Running own business and having a baby - Advice needed from other business owners!

[Saffra]

I am 6+1 weeks pregnant and have my own online business selling products. Business has been running for 18 months now and it's just me at the moment running it from home.

At the mo, although there is some flexibility, I work long hours to get everything done.

I'm worried about how I will cope in the future as the business is wholly dependant on me. Sales aren't high enough yet to employ anyone.

Will most likely use a childminder when old enough. But, really worried about how I will cope while the baby is newborn and very little.

Would love to hear any advice or suggestions from anyone that's been there.

Hi all

Just wanted to give an update on my situation. If anyone has any further thoughts/answers to my Qs, I would love to hear your advice....

Now 12 + 5, and all went well at the scan yesterday!

My current plan is to hire a part-time assistant at end of July/start Aug (I'm due in Sept). Someone that can do the more routine work. I still won't be able to take any maternity leave/MA, but at least the business can survive and just about tick over without me physically being there 9-5 for a few months.

I've decided to convert our detached garage into a dedicated office space. This actually costs less than renting office/storage space, and will allow me to manage the employee and do some work from home at the same time.

Then, I plan to use PT childcare when the baby is 4-5 months old. This will coincide with the start of the busy season, so can't simply rely on PT assistant to do all the work. In fact, it could be too busy to cope.

Does this sound feasible? Where's the best place to recruit an assistant (20 hours per week)? If you're a freelancer with a small baby, when do you work? Weekends? During naps??

Thanks in advance

Congratulations on your pregnancy and business success. I also run an online business and have two young children. I mostly work evenings, but also during baby's nap times and when my husband is around.

Being organised is key and your plan to create a home office space and hire a part time employee sounds ideal. You could even try placing an ad on gumtree for a volunteer/intern to help you out, but I guess that depends where you live.

My first baby was born 5 weeks early so that was a major shock and although most first babies are late you can't rule out the fact it may come early.

Also, breastfeeding may not be something you want to consider but it definitely changes how hands on you'll need to be. If you breastfeed then no-one else can help with the feeding unless you first express, which is also extra work. You might be less keen to get childcare at 4-5months old if you are feeding the baby yourself.

Every baby is different, but I was extremely lucky and didn't find mine hard work at all when they were tiny, they slept loads and I was just so excited to have them in my life.

As organised and mentally prepared as you try to be, nothing can prepare you for the emotional side of things.

And I 100% definitely urge you to hire a cleaner above all else!

Thanks CuteAprons, really helpful. Glad that you think it's a feasible plan. Good to hear this from someone in a similar situation. Out of interest, how many hours a day/week do you work?

100000% DEFINITELY getting a cleaner! I think I'll need to for the sake of my sanity. Already forewarned DH that he should expand his repetoire of evening meals...

Will try Gumtree, thanks. Hiring someone (trustworthy and dependable) is probably the biggest wildcard. Can see this being quite tricky. Will start putting the feelers out after my 20 week scan, I think. Have a picture of the 'ideal' person, but will probably have to be somewhat flexible in reality.

Re: childcare, yes, been thinking I might be better waiting a couple of months extra. Will need to see how this goes.

Was stressed when I first started this thread, but now feel quietly optimistic. (Of course it helps that business is going well at the moment. Obviously if things get quieter, then I may need to reconsider my options).

Thanks!

Glad you are feeling more optimistic! You certainly should be. It's such an exciting time and as long as you're prepared (you're half way there) then you'll be able to enjoy it.

I probably work min 7 hours a day. I have a friend in the same position who actually has a brand new baby and she's coping incredibly well and still finding the time to work on her online business without too much stress.

for small outsourcing jobs fiverr.com can be quite good as well, but that's more for basic SEO type tasks, not for the packaging & taking care of the orders like you need to get on top of.

Good luck with it all!

I must be the odd one out. I do not have a cleaner.
I did for a while but she was (a) freaked out by the fact that every radio is tuned to radio 4 (b) made the floors look gorgeous but left the worktops scummy.
With the kids at full time school I set aside two afternoons a week (fitted around my gym habit) - one to whoosh round the whole house. The other to blitz a single room. I stick by my grandmother's mantra that a tidy house is a sign of an empty mind.
The place is clean and presentable at all times but I don't do dusting (too many books) and having grown up in a house that was regularly in magazines I will not make mine appear anything other than lived in.

All client meetings are at my dining table and I collect paperwork from my office. It works.

One of my old clients had the same person for cleaning and packaging her jumpers etc and posting out.

I run a media company and have found out that I am pregnant. The reality is that I won't be able to take a back seat or any real time off. And have started to think about how to run the business after the birth. It accured to me there will be mums out there that have taken a longer time off after the birth....and might be bored out of their brains and don't want their contacts & skills to get too rusty, but aren't ready to go back full time. So it makes sense for women at different stages of being pregnant and post birth to work together.

I think women should really consider this as a distinct stage of their careers!

The main area of the business I am worried about is the media sales, which I do myself at the moment. And, if we don't bring in revenue at the right time basically the business goes bust. So is there anyone out there that fancies working from home, around their babies routine, and engaging with high end and household names.

If so please get in touch by emailing me at [email protected].

