I am a female entrepreneur who has worked very hard over the last four years to grow my business from scratch. The past two years have been our most successful period to date with the company rapidly growing both in turnover and size. However, I am now pregnant and although I’m looking forward to taking time out with my baby I’m concerned how my absence will affect the business and my ambitious growth targets. How would you advise I juggle my business’ bottom line with the demands of pregnancy and new motherhood?
A. Victoria Pooley answers:
I fully understand your concerns as I, myself, have been through this twice (with the second time as recently as three months ago). When I fell pregnant with my first child my business was also at a pinnacle point of growth.
Our growth was unprecedented and I was running the whole operations side of the business. We started to recruit heavily whilst I was in the last trimester in an attempt to cover my absence. However, it was too little too late and I found myself working until the day I was due and returning within five days of giving birth! My son ended up coming into office with me and I worked whilst he slept in the boardroom.
It was by no means ideal and I learned my lesson by the time my daughter was born in December last year. I still worked up until I was due, but did take two months out. I was able to do this due to having reliable, trustworthy and very capable staff and, as a result, our bottom line didn’t suffer.
On the contrary, in the past three years the business’ turnover has grown by 300%. Effective delegation was an important part of being able to achieve this success and something I had to learn to do - not an easy task when you’re a control freak, but you have to trust in the people you train. In addition to this, I set up a home office for when issues arose that really only I could deal with, which proved invaluable.
My business really was my first ‘baby’ and I found it incredibly hard to let go (even for a short time), but as long as you have strong foundations, capable staff and a plan that incorporates your absence, your business really should not suffer.
Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter, is a great example of juggling both loads. Working up to the launch of what was to become the world’s most successful online fashion shopping site, she had her new baby in a cradle at her feet. And she’s recently sold her business in a deal that valued Net-a-Porter at £350m.
Victoria Pooley co-founded The Data Partnership, the UK's leading provider of opted-in consumer lifestyle data to the direct marketing industry, in 2001.