Maternity leave when running a business

[Ebonythoughts]

Hi all,

I’m 24 weeks pregnant with my first child. Still not at the stage to take maternity leave but wanted some advice on what this looks like when you run a business. I’m going to hire an interim manager to cover me during my leave but I don’t know how much time to take off or what I’m entitled to have during that time. At the moment I think I’m probably being a bit too naive in thinking I can manage with just 3-6 months off as everyone I know has taken the full 12 months for maternity- but they are work for organisations so our circumstances are not the same.

Has anyone taken maternity leave whilst running a business and if so, what was it like?

Any guidance or advice would be hugely appreciated. X

I don't have any experience but I know our dog groomer who owns her own place was back at work after 3 months as just no choice financially.

I guess the type of business makes a difference and whether you have any type of back up savings, if you have a partner with an income coming in etc.

I run a pet care business, I had been open only a year when I gave birth to my son. I took one month off 😅 it was hard work but I managed! I was able to take him with me and even bring my mum along for support sometimes. I'm now 14 weeks with my second child and wondering the same... How long should I take off. Financially I'm thinking the same, just a month again but depends how the birth goes etc

https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/maternity-and-parental-rights-for-self-employed-parents/

This gives info about your maternity rights

I'd say it totally depends on what you can afford and how good your manager is.

I’m wondering the same. I will definitely check out the link above.

Depending on your business, how much can you realistically put aside for yourself for 3 to 6 months? If you are bringing in a manager how much time will you have with them before you go on maternity leave?

I am looking for a community of business mums to find out practical tips. From the women I know they

1. have a team or one person that can carry on running the business .
2. They have a partner whose income they can lean on whilst they are away on maternity - they take a break and they might/ might not have someone on the team
3. They live with family or bring family in to help them (or have a stay at home dad!) and so they can get back to work after 3 months or so.

Thank you all! I’ll definitely check out the link. I’m hoping to go on leave from mid- Jan as I’m due 6th Feb but will start working to transition things across to the manager in November so everything is in order. My husband works so we have other income coming in but I wasn’t sure what right I would have to statutory maternity pay during my time off. I’m not sure how much the business will make in my absence and the manager is an additional cost. I’m thinking 3 months is probably realistic although I would like to take longer if possible.

It depends on whether you're an employee of your company in which case you could claim SMP. If you arent an employee you could claim Maternity Allowance instead.

I was an employee of my company so got SMP, you pay it to yourself but claim back through HMRC at year end. I took 3 months as couldn't really leave the business longer than that due to the nature of it. Had a great nanny and it was absolutely fine.

Thank you. I am an employee of my company too so will look into SMP.

A lot depends on the nature of your business and how much contact your clients / customers have with you personally.

If your job will be done in an identical way by your maternity leave cover and it won’t have any effect on your customers then you can take as long as you like / can afford. But you’d need to trust the replacement 100% and have some way of monitoring things.

If it’s a job that has a lot of personal contact with your clients, they are more likely to leave if you stay off work longer.

Personally I’d take maybe 6-8 weeks to recover ( depending on how it goes of course ) and then plan to go back say one day a week while your husband looks after baby.

This will be good for them both. most fathers need to look after babies for at least 8 hours - long enough for then to have to learn what to do and not just say “ Oh no, her nappy is dirty / she’s hungry / I can’t settle her - you do it “.

You will feel much better getting out the house for the day and dealing with adults. And your customers and staff will feel much happier knowing that you are in charge, even if only PT .

Do you have staff who deal with orders / finance or do you do that yourself ? These are things you will want to keep an eye on.

If the maternity cover is staring in November, have you already recruited them?

@INTERNETEXPL0RER thank you so much for that. Lots to consider. I’m transitioning across to maternity cover for the end of Nov but will still be there till Jan so that there’s enough time for processes to work well and to give me piece of mind.

I think I’m just anxious because it’s my first child and may be overthinking things. I work mostly from home so initially thought 4-6 weeks would be enough and then I could start to ease back in but lots of people have said that I shouldn’t underestimate how exhausted I’ll be in those first few weeks/ months so I though 3 months first more realistic to be almost entirely hands off. Also really fortunate that my husband works from home 2 days a week so we did talk about him having the baby when I start easing back into work and taking on more responsibilities and he’s happy to. I want to try and only breastfeed for as long as possible so that might make it tricky but we’ll make that decision when the time comes.

In an ideal world I would love to take 6-12 months off and just be cocooned in a baby bubble as I’m sure we all would but I definitely don’t think I could be away from the business more than 6 months. The manager is fantastic but the business is my brand and so it’s hard not to want to oversee things.