Thanks

Hi Saffra,

Reading your post I feel I'm exactly in the same situation, baby due in August, business running for 18 months an worrying about the same things.

Just wondered how you managed at the end, see the post is now a couple of years old. Was that hard?

Would appreciate if you could share any thoughts.

Thanks a lot,

Mara

Hi Mara

Just seen your post quite by chance.

Congrats on your pregnancy - exciting times but also, yes, hard to not stress. Yes, would be happy to tell you what happened. Will update tomorrow - it's late and I should sleep!

OK, DD dropped off at granny's, so got a quick chance to update.

Things went much, much better than hoped for. Couldn't have been planned much better in the end. I ended up converting a detached garage into a dedicated office space. I also hired someone part time to manage the customer contact work and deal with packaging up orders. I was very fortunate in that I was able to grow the business over the summer, and could afford to take someone on.

When the baby arrived, I relied a lot on the sling and naps to catch up on work. I had time to do the whole nct thing and plenty of groups. As much of my work can be done remotely and at any time, I could be very flexible around DD. I also have family close by to look after DD too, which they did for a few hours (DD was a breastfed baby who was a bottle refusnik, so I couldn't be away too much as a baby).

I would say that the success of it was partly by design and partly by luck. (The arrival of DD also coincided with the quiet time for my business, which meant we could cope with things more easily).

Fast forward to the present day, and I probably work about 30 hours a week. As I say, I have family close by who look after DD 3 times a week. (Yes, I realise I am very lucky). There's a fair bit of working evenings and weekends. I still have my employee. She's amazing, although it would cheaper to have DD in nursery FT really.

Unfortunately, the situation has changed somewhat, in that business has got quieter over the past 9 months. Which goes to show how quickly things can change. That more than likely would have happened regardless of whether I had DC or not though.

One thing that I will say is that it's important to get support (family, partner, employees, outsourced ppl) and crucial to separate personal/work life, if you can. I had separate phone lines and email accounts set up to avoid the constant intrusion on home life. Oh yes, smart phones and ipads are a complete must for me too. I have worked hundreds of hours BF'ing DD.

What type of business do you have? How demanding are your customers/clients? Do you have family close by who will support you? Could you employ someone or outsource...?

Congratulations again - it's a very exciting time. Take a deep breathe, get things lined up and think of plan A and plan B. When your due date is here, try and take the time off with you baby. It's the best thing ever. Having DD is the best thing that ever happened to me. Before DD, the business was my 'baby', but I absolutely put my DD ahead of my business every time now.

Saffra - loved your post. Was interesting reading through the old thread and getting up-to-date. Glad it all went so well for you - and hope your business picks up again.

Thanks freelancenewbie, if only I could read any future posts on this thread. Could do with a crystal ball!

The downside - you can never truly plan with kids. I'd say the best strategy is adapt and relook your work conditions with your baby changing.

When I had my first one, it was a nightmare - I didn't know what to do and how to work together with him. All stressed out, no sleep. Not losing clients, but definitely suffering with the mom-child relationship.

I've had a second baby just a year ago and it was totally different. I just prepared myself for hell, but in never came ))))) She was literally working with me since she was 3 weeks old, including meeting with clients. She still does, but I am planning childcare in near future.

Of course it really depends on your business. I'm a Fashion Stylist/Image Consultant, and most women I dress have kids on their own, so they are usually totally fine even with a bit of screaming on the phone (you know, it happens from time to time).

But I do know quite a few moms, who run their online shops, consultancy business or work part-time from home with their kids.

My advice:

1. Don't stress out too much - people are usually quite understanding and more tolerant to babies than it seems :) If you are fine with it, they will also be fine.

2. Newborns are GREAT! They sleep most of the time. The most difficult times are wonder weeks crisis and teething. Just a note to yourself - you baby will need you more so you are bound to work less.
   www.thewonderweeks.com/

3. The more you panic/get stressed, the more your baby clings to you. So calm mommy - great baby :) Have yourself pampered, relax, have a good time.

4. Day sleep - essential! If you need to work long hours (I do, especially late nights), have a nap with your baby during the day. It can be 30-60min, but it will help you stay mentally refreshed.

5. Babies have schedules of their own. You would need to work around them. Their schedules change, so yours will do, too. It's the gap between naps, feeding times, play times, etc. Usually their are happier before noon, so plan your most important stuff for that time. Anything you need to do for a long time and that requires your full attention is done either during longest day nap or late night.

Hope this helps!

Oh, and I don't have anyone helping me with the kids + they were/are both breastfed way over a year :) And we are co-sleeping (well, my older one is almost 6 years old, so onbviously he sleeps in his room). So I never need to wake up at night to prepare a bottle, it's very easy to work on my computer and feed to baby, it's dead easy with the teething/crisis/grumpiness.

Hello - is anyone still here from this thread?? I've just found out I''m pregnant with first baby. Bit shell shocked and scared because I have a small one-man-band business that is just starting to take off. Any tips for preparing for the whirlwind that is to come? Some success stories from mums who've managed to do this would be much appreciated too!

Congratulations!

I'm the OP, but have name changed since.

My 'baby' is now 4, and the business is doing really well. What type of business do you have? I'm happy to offer any advice/tips!