I Had A Baby Last Year And Here's What Happened To My Business || CopperRed Photography
Oh my goodness how has it been an entire year since I gave birth to this little munchkin?! He’s our 3rd boy! Yup we kick butt (or hubby does) at making baby boys apparently lol.
Going into the January of 2019 and knowing I was about to become a mummy to 3 kiddos under 6 came with a lot of questions around how I could and would run my business. It is daunting to know that you are a solopreneur and the business still currently sits on your shoulders so stopping would mean what? Taking a break would cause what? And how was I going to keep the ball rolling?
Well for you fellow mompreneurs out there I thought I’d share a little around just how 2019 played out for me with a 3rd newborn in tow.
We planned the due date
Okay so I know this is a tough one and I fully understand that we are incredibly blessed to be in a position to even be able to do this. Marc looks at me and we get pregnant lol, so we have the opportunity with that to schedule our kiddos arrivals in my low season (Jan-March). Now I have to be 100% honest, the primary reason for planning our mini humans at this time is actually to give them an athletic advantage (I know some of you will call us crazy) but the second and very important reason is the fact that it’s my lower season for work.
It worked and we had a due date of January 16th. This was awesome because my first wedding wasn’t for a few months so I knew I didn’t have any full day, crazy hard work days in the immediate time after delivery. Financially though we cannot afford for me to not work for months and months. Being self employed, I don’t get maternity leave and so we planned a 6 week post delivery gap before hitting the camera again.
2. I Prepped Social Media
Prior to delivering Dylan I had prepped my social media accounts with lots of posts via software like Later or PlannThat. This meant that I was able to continue promoting my business and bringing in interest and engagement. As I receive a lot of inquiries via platforms like Instagram it’s crucial that I did not just vanish for 6 weeks. Spending a couple of afternoons prepping all the content for the 4-6 weeks was hard work and a little tedious for sure but that’s the effort it takes to keep your business in motion when in reality you’ve stopped still lol.
3. I Didn’t Stop Taking Bookings
My email was set up with an automated response explaining that I was currently spending time with my family whilst I recover and nourish a newborn but I was very much still accepting bookings after a specific date and would be checking my email every 72 hours.
The automated email is so awesome. I for one just love great communication and knowing where I stand. Like I’m the person who when I’m in a queue on a phone line I LOVE to hear them tell me my spot in the queue. I honestly don’t care if I am number 23, I just find peace and patience in the knowing. So setting up that response allowed me to retain those potential customer. They didn’t just email and sit there for days wondering why I hadn’t got back to them. Little things like this go a long way, I promise you!
4. I Went Back To Work
Shocker right?! lol. Yup, I went back to work. As I mentioned earlier there is no 12 month maternity leave pay for me. The year prior we brought our first house so we didn’t save up a maternity fund to give us 6-12 months off. I had to go back to work and so I did. Now let’s get real, ‘going back to work’ for me is not a 9-5 hectic commute kinda situation. Far from it to be honest. I instead accepted 4 newborns per month for the first couple of months and then once wedding season hit in the April it was all back to full swing.
Easing back in like this gave me time to pump lots of milk, figure out the logistics and make it work. Sometimes I’ll have people come up to me and say ‘I don’t know how you do it all’ and the truth is I have to. I have a house and bills to pay for, a family to feed and clothe and we need my income to keep that all in a great place. So when that’s the scenario you pull up your big girl pants and get back to work like millions of other momma’s out there. It’s just real life, it’s my entrepreneurial life.
5. I Exceeded Financial Expectations
This one I honestly didn’t see coming. I anticipated a fairly big loss in 2020, yes we needed me to earn but not at the rate I had the two years prior so I didn’t set out to achieve anywhere near those numbers. I just took on what I could and worked. In the end when I ran all the numbers I had only earnt $6,000 less than the year before which had been my highest to date lol.
So with the prepping I invested into prior to the birth, the constant communication throughout the break and getting back on the working wagon when I needed to I truly managed to keep this business in a great spot.
I must point out too that I did not sacrifice being a great mom to do this. It is possible to be a kick ass mom and run a successful business at the same time and do not ever let yourself feel any mom guilt for that. I took my kiddos to all their sports, read them stories and played with them every day, we took trips to the park and sledding, baked cookies and played every board game under the sun. I was there to cuddle them when they cried and cover up their ouchies with superhero plasters. There was a dinner on the table every night and they were loved on hard.
Running my business whilst raising these cute mini humans did not lower my mothering capability and it doesn’t have to for you either. You can slay the mompreneur life 100%.
Were there things I would do differently? Sure and here they are…
SAVE - If I could have I would’ve loved to have financially planned it out a little better and saved enough money to cover 3-4 months leave. Sure I would’ve had to prep a hell of a lot more social media to cover the time frame but it would’ve been lovely to have devoted more time to resting and enjoying those early months.
Hired a VA (Virtual Assistant) - This has been on my radar for a while and is still one of my 2020 end goals. To be in a place to hire a VA to cover those email responses and inquiries. If I could’ve had that in place for the first 4 months that would’ve been a little luxury well chosen lol.
If you are heading into a season of motherhood and are unsure how you are going to keep your business moving and growing during that time just know that it is possible, you are capable and with the right preparations you can absolutely do both, no doubt about it.