Officially 8 weeks postpartum and can tell you that I am SO grateful that I prepped for maternity leave EARLY to be able to truly take a step back and spend time with my baby boy. If I’m being honest, most of my content in the last 8 weeks was either written ahead of time or repurposed! BUT, I wanted to write this specific post after the fact so I could give you the truth and actual helpful advice to prepare for maternity leave. Even if you’re not pregnant right now, you can apply these same tips to take a lengthy vacation. I think ultimately it’s helped me be able to step back into my business in a way that will make me feel like I still get plenty of time with my son. I get to have BOTH the business and the family!
Here are my top 5 tips for preparing for maternity leave in order to help you feel fully supported in your business while you take time away.
Hire the right team members
If you’re anything like me, your business is your baby. It can feel hard to let others take over for you while you step away as you’ve put your blood sweat and tears into this thing, right!? I get it! You must hire team members that you can trust! So this step is imperative to start thinking about when you’re newly pregnant. I highly recommend a task matrix to identify what tasks your current team members are doing, and what you’re taking care of. Do a massive brain dump then add to it daily for the tasks you missed. Then, start identifying WHO could take on some of those tasks for you. Is it a current team member, or should you hire someone new? I recommend hiring someone on your team, or someone new, to be the “lead” and essentially you while you’re out to make sure there is proper direction and communication between clients and team members.
Defined roles and responsibilities
Once you identify and hire the right team members, make sure each team member's roles and responsibilities are defined. I suggest transparent communication between the team as a whole and cultivating a team culture ahead of time. We use Slack to communicate regarding clients and internal needs and everyone on the team knows how each other’s expertise and who is responsible for what. The key here is to start this communication early, at least 3 months before your due date. The team will take some time to get to know each other and will learn to lean on each other for support. Promote all communication in client channels vs. DMs to make sure everyone sees the types of questions asked for a reference.
Recycle / Repurpose Content
While making sure your clients are supported while you’re out on maternity leave is important, it’s not the only thing that you need to prepare for. You want to make sure YOUR business gets the same attention and love in preparation for leave. The last thing you want to do is have a baby and go radio silent online for 2-4 months. Think about how you currently plan and produce content and WORK AHEAD. You can outsource some to a copywriter if needed, or just create additional content ahead of time each week. Plan for not only while you’re out but maybe some additional for when you come back to not overwhelm yourself with work. In addition, please REPURPOSE your past content. I am certain it’s still relevant and if you truly realize how few people see all of your content each day, I know it will reach and resonate with both your old followers and new ones. In addition to repurposing content, make sure that you have an engagement strategy in place as well, and someone to manage your social channels, inboxes, leads, etc. while you’re out.
Communication with clients
Obviously, this is one of the most important things you need to do while preparing for leave. Let them know how you plan to manage your work for them while you’re away. More communication will help them feel more supported. Introduce them to your team members who will be working with them at least a few months prior to your due date. I had my baby 3 weeks early, so I am extremely grateful my clients already knew my team and it was a seamless transition for them when I went into labor.
Video bank of tasks/training (starting as early as 6 mo out)
Create a video bank of tasks and training for your team as you go! One easy way to do this is to create a Loom account and record yourself doing the tasks you’ll be passing off to your team each day. I started doing this as soon as I got pregnant. I created a Mat Leave folder in loom and was able to have a reference bank for my team to go through while I was out on leave. I also put links to these videos under each client in Asana under the “references” board. Some other videos I created were more training-focused on a specific platform so they could see how it worked and/or how I do things. That way they aren’t wasting a ton of time researching how to do something and not doing it in the way that you want it done. Doing these along the way will also help you feel less overwhelmed with what you need to create to support your team as your due date nears.
These are all things that helped me while I’ve been out on leave to feel like both my business and my clients were supported. If I’m being totally honest, I talked with my team here and there while on leave, but not nearly as much as I would have if I hadn’t been prepared. This allowed me to simply provide guidance and advice vs. having to actually DO the work itself. I’ve been able to snuggle my baby and rest and recover and it has been AMAZING. I will also advise you to turn OFF notifications. This has helped me as well, I just check in here and there when I have the mental capacity to do so. I hope these tips help you! If you have also been through this season, let me know in the comments if there’s anything else you’d add to this list!
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.
After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.
Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.
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