34. The Stress-Free Way to Take Leave from your Creative Business

Taking leave as a business owner can feel overwhelming — whether you're planning for maternity leave, a medical procedure, a family commitment, or an extended vacation. In this episode of Calligraphy Biz Corner, Shaochen shares exactly how she navigated maternity leave twice as a creative business owner, and what she'd tell anyone who wants to step away from their business. If you've ever wondered whether your business will survive while you're away, this episode is for you!

We'll talk about: 

Financial Prep:

• Extending your cash runway 
• Boosting income before you go
• Getting assistance through leave programs 
• Cutting expenses before you leave  

Important Mindset Shifts: 

• How referring out inquiries can be good for business 
• Why you don't need to keep posting, emailing, or marketing
• How to handle the fear of missing a busy season
• What really happens to your business when you step away

If you've been putting off a break because you're not sure your business can handle it, this episode will help you see that not only is it possible, but an intentional break will help you come back even more motivated and poised for growth! 

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Apply for CEO Partner 1:1 Coaching: https://www.calligraphyceo.com/ceo-partner
• DM Shaochen "PARTNER" and see if coaching is right for you: https://www.instagram.com/monstera.gold

Transcript

  Navigating Time Off as a Creative Business Owner

0:00

Hey, it's Chen. Welcome back to Calligraphy Biz Corner. It's so good to be back. Our show's been on hiatus since last August, partly because I had baby number two in September. So I've been finding a new rhythm both in my personal life and also in my business. And I'm so excited to be recording new episodes again. So far, Elaine and I have recorded all of our episodes for Calligraphy Biz Corner together, but we're playing around and experimenting with some new formats, so I'm testing out a solo episode today. In the past few months, I've had several creative business owners ask me how I took leave. As a business owner, and it's honestly such a great question and something I felt like I had to figure out on my own. So now that I've taken maternity leave twice as a business owner, I'd love to share some suggestions in case you are also looking to take some time off from your business. It might not be for maternity leave, it could be for other reasons, like maybe you have a surgery or you're taking care of a loved one. Or maybe you just are looking for an extended vacation or a break from your business. Basically any leave that you can plan for ahead of time now before we dive in, I do wanna give a quick disclaimer. I'm not a financial advisor and nothing that I share in today's episode should be taken as personal financial advice. Everything that I am going to talk about is based on my own personal experience and what helped me when I was planning for taking maternity leave. And everyone's situations are different. So please remember to speak to your own qualified financial advisor before making any decisions about your finances. Okay, let's get into it. Right, so when I think about the questions I've gotten about how I took leave as a business owner, there really were two parts to that. The first one was financial. How do I set myself up to take leave and still be able to support my life without that kind of incoming and regular cash flow for my business? And number two is a mindset piece. Like how do I really step away from my business? How do I take a break? What about all the clients that I'm gonna lose? What's gonna happen to my business? So let's talk about the financial aspect first. I think it's really hard to totally check out if you are worrying about paying for your bills. So here's some things that I did, that helped in this aspect. Number one, how can you extend your cash flow if you know you're gonna be away as a business owner? It's a good idea to pay yourself, ideally, a consistent paycheck each month. So if you're a sole proprietor or LLC, essentially this is an owner's draw, or basically an amount that you transfer to yourself, your personal bank account every month. And if you're solely relying on your business for income, then ideally. The amount of money you're transferring is enough to cover your monthly expenses plus a little bit to put away into your savings. Now starting in my first trimester, I actually lowered the amount of my paycheck each month so that it was enough to cover my expenses, but I wasn't transferring myself too much extra on top of that. Basically what I was trying to do is create a longer runway of cash for myself in what I had for my business, or what I knew I was gonna be able to generate until I took leave, so that I could continue paying myself that same lower amount even during the months that I was on leave. So that basically ensured that I would still be constantly paying myself. Enough to cover my expenses during the time that I was away from my business. This isn't something that I did the first time I took maternity leave, and I definitely felt more financial pressure because I, I didn't have that kind of like regular paycheck coming from my business when I was on leave. And I also felt like I had less of a cushion in my bank account to come back to, like, I wasn't planning ahead for the time I was away. I was just paying myself based on the time that I was there generating income. Depending on what type of leave you're taking, you'll also wanna take into account expenses that you might not normally have. So in my case, the cost of like giving birth at a hospital, if you're taking a trip or traveling, that could increase your expenses too. So maybe for those kinds of things, those larger sums, you could potentially tap into some savings, or, you know. Look into like selling some stocks. But the point is that you're taking those expenses that might not be like a regular expense into account as well. The second thing I recommend financially is to think about how you can boost your income. So In addition to stretching your runway, how can you increase the money that you're drawing from before you leave? I had planned a few sales and promotions to boost my cash flow. You can also book clients for when you get back. So not only does this alleviate some of the pressure of having to jump back in a hundred percent right away. But you'll also get some additional cash flow from