Are you a mompreneur getting ready to have a baby? Wondering how you will ever take a maternity leave? I am here to tell you it is possible. I did it and so can you. I am so glad I had a maternity leave plan for my new business and I want to share it with you today.
Trust me...once your little one arrives in the world, he or she will be your number one priority. I, like you, thought I would have time to work. It's maternity leave, I could fit in a little work here and there, right? WRONG! My struggles with breastfeeding and multiple doctor's appointments to get my newborn daughter weighed and make sure she was growing put all hopes of working to the backburner.
My business HAD to work because I told my boss I wasn't coming back after maternity leave. So I did have this fire under me that it HAD to work no matter what and that helped.
It's not impossible. Here are five things I did that helped me take a 2 month maternity leave as a new mom:
1. Pre-schedule all social media and blog content for 2 months after baby.
As a soon-to-be working mom, you are not allowed to pretend like you will have a minute to do this when your newborn arrives. Just pre-schedule your content ahead of time. Trust me, you'll have enough other things to worry about such as keeping your baby alive!
For your blog: Ask guest writers to contribute. Get their posts before the baby comes and schedule it so it publishes automatically. Take an old post and schedule it again. Your readers probably never saw the first post anyways and you can always change it up a little to help with SEO.
For your social media: Once again, recycle old content. Do you know how many posts you already made over the last year? Look at the best ones and schedule 1-2 posts per day for the next 2 months.
2. Set a hard date when you will STOP all work.
I recommend at 38 weeks because you just ever know what your birth story will be. Then if your baby comes later, that's just extra time and we all know there is plenty to do right before baby comes too....like read a book, eat spicy wings and try to walk around Target with everyone staring at you.
3. Download podcasts to get you motivated during maternity leave.
You may not have a hand to read but trust me, you may need a special friend motivating you at 3am nursing sessions. I was so glad I had some special podcasts and audios ready on my phone to help me get through some late nights and to encourage me to get my business brain back. brain is for real....
4. Create an automatic sales funnel.
You need your business to work without you for at least 1-2 months. For that reason, I recommend a sales funnel that runs while you sleep (or in this case...don't sleep).
-You determine how people will find out about you (automatically) which are your leads.
-Then, you turn those leads into prospects by getting their email address or contact information.
-Finally, you turn your prospects into customers.
The first two you can do automatically during your maternity leave. Here's how I did it....
At the time of my maternity leave, I had a service based career coaching business. When I wasn't giving birth, I was usually turning my prospects into customers by talking to people during free sessions. This is highly recommended if you are a rather new business owner because there is way more trust when you talk to someone on the phone or in person.
So, I automatically got leads by running a Facebook ad to an optin page. (My optin page of choice is leadpages.net). I welcomed people to watch a free video where I reviewed my 7-step Get Your Career Unstuck system. I also linked pre-scheduled social media content everyday to this page during maternity leave as well.
I ran an autoresponder campaign with 7 days of emails and great content not selling anything. All I did was welcomed them to sign-up for a free strategy session with me when I returned from maternity leave. When I came back from maternity leave and had my mompreneur brain back, I had a full calendar of people ready to talk to my about my services and my courses. I was overbooked by month 3 and even launched a brand new course by month 4 which was the highest revenue month for my business EVER.
5. Work on your mompreneur mindset.
Ask for help. You can't do it alone. People WANT to help. Please know this. The wonderful women at my church brought me dinner and it was so appreciated. My mother-in-law just came over to hold Mila so my husband and I could run an errand...alone. It's the little things and self-care must be a priority for you. You must take care of you, Ms..
Remember, you will be a better mom if you are taking care of yourself too. It's ok to say no. You don't have to do everything. Make sure you know your priorities and try to simplify things as much as possible. You will be ok. You can do this. Deep breath!
What do you think? Is maternity leave for mompreneurs possible?
About the Author
Anna is the founder of Classy Career Girl, named by Forbes as one of the top 35 most influential career sites of 2014. She helps millions of women design and launch their dream careers, businesses and lives through her website, online courses and social media channels.
