Ladies, how does your family planning affect your business?

[musicismyhottsexx]

I'm just curious how trying to conceive or planning to in the future affects your business. Does the thought of taking time off because of a new baby scare you after building up your business? Anyone here who's been there, done that?

I ask because I'm just starting out full time. I just gave up my salary job and along with it I gave up maternity leave. We had an unexpected pregnancy in January and a miscarriage in March. We started trying to conceive for the three months following but have since taken a break since I quit my job. This obviously is not a great time to be getting pregnant but when is at this point?

I hope this hasn't been TMI for anyone.. I just wanted some other thoughts on the issue.

 

[Rick Rick]

Very sorry about your miscarriage.

I am currently 28 weeks pregnant and had been working at getting pregnant for over a year after a miscarriage.

With the first pregnancy, I was working at the DC and was under a lot of stress. My workload was twice what it is now and I had a decent commute.
With this pregnancy, I work at home and it has been a much better situation for me. I can schedule things as I want, breaks and snacks as needed, etc. After the baby is here, I will set half day hours.

I have asked a lot of questions to my clients that have eased my mind on taking time off. Always a good sign when they don't want a replacement to go to, just want to wait for you to be back. It is scary, because it is the unknown, but since most of my clients have been with me for many years that helps make it easier to deal with.

I have never had a job with benefits, so I am used to having to save up for time off and such. I am also pretty confident that my clients will keep up with their regular massages once I am back to work. I will make sure they are all in my schedule during my first planned month back so no one slips between the cracks. Hopefully things will continue along as usual after that.

Hope that helps!

 

[charlie murphy]

I became pregnant 3 months after starting my business, which was having a VERY slow start. I decided to go do commission at a salon so I wouldn't have to worry about overhead so much and it would be easier to fill my book. It was a great time, very easy, and I enjoyed my pregnancy very much while doing very little to promote myself business wise but still had a nice 10-15 weekly avg. I took 2 months after my son was born then went back to the same salon and still didn't do much to promote myself, and I also had hardly any returning clients, of course, so it was really slow then. Nice because I really just wanted to be getting to know my son. But when I got the hang of being a mom and pumping breast milk and his schedules and such, I felt ready to get my business back together.

I moved to another salon where I rented a room and implemented a tremendous effort in marketing my business. 6 months after that I moved out of that salon and have been on my own now for over 4 months. I have been growing steadily with regular clients and more complex business and marketing ideas. My son is now just about 15 months and I feel it has been perfect timing all along(*). As he grows, I feel more comfortable committing to the hours necessary to continue to build and develop my business ideas. But while he was an infant, I didn't have that desire to put out effort or time away from him.

My husband and I own another business that kind of was the bread and butter while I was home for two months, but we also got lots of help from family over the past year. (*)We couldn't have done it the way we did without family assistance.

If you don't feel rushed I'd say give it a year or two of committed marketing efforts to get your business up and going before you add a child. Maybe you can even hire an IC to work while you're out and still make money. But get used to how the finances playout without the salaried job, unless your SO can carry the family through on his income alone.

 

[Sherry]

We tried to plan for pregnancy to begin while I was in school, then start the business when the baby was a few months old. Things happened differently, starting with a miscarriage a month before school ended (I feel with both of you). So we went ahead and started the business, got it up and running well while I was still working a benefits job, and I got pregnant again about 8 months later. Kept going until about 3 weeks before delivery, and kept my benefits & maternity leave, quitting the day job permanently after 6 months away.

Turns out our son was pretty high-needs for about the first year of his life. So although it was easy to drop the benefits job (and they were great about it), it meant that practice-building went totally by the wayside for a very long time. Although I kept my office and did see a very few longtime clients most weeks, I didn't see anybody at ALL until he was 4 months old, and still take clients mostly on weekends. This was *with* family help and a good job for my husband. Our son just really needed me almost constantly, I could pump maybe 1/2 an ounce of milk per day, etc etc. So you might want to consider that, if a child has special needs or even just high contact needs, your practice may slow way down for a while.

Not to wish difficulties on you! Just plan as well as you can, save as much money as you can, and maybe find a way to get some disability insurance ahead of time, just in case.

I have to admit that I was also so bowled over, so smitten, when our son was born that I hardly even thought about my flash-frozen practice. Somehow I, normally a nervous person, knew that my clients would reappear, my income would regrow, I would care about massage again - someday. And as our son's needs have eased, I have turned that energy back to my practice and all those things have happened.