becoming a self-employed mom
Balancing becoming a mom when you’re self-employed
Do you ever feel like you want something so bad but its just out of your reach? In this post I dive in and share my journey of becoming a self-employed mom. I’m going to talk about everything from working while pregnant, to how I took a paid maternity leave, to getting back to work after Emmett was born.
How to be a self-employed work from home mom: My Journey
Being self-employed is hard enough, but being self-employed when you’re pregnant - that’s a whole different ball park. I currently own and operate two other businesses.
Most of you know about my online product shop. It’s a small home decor shop where I make and sell all natural candles and other trinkets like key chains and paintings. Before Emmett was born, I was hustling trying to grow my online product shop - and I mean hustling:
I was doing over 20 craft shows a year
Creating and selling for bulk wholesale orders for brick and mortar shops all across the states along with regular sales
And even dabbling in consignment shops
What most of you don’t know is that I also run a service based Graphic Design and Marketing business where I create marketing collateral for clients. Marketing collateral is a fancy term for all things visual within a business - social media posts, email marketing, facebook + google ads, even post cards and packaging pamphlets. The list of possibilities is really endless. I’m under contract so I’m not able to talk about most of my clients. I can let you know that I work with a few big names but I also have smaller clients who are looking for both design and consulting advice.
What to Consider When Evaluating Your Business
When I got pregnant, I had to take a step back and evaluate what my most lucrative channels of income were so that I could put more focus into those vs continuously stretching myself thin while still trying to grow and expand. I can honestly say, even though I cut back on how many clients I was taking on, and how many craft shows I was doing, I opened up my schedule to really allow myself to make the most I could out of the craft shows I was still doing, and clients I was still working with.
Evaluating your business is something that you need to do regardless of if you’re pregnant or becoming a mom. I think that at every quarter you need to review a few things, here’s a short list of what I like to review:
Profit Margins:
What are you profiting in comparison to your Cost Of Goods?
If you are a product company, are you pricing out your products so that you are not only making the money back that you put into it, but also getting paid for your time and as well as able to put money into the company to grow?
What does it cost to run your business?
Are you paying a monthly fee on a website or paying for programs?
If you aren’t putting money into a company savings account and are taking full profit, do you you know what you made this quarter in comparison to last?
What has changed:
Have you added anything new to your shop or services offered?
Have you invested into something new for your company?
How active were you on social media or email marketing?
What was successful and what flopped?
Feedback:
What have people been telling you about your product or services?
What can you adjust to provide better service?
If you do decide to listen to your audience’s advice and suggestions, just remember at the end of the day this is your company and if you know you can’t make something work, or if you know you won’t fully enjoy creating something that someone suggests, it is 100% ok to thank people for their advice and suggestions and to NOT follow through with them.
What can I change:
Is there anything new I can automate to make more time for other aspects of the business?
These are 4 major reviews that I find necessary for my all businesses but you might have more or less. Regardless, take the time to figure out what you need to be asking yourself every quarter in order to evaluate your business appropriately. Being prepared to have these conversations with yourself or your team allows you to stay on top of what is going on within your company and can allow your decision making process to go more smoothly.
Adjustments I Made in Preparation:
For me, I was able to realize what I needed to adjust in order to ensure that I was able to build up more funds before Emmett was born, and also allow myself to continue to get paid while I was on maternity leave. In the beginning of my product shop, I was making candles with recycled wine bottles. I would hand cut them using a heat treatment, then I would sand the rough edges down, clean and sanitize, all before creating the candle itself. Realistically, this was not going to be a lucrative or safe option for me with a baby in the house.
Finding an alternative for the candle jar was my best option. From there I was able to increase the amount of candles I was able to produce. Which allowed me to able to overstock my stores to allow continued payment through my maternity leave, and I was able to create more product to sell at craft shows. This increased my sales dramatically, allowing me to adjust when I had to invoice my design clients.
These slight alterations allowed me to take 1 month off of producing product for the shop before Emmett was born AND allowed me to take 5 months off after he was born, all while still making an income through this channel.
I was also able to stop taking client work for a full month after Emmett was born and when I did come back I was only providing part time hours to ease back into everything. With how I planned everything, adjusting when specific invoices would be paid, I could have taken 3 full months off, but I wanted to adapt my schedule slowly and keep strong ties with my design clients. Doing this allowed me to learn my new routines on my time.
Asking For Help
When I first found out I was pregnant, I reached out to family members to find out if anyone would be able to provide a clear babysitting schedule for me when I went back to work. After talking with a few people and going over what I would actually need in order to continue working, my Dad and I ended up creating a schedule to allow me 5-6 hours 2-3 days a week of him coming over to watch Emmett while I worked.
This was huge for me!
Having someone at my house while I worked
Allowing me to take whatever breaks I needed
Allowing me to continue breastfeeding Emmett
or even just to shower!
Wow! I remember feeling so grateful and I still am. Especially in the beginning of this process. I remember a very specific moment, I was so emotionally drained from a restless night, and being able to have my Dad there, someone that makes me feel safe, was just a relief in and of itself. It was this day that he reminded me that it’s ok to ease back into everything. That its okay to shower or rest while he was watching Emmett…
…And that sometimes taking care of myself is my work for the day.
