Early Pregnancy & Self Employed - when to tell clients?

[Alohomora07]

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place for this question!

I'm looking for some advice. I run a small baking business making wedding and celebration cakes. I have just found out that I am pregnant (4+1 today), but have wedding cakes booked in for next year which, if all goes well, I will not be able to carry out.

I'm really stuck about what to do and whether to already cancel some of the wedding bookings I have. Weddings are booked so far in advance that I'm not sure it's fair to only give 6 months notice to people. However my pregnancy is so early on that it feels a bit premature to be making decisions right now.

Can I ask you what you would do in this situation? Would you wait until 12 weeks to be more sure? Or would you cancel clients now without giving a reason?

Thanks for any and all advice!

If I was you I'd wait until you're 12 weeks and are comfortable with the world knowing you're pregnant. They'll understand, it can't be helped xx

Hi,

I am freelance self-employed also. I didn't tell anyone till after 20 weeks and only told people before that if the deadline would likely be unachievable i.e. during my expected maternity leave.

My work is slightly different as I rely on good clients with repeat business but I guess Wedding Cakes you don't get repeat clients - but you do need a good reputation for reliability.

Work I couldn't do I passed onto someone I know very well and trusted to both do a good job and not permanently nick my business. Do you know anyone locally who you could do that with as in my experience my clients appreciated that I was helping to solve their problem which was good for my long term reputation!

I know a few bakers who have been in this situation and they have announced after their first scan.

The ones I know have tried not to cancel any existing bookings (so sort of working in their 'maternity leave' using family/friends to help with baby on those cakes) but won't take any more on. If they have had to cancel, they have made sure to put the customer in touch with another local baker of similar standard who they trust.

Hope this helps and congratulations! :)

Congratulations on your lovely news. I'm self employed as a wedding cake maker as well.
I agree with the posters above. I unfortunately learned from experience. I got pregnant and cancelled an order for the month of my due date at only 6 wks pregnant, though I didn't tell the customer why, just that it was no longer feasible and put her in touch with other bakers.
Unfortunately, I lost that baby and would have been able to fulfil the order.
Though it's much more likely things will be fine, I think it's best to wait until after 12 wks.
All the best.

Wait for the 20 week scan but scout out another lovely baker who you can pass the business on to.

Thanks everyone, this is super helpful!

@Lilly1207 Thank you, I do hope they will understand. I think I just feel sympathetic for the couples I will be letting down and want to help them as soon as possible. But I think waiting for the 12 week mark is sensible!!

@Rideforthehills Thanks for your comments, particularly around finding someone else to take over the job. When it gets closer to the time I will approach some other bakers I know on their behalf :) I'm only looking at having to cancel jobs which are soon after my due date, I will (I think) be able to do all the jobs booked in before as there is a 2 month gap between the last cake booking I can do and my due date.

@Stephisaur Thanks for your advice, unfortunately we don't have any family close by so I don't want to risk doing any cakes in the first 3 months after my due date. There's one in particular that is heavily decorated and therefore quite a physical job that I think I may really struggle with. I am definitely going to contact some other bakers and try and find solutions for the customers before telling them. Thanks again!

@SW2Sugar Thanks so much for your comments, and I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. I'm planning to take on board all the advice and wait until after the first scan at least and put them in touch with another baker. Thanks again for taking the time to comment :)

@aetw Thanks for commenting, I'm definitely going to wait for a scan before doing anything!