The Rebranded Teacher
The Rebranded Teacher
TPT Maternity Leave: My Prep Plan
Stepping away from your TPT business—whether for maternity leave or any planned absence—requires thoughtful preparation and realistic expectations. Drawing from my experience across three pregnancies while running a teacher-entrepreneur business, this episode walks you through the practical steps to ensure your store continues thriving while you focus on what matters most.
First, establish your timeline and identify your non-negotiable tasks. For me, six weeks is my sweet spot—that period where I want absolute minimum responsibilities beyond occasionally answering a team question. From there, create a realistic plan for batching essential content and delegating responsibilities. My first maternity leave taught me a painful lesson about insufficient planning when I found myself updating resources at 3am while watching my newborn sleep in her rocker during back-to-school season. The hustle mentality during what should be a precious bonding time took a significant toll on my wellbeing that I've been determined not to repeat.
Your preparation strategy should distinguish between what truly needs continuation (email marketing, customer support) and what can comfortably pause (blog posts, new resources, social media). For team members, create clear guidance and have them practice critical tasks before your departure to minimize questions during your absence. Consider seasonal opportunities that might arise while you're away—optimizing Halloween or Valentine's Day resources beforehand can prevent mid-leave panic about underperforming listings. Most importantly, give yourself grace. Don't feel pressured to batch three months of content or return at full capacity immediately. Your business should adapt to your life circumstances, not the other way around.
Ready to plan your own strategic pause? Subscribe for weekly content that helps teacher-entrepreneurs grow businesses that are both purposeful and sustainable. I'd love to hear your tips for managing business absences—drop them in the comments below!
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Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author, and seller on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Let's talk about prepping for maternity leave or a leave of absence in your TPT store. So whether you're like me and you are due any week now, or you are wanting to take an extended vacation or leave of absence from your TPT store to give yourself a break, spend time with family, whatever your reason, we're gonna talk about some things that you need to think of before you do that. So this is my third baby. I've had all of them while running my TPT business. My first kid, I will tell you, I grossly underprepared for maternity leave. In fact, I don't think I prepared for maternity leave at all. Now, to be fair, back then it was just TPT and I was kind of used to things sort of running themselves. But it was also 2020 and there was a lot going on, and she was born during back to school season. And looking back, there are so many things that I would do and do do differently now. So the first things first, I think whenever you're prepping for maternity leave or leave of absence from your store, vacation, etc., one of the most important considerations to make is how long am I gonna be gone? And this one's really important. It doesn't mean that you can't incorporate some amount of flexibility, but like you know, you like how long do you want to be gone? Now, obviously, in this case, we're talking about a planned leave of absence. We're not talking about some sort of emergency or something that comes up. I feel like that's a totally different scenario because you can't plan for that nearly as well. But if you have the ability to plan your leave of absence, then you need to decide how long you want to be gone. So for me with maternity leave, I usually plan to take about six weeks where I really am having to do like bare minimum, which is basically like answering a question here and there for my customer support team or for my team. Like that's pretty much it. I don't want to have to be producing content. I don't want to have any events on my calendar, like I don't want any responsibilities other than having to answer a question for someone here and there. And having to do that is really not a big deal for me. I feel like that's probably pretty standard. Like, even if you're taking a leave of absence from the classroom or from another job, like somebody's probably gonna text you at some point and ask you a question, and you can kind of answer that at your leisure. And that's kind of how I want the first six weeks to go, if possible. Now, during that six weeks, I might choose to do something. There might be something that pops up and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna do this, or I feel like doing, you know, tackling this project over here. I have a little bit of extra spare time. I'm gonna take care of this piece of business, but I don't want to have to do that. So for me, it's all about making a list of what pieces of content need to be created, what has to go out, what has to be done during those six weeks, and either batching it out ahead of time or making sure that someone on my team knows how to do that task. That task has been delegated, they know what to do, they know when to do it, and everything's taken care of for that task. So the very first thing that I do is I decide what is the timeline that I want to be gone and I don't want to have any responsibilities. And then I make a list of everything that absolutely has to get done and within that six weeks. So for my TPT business, that's things like you know, answering customer support questions, answering emails, making sure email marketing emails are scheduled out. It may for you also be scheduling out social media content or something like that just to keep things going. I don't have social media, but I do have a lot of other businesses, obviously. So, like this podcast right now, I'm batching out six episodes today that's gonna kind of help get me ahead and get me well out of that six weeks. It's also things like taking care of my membership and you know, I need to get a guest speaker for my membership who's going to fill that guest spot, you know, taking care of all of those things for my people in RTA and selling 101. So making sure that those things are taken care of. There's a lot more than just running