Business Strategist and digital entrepreneur Nathalie Lussier is 8 months pregnant with her first child and is about to go on maternity leave, but oh wait, she works for herself!
How does maternity leave work for an entrepreneur?
Lussier, and her husband, who is a developer for the company and will also going on paternity leave, took some steps to prepare their business and team an entire year in advance to keep it running smoothly during their absence.
Lussier chronicled the steps, which are, in sum:
1. REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR DUE DATE AND KEEP COMMITMENTS MANAGEABLE
2. FIND OUT WHERE YOUR BOTTLENECKS ARE
3. BRING YOUR TEAM UP TO SPEED ON YOUR MATERNITY LEAVE PLANS
4. AUTOMATE, DELEGATE, OR DELETE ANYTHING THAT CAN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT YOU
5. SET FIRM BOUNDARIES FOR YOURSELF + PREPARE TO SAY NO MORE OFTEN
6. GET THE SUPPORT YOU’LL NEED IN PLACE EARLY & TEST YOUR SYSTEMS
She goes into great detail on a podcast and blog about this topic that you can find HERE!
As a digital publisher, I was most impressed with her list of obligations needing tending to before leaving:
- Plan out our editorial calendar, newsletters, and content for the next few months ahead of time
- Record updated tutorial videos for how we do certain things (think Facebook ads, setting up campaigns, etc.)
- Create an escalation plan for support requests, so that most support requests can be handled by the team unless Robin is needed on the “tougher ones”
- Writing more canned responses and beefing up our Knowledge Base to answer questions more proactively
- Set clear goals for everyone on the team, so they know exactly what they’re working on and responsible for
Read the rest of the blog and access the podcast HERE!
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
