Self-employed, really confused a to when to give up

[blondebaby111]

I'm self-employed in the beauty trade and have worked my butt off for the last 10 years to build up my business and I have a lot of loyal regular customers.
My first baby is due is jan and I'm so torn by when to actually call it a day for a little while. Obviously Xmas is coming up and people want everything done but I don't know whether to give a date I finish and stick by it or take it a few weeks at a time. It's so much easier if I worked for someone as there is always someone else to take over the work but when u work for yourself it's you and you alone. Being xmastime too it's a busy time so j don't want to put my health and babies health in jeopardy. I have had a really lovely pregnancy, I feel great but how long that will carry on for I don't know.
I guess this he just a little rant and I hate letting people down but anyone else feel like me?? Xx

I totally understanding!

Im self employed & work from home. Im actually only stopping work for 2or 3 weeks as the baby is due the end of January & January's always busy for me.

I hate letting my clients down. There's no one I can pass the work onto & money is a big issue as im the main earner.

I hate being self employed!

Yep it's a tough one...could you do something like reducing the number of appointments you are booking in near the end, so that you know you've got a manageable workload/3 day week or whatever? You could then maybe open up extra appointments at short notice if you felt up to it?

I totally sympathise. I'm a self employed hairdresser, have been for 16 years. This is my 1st baby and I'm not due till March. My decision has been to take every day as it comes. I keep on getting asked the question of when I'm going off and how long for. As it's my 1st baby I'm not exactly sure. I suppose it all comes down to feeding and how easy or hard I'm finding it but tbh the though of losing some of the customers I've built up over the past 16 years is scary so I'm now wondering about going back just at weekends when my dh will b there, but then on the other hand I don't want to miss out on my baby. Other people don't so why should I just because some1 wants a hair cut!

Prob not been much help as u can tell I'm quite confused lol x

Don't forget you can do 10 keeping in touch days, to keep your business ticking over, in the same way as employed people can. It isn't much but it could allow you to stay off longer (if you are claiming maternity allowance that is). When I called the helpline they said that those days could be as many hours as I could realistically do, it was up to me. Also in terms of deciding on a date for claiming purposes, they ask for a date on the first form and then ask for the date you actually go off on subsequent forms. All this is highly irrelevant if you aren't claiming MA and you just want advice on when to stop. I did two weeks before due date but everyone's pregnancy and circumstances are different.

I am also self employed, but not due any maternity allowance.

I've decided to let people know exactly when ill be closing each part of my business and what they can do in the meantime and then also when it will all be back up and running. That way they have plenty of notice and I don't feel like 'just squeezing one more in' all the way up to giving birth.

If I was you, I'd work up til Christmas Eve and then take the rest of December and January off. Do you go to people's houses? I'm sure you could work with baby in tow if you wanted. That is what I am doing when I go back (but my job is baby related). Little babies sleep a lot of the time and I'm sure your clients would love to coo over little one.

It just goes to show that working for yourself has plenty of advantages but also a lot of disadvantages. I do go to people's houses and once baby is here I'm taking a few months off which people know about although it does concern me will I have a business to come back to, but my main issue is when to stop and say enough is enough. If I give a certain date I finish then everyone will want me the week before which is just not possible.

I've worked hard to build this up but I know I can't possibly do the amount of hours I do now with a little one so I know I will have to lose some eventually. Dp wants me packing up early dec unless people can travel to me. I think I will take it a few weeks st a time and see how I go and just warn people I may or may not be available in dec.

Thanx for all your advice and good luck to all u others that are in the same position as me xx