any like retainers that you take. So especially in the case of, um, wedding clients, typically there's some kind of retainer that's paid up front and then a final payment towards the end of the project. So you're gonna get some additional cash flow right away from that. And then weddings are a great example of types of projects that are usually booked months in advance. And so you could easily be booking wedding clients for when you return from leave. Personally. I worked to fill my one-on-one coaching spots and had contracts signed for when I returned for them to start, and that felt really good and motivating for me too to know that I had that work to look forward to when I returned. I would also identify if there are some passive income streams that can make you money and boost that cash while you're away. So these could be digital products, templates, a course, an ebook, any asset where people can access the value of your knowledge without you needing to personally deliver it. Now, this one is going to take some more planning and time if you don't already have a product like this created. Because not only do you need to create the product, you also need to figure out how to market and sell the product. Without you being too involved. For my Pro wedding calligrapher course, I have a free masterclass that people can watch to start learning and also get a bit of an introduction to my pro wedding calligrapher course if they want to go further. So while I was away, I ran ads to my free masterclass, and I did have several new students enroll in that course while I was on leave, which was awesome. I did prepare for this by actually learning how to run Facebook ads. I joined a group program where I learned how to do that and so I could really better understand ads and not be intimidated by them knowing that I was going to go on leave and that ads was gonna be part of my strategy. You could also have a blog post with really good SEO that's bringing people in. While you're away, to find your services or your digital products, or you could set up like a ManyChat automation on Instagram on one of your popular posts or one of your pinned posts where people can comment in a word and they can get a link to purchase something. So these are just some ideas for how you could market some of these, um, passive income products without you physically having to be there to do it. my third financial planning tip for leave is to apply for any leave programs that you qualify in your state or your country. You will need to do some research on this one to see if you have programs available to you based on where you're located. So I am based in Colorado and Colorado just started a leave program called Family, F-A-M-L-I in 2024. It wasn't around when I had my first kid, but luckily a friend of mine reminded me about it because she was also planning for her maternity leave, and I was able to sign myself up for it for this maternity leave and get the benefits through the program. And that helps so much to relieve the pressure financially because now not only was I continuing to pay myself for my business. During the time I was on leave, I was also getting these payments from the state. On top of that, if you're a Colorado business owner, just a side note here, I highly recommend signing up for family. The premium you pay as a self-employed business is 0.44% of your gross revenue. So that's less than 1% of your gross revenue. Now, in order to maximize your payouts. You wanna sign up or have a quarter enrolled in the program when you're at a high revenue point in your business, because the more revenue you make, the more it pays out to you as well. So try to plan ahead for that if you can. I didn't know this and I signed up right before I was going on leave, so I only really had about. A month where I was really making revenue, like actively generating revenue that could be used for my benefit calculation. But even so, just to give you a reverence point here, I paid less than a hundred dollars in the premium for the program and I got paid five figures and benefits over the 12 weeks of leave that I took. Um, so it was a hundred percent worth it. I do have to continue paying into the program for at least three years. So I mean that's, there's a little bit more to the story there, but it is still very worth it. And when I think about being part of that program, my toddler will probably be having a surgery next year. And so because I can plan for that, I can also plan to use family to take some leave for that as well, alright, my last financial tip here is to try to cut your expenses. So before you go on leave, cancel any subscriptions that you might be using to run your business that you won't be using while your business is on a break, because those can really add up. A lot of times you can downgrade your account to a free plan. Um, so things like Zoom, Canva, Calendly, other subscriptions that you don't need running in the background of your business. So obviously I kept like my website provider, my domains, my email and things like that. But things that are more like usage based, you can probably downgrade or cancel. We forgot to cancel our podcasting subscriptions when we were away and we definitely could have saved a few hundred dollars from those. So that really does add up. Alright. Now, even if you have done all of these things and you're feeling really good financially, you might just simply feel guilty for stepping away from your business. And I felt like this point came up for everybody I talked to on the topic of leave. It was just like, how do I just stop running my business? Just stop answering emails. So let's talk a little bit about mindset. Here's some things that I heard. My leave is going to be during busy season for my business, and I'm worried about missing out on those jobs. Now, this is where obviously the financial planning piece is really important, but beyond that, I feel like there is this underlying fear in this question or this statement of like, what's going to happen to my business when I step away? And I wanna tell you that your business won't fail if you're taking time off. Both of the times that I've taken leave, I honestly thought that I would come back and have some downtime because, I would come back during kind of low season for weddings, but I came back to more inquiries than I. Expected both times and the kind of more like chill tasks of cleaning and organizing my studio that I thought I would do when I came back