After giving birth to my daughter, Sloane, in February 2020, the first few months as a new mum were anything but ordinary. With a three week old Sloane in a sling, I had to quickly restructure my business as a result of the pandemic. It’s safe to say my first maternity leave didn’t go quite as planned.
While these unusual circumstances threw me a curveball, switching off for maternity leave when you work for yourself can be a challenge anyway, pandemic or not.
Somehow I still managed to find a way to switch off and enjoy some small pockets of time with my newborn. And having just given birth to my second daughter Isla, I would love to share a few pieces of advice.
Remove general inboxes from your phone
When I see customer emails come in I can’t help but want to respond or the email will play on my mind. To make sure I’m giving myself and my baby the bonding time we need I’ve removed all general email inboxes from my phone to avoid over-worrying about the little things. I’ve kept my personal direct email addresses but have an autoresponder that directs that person to the right team member. If it's really important I’ll pick it up when I can.
Hire a VA
I had a virtual assistant before I had my babies and have always seen the value, but whilst trying to switch off during maternity leave I find this support even more valuable.
Having a VA to do bookkeeping, HR and liaise with accountants can save hours of time and removes you as the business owner from these business operation tasks. Our VA has also helped me with personal admin including items for the baby. I have a VA for 8 hours per month and it costs around £200 - money well spent.
Hire the right team
Obviously, this is revenue dependent, but the best investment you can make in your business, especially if you are a new mama, is in your team. Hiring people who do their job well and can trust is important but it’s also crucial that you have spent the time training them and have put together processes for when away. It does take time and energy to do this but will lead to a smoother time whilst off.
Find ways to stay in the loop
I like to stay in touch, and to keep myself up to date on what is going on I use a few methods. This is relayed to the team so we all work in the same way and are speaking the same language.
We use Asana for day to day task management, it’s mainly so I can check in and see what has been marked as completed without asking the team. I also try to join the weekly Monday catch up. I’m usually feeding at this time so I’ll have my camera off and even stay in my PJs if we’ve been up a lot of the night, but it’s just a great way for me to stay in the loop.
Prepare your team
Spend time putting together a process handbook so your team knows how to handle situations. Be clear on how the team can get hold of you. If you are switching off emails or Slack then let them know what the best method of contacting you is. This will also stop you worrying that there is something in your inbox that is important and therefore checking it.
Plan activities for you and your new baby
As a business owner, I find if I am at home, all day every day, I will work, check emails, and turn on Slack.
My first maternity leave was incredibly tough because we were in lockdown, so I found myself back at my laptop whilst feeding my daughter.
This time, I’ve taken two full months off and have decided I won’t be doing any work. To make sure I stick with this and don’t gravitate back towards the laptop, I’ve started to book in friends and family to stay, playdates and I have joined Peanut to meet other mums in my area. If you are naturally someone that can’t switch off I think having other things booked will help with that ‘not working on your business’ guilt.
Remember...
...finding your feet with a newborn can be hard and emotional. Never mind the fact that your body is recovering from carrying a baby for nine months and then giving birth.
I always try to be honest with myself and my employees about how I’m feeling. We are an all female team and I find it helps to say “I’m struggling a bit today would you guys mind helping me” or “I need to rest”.