Maternity Leave: My experiences as a limited company director

Recently I’ve had a fair few questions about maternity leave when you work for yourself.

When I had my son, I didn’t have that many self-employed women to speak to who’d done it ‘that way around’ as many people who were self employed had done so after having their children.

How long do you take?

I took 6 months - or just under, in reality.

I planned my finances carefully to accommodate how long I thought the business could truck on without me, and how much I could afford to survive on savings.

My margin was a lot lower in this time being a service based business, and so I had to rely on what I’d built, and handed off client relationships to others in that time.

I ran a few scenarios with my accountant, and looking at my numbers, and 6 months felt about right.

Thanks to a very helpful hint from family, we had booked in and secured a place at a local nursery before my son was born. This is a TOP tip if you know your mat leave will be short, too, so you can make arrangements.

How far along was I when I finished up?

I was 38 weeks.

I pushed it pretty far to the end just to give me grace, but had begun to wind down a month in advance, writing handover notes, making sure everyone was clear on responsibilities, and what legal stuff would i need to dip back in for during (VAT returns for example).

It was a good exercise in assembling my thoughts and making sure nothing was just “in my head”.

How did it work in reality?

I was, by and large able to switch off.

There was one (turns out to be nightmare) client that systematically went through my team in my absence - the writing was on the wall before I went off on mat leave, and I should have listened to my instincts…

How does it work in reality?

So basically, the business (if you’re a limited company) pays you, and reclaims your mat pay from HMRC, on submission of payroll, every month.

The numbers you need to run ahead of time, are confirming your salary, so for the first 6 weeks, you can claim 90% of your salary, and thereafter it’s statutory.

When you pay yourself and reclaim, it’s HMRC paying the company back for the money they’ve paid you. So what you need to do is plan cash flow carefully alongside other tax commitments - a good open conversation with your accountant should help.

What actually happened was - my accountant at the time did not submit my payroll for the period, and so I received nothing from HMRC until long after I was back from leave. This would have been something I’d pursued more vehemently had my baby been one that liked to sleep and my head not have been so completely fogged up in the meantime.

What to be mindful of

The definition of KIT (or Keeping in touch) days will differ for you as a business owner, as you have a legal obligation to complete the legal activities required of you as a director of a business.

Finding out the line (and not accidentally working part time) is what you need to be mindful of.

If you want more time, that’s ok…!

If you, and the business can afford to extend, it’s worth being honest with yourself about - everyone’s circumstances are different, and based on your support, household income, ability for your partner to do shared parental leave and loads of other factors, do not feel pressured to do anything other than what feels right for you.

My personal experience, overall..

Do I feel bad for putting my son in nursery so early on - perpetually yes, but I found those early days so incredibly hard, that having some of ‘me’ back made me feel quite grounded again.

Critical to all of this is lean on the advice of a trusted and GOOD accountant or finance director.

And over all, the fact that the business gets paid back from HMRC was a real eye opener - yes statutory is shit as the recipient, but if you've been working somewhere for a long time and they can only cover statutory, you're basically free for them. I get that there's other overheads associated with time out, but honestly, I would really encourage more people to dig into your parental leave policies. I'm just pleased this is in the public eye more, recently (and NO it is not excessive...).

The biggest learning curve after I came back

Was the juggle - when your kid is sick and you work for yourself, it’s hard, but therein lies flexibility. Building up a network and a community around you that can lean in when you need to lean out is KEY and I would encourage (and if interesting, can help) those get set up for success to do this.

The other thing - zero tolerance for dickheads. If I’m spending time away from my child and a frightening amount of money to do so, it’s funny how your tolerance for nonsense and politics becomes almost zero. It really sharpens the profile of the ideal client.