN MORE
I've spoken on two podcasts about this topic recently, if you're eager for more content from me on this topic. This one's about babies, business, and postpartum depression. This one's about mompreneurship and loneliness.
xoxo,
Taylor