the TPT business. But the good thing at this point is that a lot of these things are already taken care of. You know, my assistants, they do a lot. So, really, for me at this point, it's really just making sure that the things that only I can do are batched out ahead of time. And then anything else that I would normally tackle myself to like save money or just because I prefer to do it myself, that I've delegated those tasks and taught someone on my team to take care of them while I'm gone. With my very first kid, she was born during back to school season, and there was a lot that I didn't think about. And I found myself honestly just kind of winging it. And I kind of had assumed, like I didn't get very many QA's back then. I certainly didn't get a lot of customer support emails, and I didn't have a team. Like I don't, I don't think I had anyone. Like I didn't have an assistant, I didn't have anyone, it was just me. But I also didn't have like a social media that I had to maintain. I had a small email list at the time. And so I just kind of decided that I was going to wing it and that if something didn't get done, it was gonna be okay. And I don't really recommend that because it ended up feeling like a little unhealthy. I remember at certain points because it was back to school season and it was COVID, I was trying to add like digital components to a lot of my bestsellers to make sure that they continued to sell and I was able to continue to make money during that time. And then that involved, you know, not only updating each resource and making a digital version, but also going in and making new covers and previews and like updating product descriptions and doing all of that. And I was literally doing that in the middle of the night when the baby was awake, or you know, the baby would only sleep in the rocker. She would only sleep in the rocker back then, and I was like scared to death. And so I was having to like watch her while she was sleeping. So in the middle of the night, I would be like staring at the baby and like, you know, making sure that she was still breathing and everything was okay, you know, like you do as a first-time mom, while then going over and trying to update these resources. And I was super sleep deprived. And I thought at the time that I was just like making good use of my time because I kind of naively thought, I'm awake, I might as well be working and I can do these things, so why not do them? But I really didn't realize the toll that that was gonna take on me, both mentally and physically, because being awake in the middle of the night and working while you have a newborn and you're all already sleep deprived is not really great for your central nervous system. Like, not really good for you long term. It'll stress you out, it's not good. And with my second, I definitely went into it with a different mindset of I want to be able to, if I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm up with the baby, I don't want to be thinking about trying to work or what needs to be done for work or what kind of tasks can I get done. I want to binge watch Gilmore girls and then go back to sleep when I can and have it be as an enjoyable of an experience as possible versus feeling like I've got to make the best use of this time and like if I can't sleep, then I need to be working and kind of having that hustle mentality because it wasn't healthy. So I definitely recommend going in with a plan. Don't wing it and also don't feel like you have to tackle things in your spare time. You really don't have to. So if you ahead of time make out a list of these are all of the things that are non-negotiable, like they have to be done from that list, figure out what can you batch out ahead of time, and then what are things that you can tackle when you feel like it. So for me, I know that minimum I need to send out one email a week to my TPT email list. So I will batch those out ahead of time, but then I will have probably like extra emails because a lot of times I'll send out a second email. So those I can tackle when I feel like it. So if I feel like sending something extra out to my email list, I can send out something extra. Same for any sales or anything like that, any special sales that I decide to participate in because I will still be on maternity leave during like Black Friday and all of that. Those are obviously like non-negotiable. So those are things that have to be set up ahead of time. I don't want to have the stress and worry of trying to remember any dates or anything that I have to do by a certain point. So I will set up and schedule those non-negotiable emails. But then if I decide during Black Friday, you know what, I'm gonna do something special and I'm going to offer them a freebie with purchase or something like that. Then I can choose to do that if I feel like it during that time. So that's like one example of something where I have all of my non-negotiable bases covered, and I'm sure that I have those covered before I go into maternity leave. But then I'm also leaving myself some wiggle room and some allowance to say, like, if I feel like doing this, then this would be a great thing. And the reason for this is personally, I would rather batch out, especially like this baby, it's gonna be born probably end of October. I'm not really sure when this episode will air, but the baby will probably be born end of October. So I will then have like all of the holidays. I would rather batch out all of my non-negotiable emails that are gonna go out through the end of the year because we'll also be navigating the holidays during that season. And I usually kind of try to take a break during that time anyway. So I'd rather do that than to try to say, okay, I've got to do two emails a week for the rest of the year. To try to take that on would be a little bit overwhelming for me personally. I know that's not a lot for some people, but for me, I like to be really creative with my emails. I like to think creatively, and I don't like to just batch out, you know, 30 emails, which I guess it wouldn't be 30, but it would be pretty close to 30. I don't like to batch out that many all at one time. It starts to get a little taxing for me with trying to make them creative and engaging and trying to, you know, cover all of my bases. I'd rather batch out 15 and then if an email doesn't get sent, it doesn't get sent. It's okay. But to allow myself the opportunity to send something extra when I feel like it, than I