still aren't done. So my studio's still a mess. Luckily, this episode is audio and not video. Um, but I just want to remind you that your business will still be there when you come back and the other thing I heard is like, what about the jobs that I miss when I'm on leave? And yes, I did get quite a few inquiries that I couldn't take. And it was always hard seeing those land in my inbox and just, you know, ignoring them essentially. But you know what I felt really good about, I felt good about passing them forward. So I had a post in my Instagram that referred other calligraphers, and I also put their information in my email autoresponder and my Deb auto reply. I think this is another. Important piece of the mindset, just like the abundance in terms of being enough opportunities for everyone. Like if I can't take that opportunity, why wouldn't I let somebody else take on that opportunity, that job and help them learn and grow their business? And you know, what's happened is that those same calligraphers who have gotten work referred to from me are passing me work as well. Right. So I think it, it really is like when we have that kind of mindset, it helps us all around. Plus, now that I've come back, I still have the contact information of those people who reach out to me. And so I will be reaching back out to them to let them know I'm working again. I'm available for their next event. So the other thing I've heard come up is how do I just stop answering emails? How do I stop marketing? How do I stop doing all the things I'm so used to doing for my business? And I think this is personal preference, but. When I check out, I like to check out fully. I don't like to be on Instagram. I don't like to be responding to emails or even reading my emails. I think part of it is that, you know, it really helps to trust that there will be more jobs and there will be more opportunities, whereas whatever time I get to take away from my business. Is unique, is rare, and being able to really take that time off is going to make me a more motivated, business owner when I come back as well. It's only gonna be helpful to me as a business owner if I'm not burning out and trying to do it all. So maybe your bonding with your baby or you're spending time with loved ones, or you're on vacation. Maybe you're focused on healing your body, whatever. The reason for taking some time away is it's a special season of life and that deserves your attention. Some people will choose to schedule content for while they're out. I'll do that sometimes if I'm gonna be gone for a few days or a week. But personally for my maternity leave, I didn't write newsletters. If you're on my newsletter, you probably saw me say like, this is my last newsletter for a while. Um, I didn't have any new blog posts. I didn't post on Instagram other than popping in for a few occasional stories and chat with people in the dms. I have seen other business owners schedule these things. To post while they're on leave. And I think, you know what, do whatever feels good for you and whatever feels best to you. But sometimes when I see them as a person on the other side of that, seeing those stories, I just wanna tell them like. Enjoy your time off. Go spend time with your baby. Like we'll be here when you get back. And when it comes to emails, since I did have that autoresponder up, I trusted that that message would provide my clients with all the information they needed. So I was clear with when I would be back to work and when I would get back to them. I kind of gave them like a timeframe. And then also I shared referrals if they had a job that was happening before I return. And so I never felt the need to reply, even though some of them were asking me for referrals. I knew that my autoresponder was already doing that for me. So if you've gotten this far in the episode, I think it's good to see like what's coming up for you. If you're struggling to feel like you can't take time away, then it's important to understand like, is there an underlying fear there? Is there a fear of like, will my business be there when I come back? I wanna remind you that everything that you do builds the work that you've already put into your business won't disappear because you took some time off. I think it's also easy to get fixated on our own situation when the reality is that everybody out there is focused on their own lives and their own situation and not playing honestly that close attention to what you're doing or that you're away for a few months. And sometimes a few months can actually make the difference in terms of it being the right time. So for example, I've talked to Calligraphers before my leave where it wasn't the right time for them to join my course, and then I've come back and talked to them six months later, and now the timing is right and now they're ready to join the course. So I want you to know that yes, your business will still be there, and even if you don't come back to inquiries right away, you're going to come back and you're gonna grow your business because you've built it up once and you can do it again. I. I mentioned earlier in this episode that before I went on maternity leave, I booked up my CEO partner one-on-one coaching spots for this quarter, and now I have a limited number of coaching spots opening up in May. So if you have big goals for your business, but you're not exactly sure how to get there, all work with you to develop your exact detailed strategic plan and we'll work together through the implementation to make progress towards those goals every day. The CEO partner program is literally like having a coach in your pocket to turn to for anything business related. It's the highest level of access that you get to my knowledge, and you'll also get my eyes on your content, and I can give you detailed feedback on whatever you're working on as well. I take on no more than five coaching clients at a time because it really is an in-depth partnership with each person. So if you are feeling like you are ready for that next level in your business and to really make those bold moves this year, I will drop the link in the show notes for more information and send in the short application, and you can always DM me@monster.gold on Instagram if you just wanna chat and see if this might be right for you. Thanks for tuning into this episode. Shoot me a DM at Calligraphy Biz Corner and let me know if this was helpful and what you thought of the solo episode format. I'll talk to you soon.