Are you a mompreneur getting ready to have a baby? Wondering how you will ever take a maternity leave? I am here to tell you it is possible. I did it, and so can you. I am so glad I had a maternity leave plan for my new business, and I want to share it with you today.
Trust me…once your little one arrives in the world, he or she will be your number one priority. I, like you, thought I would have time to work. It’s maternity leave; I could fit in a little work here and there, right? WRONG!
My struggles with breastfeeding and multiple doctor’s appointments to get my newborn daughter weighed and make sure she was growing put all hopes of working on the backburner.
My business HAD to work because I told my boss I wasn’t coming back after maternity leave. So I did have this fire under me that it HAD to work no matter what, and that helped.
It’s not impossible. Here are five things I did that helped me take a 2-month maternity leave as a new mom entrepreneur:
1. Pre-schedule all social media & blog content for two months after baby.
As a soon-to-be working mom, do not assume you will have a minute to do this when your newborn arrives. Just pre-schedule your content ahead of time. Trust me; you’ll have enough other things to worry about, such as keeping your baby alive!
For your blog: Ask guest writers to contribute. Get their posts before the baby comes and schedule it, so it publishes automatically. Take an old post and schedule it again. Your readers probably never saw the first post anyways, and you can always change it up a little to help with SEO.
For your social media: Once again, recycle old content. Do you know how many posts you made over the last year? Look at the best ones and schedule one to two posts per day for the next two months.
2. Set a hard date when you will STOP all work.
I recommend at 38 weeks because you just ever know what your birth story will be. Then, if your baby comes later, that’s just extra time – and we all know there is plenty to do right before baby comes….like read a book, eat spicy wings and try to walk around Target with everyone staring at you.
3. Download podcasts to get you motivated during maternity leave.
You may not have a hand to read, but trust me, you may need a special friend motivating you through those 3 am nursing sessions. I was so glad I had some special podcasts and audios ready on my phone to help me get through some late nights and to encourage me to get my business brain back. Mommy brain is for real….
4. Create an automatic sales funnel.
You need your business to work without you for at least one to two months. For that reason, I recommend a sales funnel that runs while you sleep (or in this case…don’t sleep).
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You determine how people will find out about you (automatically) which are your leads.
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Then, you turn those leads into prospects by getting their email address or contact information.
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Finally, you turn your prospects into customers.
The first two you can do automatically during your maternity leave.
Here’s how I did it….
At the time of my maternity leave, I had a service-based career coaching business. When I wasn’t giving birth, I was usually turning my prospects into customers by talking to people during free sessions. This is highly recommended if you are a rather new business owner because there is way more trust when you talk to someone on the phone or in person.
So, I automatically got leads by running a Facebook ad to an optin page. I welcomed people to watch a free video where I reviewed my 7-step Get Your Career Unstuck system. I also linked pre-scheduled social media content every day to this page during maternity leave, as well.