would to feel pressure to like batch out 30 emails. So that's another point that I would say is to know what do you feel comfortable with trying to batch out ahead of time? Because most people who are listening to this are still in the classroom, like you're still a full-time mom or a full-time dad and a full-time worker, and then you have this side business over here. So, really understanding what's going to be doable for you and just hitting the high points and making sure that the absolute non-negotiables are covered and not creating unnecessary expectations for yourself for what you have to get done ahead of time. The second thing you want to consider is if you have help, what do you want them to be working on? And how can you make sure that they don't have to be asking you a bunch of questions while you're on leave? So have them practice now the things that you want them to do while you're gone. So, for example, there's an email that I usually send out every month. I usually schedule it. It doesn't take me but a few minutes, it's not a big deal, but my assistant could easily schedule that herself. So the very first of October, she is going to send the practice emails. Like she's gonna send the email herself. She's gonna go through the task, do it ahead of time so that if she has a question that I didn't anticipate, like I usually create her a video, I show her how to do the task, how to complete the task. In fact, I did it in September. I created the video for her, showed her how to complete the task, and then told her she was gonna do it in October. I try to anticipate all the questions or anything that she might run into, but that doesn't always happen. So at the end of October, when she's getting ready to schedule that email that's gonna go out on November 1st, I don't want to have to be answering a bunch of questions about that or to think like, oh my gosh, I've got to hurry up and answer this so that she can do her task because I forgot about to tell her about a step or she has a question that I didn't anticipate. And so allowing her to practice that ahead of time gives me some reassurance and her some reassurance that she's gonna be able to complete the task and any questions that she might run into, we can answer those before I go on leave. So I have a team member whose whole job is updating resources and creating covers and previews for resources that have already been created. And a lot of times she runs out of work. Now, sometimes there's so much work that she can't get it all done on time, but other months she's sending emails saying, What's my next task? Like, what do I need to do next? And I have to come up with something for her to do or have to look for her for something for her to do. We don't always quite know how exactly that month is going to go, how quickly she's going to get a task done, etc. So one of the things that I have to do is I have to make sure that before I go on maternity leave, there is a plan in place for her to make sure that she knows what she's supposed to be doing and that not necessarily that she's not running out of tasks, but for sure that I know what tasks I want her to complete. And if she's completed those tasks and she wants something else to do, that I either have a backup option for her or my project manager knows to tell her, like, hey, that's all we've got until X date. And then at X date, you'll start working on A, B, C, and D, right? Whatever her next task is. So just making sure that you're taking care of those things so that your team is not in limbo while you're gone, like wondering what they're supposed to be doing. And also, like if you can swing it, it is really helpful if you have people who are working for you regularly to not tell them like, hey, sorry, you're not gonna be working during this period of time because I'm not gonna be working. Making sure that you're still able to pay them, that they're still contracted out during that time can be really helpful for them and can help you pick right back up where you left off as soon as maternity leave is over. So let's review this. Number one, you wanna know how long your leave of absence is going to be or how long your maternity leave is gonna be. And then number two, you need to make a list of all of the things like that absolutely have to be done during that time so that you can either delegate or you can batch them out and take care of them ahead of time. This is also a really good time where if you have something that say you don't have a team that you can delegate a task to, to make sure that you have calendar reminders set so that if there is something that you absolutely have to do that can't be scheduled, that you have that on your calendar and you know that you're either going to be able to make the time to do that on that date, or if there's a specific day, time, whatever that you have to do something. Like, for example, in RTA, I will go back December 1st and I will have our first meeting back. And I know that my husband is going to have to like be like all hands on deck. Like he is going to have to take care of the baby that day. I know I'm gonna need help. I know that my husband is gonna need to be home and he's going to need to be able to take care of the baby. And making sure that some of those dates are on the calendar so that I have the help that I need in order to be able to do the things that cannot be rescheduled or delegated to someone else is really important. So making sure that you have a list of non-negotiables. And then once you've made that list of non-negotiables, like don't just sit down and make it in one setting because you might forget something. Come back to it also and see if there's anything that you can cross off the list and ask yourself like, if my list feels overwhelming, is there something on the list that I can truly take off? Like, does this really have to be done or is that just ideal? Right. So just making sure that you have reasonable expectations for that time period and for what you can batch out ahead of time and what you can get done ahead of time. And then third is making sure that if you have a team or if you have people working for you, that they know what they're supposed to be doing, but also that they've been able to do some sort of trial run and they've been able to test it out to minimize the number of questions and snafuos that you might run into during your planned leave of absence so that you're not feeling stressed trying to answer questions and