Maternity Leavers – Soozi Baggs

Enter the Competition

I quite often get asked about being a VA by new mums hoping to start up whilst off on maternity leave… if I am feeling nice I explain why it’s not a good idea, (otherwise I just laugh!).  But nevertheless the attraction of being a VA to new mums seems to prevail.  I’m not sure why – the Mummy Myth was well and truly shattered over a number of years in the UK VA Survey (less than 5% of VAs are mums working without childcare – that makes it comparable with the number of men in the industry).  But you still get training courses promising that being a virtual assistant is a way out of the rat race, being able to spend time with your family and to sack off paying the nursery fees.  ***I WISH!***

Having done two lots of maternity leave whilst running my business and daily juggling 2 young children’s needs, I think I am qualified to point out the realities of being a VA and being a mum.  And that’s why I like this book so much – Soozi Baggs does not dress up the realities of being a mum in fantasy.  She’s a realist, but a positive one too.

This is a comprehensive list of options available to new parents and how you balance that against your work life.  It gives you some useful tips on how to make whatever you choose work for you.  I like that it points out that your colleagues waved you off on maternity unaware of how much you actually do in the office, and got you back sleep deprived and hormonal with an entirely new focus to your life…  Someone should be saying these things, it’s good to have an open conversation about maternity leave at long last.

So when Dux Publishing said would we like a copy to give away, we jumped at the chance.  There’s even a section on freelancing and being a VA in it!

Win a copy of Maternity Leavers

For more recommended reading on being a VA: