Small Business: Parental leave - Sarah Ramsay, Immersion Marketing

Sarah Ramsay, managing director of Immersion Marketing.

This week, Small Business editor Caitlyn Sykes interviews business owners about how they manage their parental leave.

Sarah Ramsay is the managing director of Dunedin-based firm Immersion Marketing, which has six staff.

I understand you're due to have your first child in a couple of weeks. What period of leave are you planning to take?

At the moment I'm looking at completely stepping out of the business for about six weeks. I've discussed completely stepping back for that time with my team and they really don't want to see me at work unless it's to pop in with bubs for a casual visit. After that I'm looking at working part time for four months — probably two half days and one full — then going back full time next March. It's still a bit up in the air but I'll probably do a full time four-day week. My husband has a family business as well and is pretty flexible, so we'll both try doing a four-day week and working as a bit of a team with the child care, along with my Mum who's very keen to have a nana day on Mondays.

What have been the considerations for you in determining those periods of leave?

My main concern has been business development, which is my main role. I haven't been so concerned about the actual workload and projects we have because we have a great team, but it's more about keeping the team fed with upcoming work. I've done quite a bit of coaching into that business development role with one of my team members, and that's something she really enjoys so that's quite a relief. We also planned to have bubs in the lead up to Christmas, which is when we shut down for three weeks, and that takes the pressure off a bit. But because I own the business — it's my first baby — I really wouldn't want to be away completely for more than the time I'm planning.

Will you access any paid parental leave entitlements?

I wasn't going to, but I will for the six weeks I'm away full time. People have said to me 'you're entitled to it, so you should take it'. It's also a relief on the business, because it doesn't have to pay for me when I'm not actually contributing.

What are some of the other things you've done to prepare for your leave?

About a month ago I started to really focus on stepping back from projects and clients. I had discussions in particular with my two marketing managers, just to say that I'm really happy for them to start making more calls without me. That's really helped build their confidence and mine leading up to the time I'm away. I've also been forecasting what work we've got in the pipeline over the next six months and figuring out where the gaps are that we need to fill. Another process has been working with clients to actually say 'I'm going on maternity leave, we've got these projects in the pipeline and what else can we programme in to keep things ticking along?'

Then just on Monday we had a team conference and came up with the plan together for things like delegating decisions that might financially impact the business while I'm away, and where I'd be most useful in the business when I come back. Also my business advisors, Deloitte, have offered to step in from a management perspective to deal with any issues along the way so I feel pretty comfortable.

Do you anticipate doing similar tasks in the business when you return from leave as you do now?

When I come back part time I'll just be providing direction on client work, so all my operations work will be put to the side; my office manager is going to take over a lot of the invoicing and things like that. And then when I come back full time hopefully the team will be used to not having me around as much and I can slip into a more strategic and business development role.

Planning for this period has been a really positive experience for me. It's quite hard to let go, but I've learnt that while the team might not approach things exactly the same way I do we'll still arrive at the same output. And as long as clients are happy and everything is being done to the highest standard then I think it will be so much more rewarding for me to be able to step back a bit from the day-to-day when I come back.