Taking a Leave as an Independent Consultant with Anushka Chhaya | Ep. 203 · Grow Your Independent Consulting Business summary

Key takeaways

Plan ahead and communicate proactively with clients about your leave.
Maintain a warm client pipeline and set realistic expectations for your business during your absence.
Use your leave as an opportunity to reset your goals and reflect on your business strategies.
Return to work with flexible boundaries and align your services with your new reality.
Embrace the emotional and practical challenges of taking leave, and allow yourself grace during this transition.

Summary

Navigating Leaves as an Independent Consultant

In this episode, Melissa Lieberman and Anushka Chaya discuss the complexities independent consultants face when planning for time away from their business, with a specific focus on maternity leave. Anushka shares her experience of taking maternity leave after her second child and emphasizes that the discussion applies to various types of leave, including sabbaticals or family care. They highlight the emotional and logistical challenges, including fears of business sustainability during absence.

Planning and Communication Strategies

Anushka discusses the importance of planning for her maternity leave, including her decision to communicate openly with her existing clients about her leave and how it would affect them. Anushka's proactive approach included building a warm client pipeline before leaving, setting clear expectations, and trying to balance client work during her maternity period. The episode also touches on treating her leave with the same care and attention as she would a client engagement.

Managing Business While on Leave

The conversation transitions to the practicalities of taking a leave. Anushka shares her experience of maintaining limited, flexible boundaries during her leave. She describes her choice to keep the door open for specific short-term projects and client communications while ensuring that she focused primarily on family and recovery. They delve into the mindset required to balance both personal and professional responsibilities during significant life changes.

Reentering the Business and Goal Setting

As Anushka reenters her consulting business post-maternity leave, she reflects on the need for realistic goal-setting and the unexpected benefits that arose from taking time off. Both discuss the importance of adjusting expectations and roles with clients upon return, emphasizing the necessity to embrace flexibility in work arrangements. They offer strategies for fellow consultants to align their business models with their evolving personal situations.

Key Lessons and Recommendations

Towards the end of the episode, Anushka shares actionable recommendations for anyone preparing for a leave, focusing on the pre-planning phase, during the leave, and upon return. Importance is given to understanding client relationships, maintaining communication, ensuring work-life balance, and being open to flexibility in services and engagement types after returning.

Show notes

If you're an independent consultant, the idea of taking time off—whether it's for maternity leave, a sabbatical, or just a much-needed break—probably raises some big concerns.

Is it even possible to step away?
Will your business still be there when you come back?

In this episode, I’m talking with Anuska Chhaya, the founder of Chhaya Consulting, who recently navigated maternity leave after the birth of her second child. She shares her firsthand experience of balancing a new baby with a growing consulting business, and how she successfully managed to take time off without derailing her business.

We dive into the tough questions:

How do you build resilience into your business model to ensure it survives (and thrives) while you're away?
What systems do you need in place to keep things running smoothly?
And most importantly—how do you take time off without wondering if your business will still be standing when you return?

Whether you're planning for maternity leave, a sabbatical, or any other type of extended time off, Anuska’s advice offers valuable insights for independent consultants in any field who want to ensure their business remains strong and sustainable, no matter how long they’re away.

Key takeaways include:

How to create processes that can support your clients during periods of limited capacity
The challenges (and surprising benefits) of stepping away from your business
The three essential planning phases for taking extended time off

So, what would happen to your business if you had to step away for a while? Could you truly afford to take that break—and would your business still be there when you come back?

Tune in to episode 203 to hear practical advice and real-world strategies that will help you answer these questions and feel confident about taking time off when you need it.

Full show notes: https://shownotes.melisaliberman.com/episode-203/

Companion Resource: 🔗 Today’s Companion Resource is The Consultant’s Yearly Planning Guide. Download it at https://www.melisaliberman.com/plan

FOR MORE RESOURCES SPECIFIC TO THE INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT —

Anushka’s Consulting Business: https://www.chhayacpa.com/
Coaching: Interested in working with Melisa? Visit consultmelisa.com to apply for a Coaching Exploratory call,
Book: "Grow Your Consulting Business: The 14-Step Roadmap to Make Your Independent Consulting Goals a Reality" by Melisa Liberman - melisaliberman.com/book
YouTube Podcast Channel - youtube.com/channel
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/melisa-liberman
Website - melisaliberman.com/

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Taking a Leave as an Independent Consultant with Anushka Chhaya | Ep. 203