take care of things. And also so that they're not feeling stressed because they don't want to bother you during your leave of absence. They definitely don't want to bother you during maternity leave. And so making sure that they're taken care of and that they know exactly what they need to do and giving them the opportunity to practice that ahead of time can be helpful for all of you. Lastly, I want to run through just a really quick list of some basic things that you might want to consider for maternity leave or a planned leave of absence. That is taking care of your social media, making sure that your social media content doesn't lapse. You can certainly decrease the amount that you're posting or decrease the number of emails that you're sending in order to make this batching out a lot easier for you, especially if you're in a time crunch. But make sure that you have social media posts batched out. Make sure that you have your email content batched out, sales, emails, all of that stuff, really take into consideration are there going to be any sideways sales during the time that I'm going to be gone? Are there going to be any special events or holidays or things like that? Make sure that if you want to send out a freebie to your email list or you want to offer a freebie, that you have that created ahead of time and you have it all planned out and scheduled to go out. So social media, email marketing, and then you want to make sure that somebody is there to answer customer support questions. And if you're still early on in your TPT business, that part can be pretty easy for you unless it's like somebody says, like, hey, I found this major error in this resource that's like a hundred pages long and you've got to weed through all of that. Like that's obviously not fun. But most of the time, that's not gonna be something that's gonna happen. It's usually gonna be a minor question and you're gonna have 24 to 48 hours to kind of get back to them. You should be able to kind of like weave that in somewhere if you don't have a team and you're able to do that, like totally fine. But making sure that customer support is taken care of. And then here are some things that I would say you could leave by the wayside. Like I would say, don't feel pressure to like put out your blog posts, don't feel pressure to put out your Pinterest pins, don't feel pressure to put out a podcast, take a podcast leave of absence. Like you don't have to batch absolutely everything. There are some things that you can just step back and take a break from. Don't feel like you have to put out new resources, you don't have to do any of that. One thing that I would recommend batching out ahead of time, if you can, would be to look ahead. And if you're going to be gone during any holidays or big seasons, to think about maybe search engine optimizing those resources and taking a look at those ahead of time. Maybe taking a look at your SEO for Halloween resources or Valentine's Day resources, taking a look at some of those things and making sure your search engine optimization is on point, seeing if there are any covers that need to be redone, all of that kind of stuff, looking at some of those seasonal items so that you're not going through that season and looking at your phone and being like, oh my gosh, my Valentine's Day sales are in the toilets. Like, what do I do? And trying to feel panicked about trying to fix that problem. If you go ahead and you know, like, hey, I'm gonna be gone during that season, let me go ahead and optimize those listings now so that I don't have to think about it later. That can really save you a lot of stress. Now, that's not something that I would put on my non-negotiable list, but it is something that I would absolutely consider. So really making sure that any marketing where your audience expects to hear from you on a regular basis, email, social media, make sure that you have that covered and that you have things scheduled out, or you have content created that someone on your team can schedule out for you, making sure that customer support is taken care of so that your customers aren't waiting, you know, six to eight weeks to hear back from you. And then if you can swing it, making sure that any seasonal resources that are going to be hot during your leave of absence are search engine optimized and taken care of before you go on leave. Apart from that, there's not a whole lot that I can think of that you really like absolutely have to do for your TPT store. And having a short list really makes everything seem so much more doable. Last thing I want to say is don't put pressure on yourself to do more than you have to do. The reason that I only batch out for six weeks is because that is quite a lot for me, to be honest with you, to do six weeks in advance. Like that's quite a bit. There are some things that I will do a little bit more, like my podcasts. I'm batching out through the end of the year. So I'm doing like three months of those. There are some things that I'm gonna do more than six weeks of. That way I give myself a little bit more grace and a little bit more wiggle room, and I don't have as many obligations and kind of ease back into work and take about two and a half months where I'm really on light duty, which is usually great for me because honestly, I love to work. But don't feel like, especially with maternity leave, like, don't feel like you have to do three months or six months or anything like that. Plan for those first six to eight weeks. And then after that, you can kind of ease back into things. You don't have to come back full swing after that period of time. You can still kind of operate at the bare minimum for as long as you want to. So don't put any unnecessary pressure on yourself. Hopefully, this is helpful. If you have taken a planned leave of absence, whether that's maternity leave, vacation, whatever, and you have some tips for anyone who might be listening, drop them down below. We would love to hear them and to learn from you. I would love to hear them too. Maybe it's a tip that I need. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, then make sure that you are subscribed. I put out weekly content for teacher entrepreneurs helping you grow your TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. And I'm honestly so grateful for every single one of you who continue to come back and listen every single week. Thank you so much for being here. And I'm gonna see you right back here next week.