So if you are trying to decide on a babysitter to come help you if you are able to, I would highly recommend leaning on
someone that makes you feel comfortable
someone who will respect your boundaries
someone you can be straight forward.
Because being a new mom comes with so many unexpected emotions and realizations that you want to be able to feel 100% comfortable with your decisions.
What My Work Schedule Looked Like
Having the consistency of one sitter was definitely something that helped both Emmett and myself. They know your schedules, there aren’t many questions, and there’s a different kind of reliability that comes with consistency. To get specific, my Dad would come over every Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 9-10am and stay until 2-3pm.
After a few months of working on this schedule and increasing my work load again, I started adding work shifts on Tuesdays and Thursdays during Emmetts nap times, and if that didn’t work then I would work when Blake got home.
As I mentioned earlier, I prepared the shop for 5 months post pregnancy, so when the time came to start making product I had a difficult decision to make. When Emmett was itty bitty, he was extremely allergic and emotionally sensitive to perfumes and fragrances. And even though I only use all natural fragrances, it was my responsibility as his mom to take this into account and do the research on it.
I’m always going to be 100 with you guys so here is some of the research I found that was stopping me from continuing making candles for the safety of my baby, it might get a little confusing, but bare with me.
The US and Canada No Harm website states Exposure to fragrance chemicals can cause headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; nausea; forgetfulness; loss of coordination; and other respiratory and/or neurotoxic symptoms. Many fragrance ingredients are respiratory irritants and sensitizers, which can trigger asthma attacks and aggravate sinus conditions.
Fragrances can affect a person's brain function since the fragrance compounds are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and interact with receptors in the central nervous system allowing you to be emotionally sensitive. As a baby this sensitivity is on high alert because everything is new to them.
Here’s an example of how fragrances and perfumes can affect you emotionally.
I make all natural lemon scented candles, smelling lemon fragrance is proven to leave a positive impression and reduce stress levels for up to 30 minutes. Lemon isa simple fragrance as are most of my candles. A simple fragrance is able to create a clear dialect to the receptors in your brain, telling you how to react.
One of the reasons why perfumes can be toxic is that it’s mixed with multiple fragrances and chemicals, causing it to be a complex fragrance. Complex fragrances can cause more irritation to your sensitizers because its not direct in what it’s supposed to be doing. There is no clear dialect telling your brain how to react. It gets confusing and can cause your emotions to be a little unstable.
When I make candles, I am making multiple different single scented candles throughout a session, which is not only creating a complex fragrance, but I’m also working with large amounts of fragrances at a time. Making an unsafe environment for Emmett.
So at 5 months old, living in a tiny apartment, I didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. However, at my next quarter in business, I did my evaluation and after talking with both Blake and my Dad, I decided that on Fridays, rather than my dad coming to us. Emmett would go to him, so I could continue to make candles again and keep supplying to local shops. I think Emmett was 8 months old at this time. It worked out great. Blake would drop him off before work, and then I would pick him up around 3 after fulfilling orders and airing out the apartment to create a safe space for Emmett to come home to.
Working In Smaller Increments
This worked out until Emmett turned one this February, which is when my Dad had to take a few months off for shoulder surgery. So now it was time for me to adjust how I worked from home with Emmett. Some days were easier than others, but it was definitely draining.
I would work at the dining room table while Emmett was in his highchair eating. If I timed it right, I could get an hour to an hour and half of work done while he ate. Then I continued my “work while he naps” trick. I feel like for me, I am more productive if I allow myself to relax with him as he falls asleep. So I take that time to enjoy slowing down a bit, building up some energy while I put him down for a nap. I also learned that he could sense when I was anxious to try and slip out to get back to work. Which would cause more stress for me because he would wake up too soon.
Stress Overload
February was a heavy time for me. Blake and I had been looking at houses for the last few years but when Emmett was born we promised ourselves we wouldn’t resign the lease after he was one. That we would find a home big enough for my office and studio and so Emmett could have his own room. When February came around, I had looked at over 30 properties - our house hunting experience can be a full episode on it’s own so I’m going to spare you the details now, but we had finally found our home and the back and forth was extremely stressful:
I was running two businesses
I was still house hunting
I was packing up the apartment
I was doing all of this without a sitter.
To say I was stretched thin would be an understatement.
We closed on our house on March 13th, right at the beginning of when the midwest started dealing with the global pandemic. This part is all sorts of strange on how everything started working out for us.
We moved right before the stay at home mandate, I’m talking A DAY BEFORE
We had to stock up on groceries anyways because we just bought a house because our apartment probably had $30 worth of food left after not buying groceries for nearly a month while we were packing.
Then Blakes office offered work from home availability. So now Blake and I have been working from home together for the last month, in our home, where we both have our own office spaces and we tripled our living space.
It’s insane how lucky we are with how everything has worked out and I am honestly so grateful.
Consistency While Being A WFHM
Being a self-employed work from home mom will never have a form of consistency. The only thing that will be consistent is the fact that you have to be able to adapt. As mom’s I think that comes more naturally for us, but practicing will help make it easier to handle.
I’ve had to adapt quite a bit over the last year. Working from home with Blake has been fun, it’s been hard, but most of all we are both very aware of how lucky we are to able to work from home, which helps make it easier.
Thanks again, and I will see you next week!
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Until next time!
xo Danielle
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