How to manage maternity leave as a self-employed nail tech

By Marie-Louise Coster | 29 January 2026 | Business, Expert Advice, Feature, Tech Talk

Session nail stylist, salon owner & educator, Marie-Louise Coster, shares how she juggled her business and becoming a mum…

A question I get asked a lot, as a working mum, is how I managed my maternity leave and return to work once my daughter arrived. Being self-employed has many benefits, but not so much when it comes to time off – because if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. When it comes to maternity leave, there is some help available from the UK Government, but you must meet criteria.

Understanding maternity allowance

You can apply for maternity allowance once you’ve been pregnant for 26 weeks, and if eligible, your payments will be made to you fortnightly or monthly, depending on what you choose. They can start anytime between the 11th week before your baby is due and the day after your baby is born. To be eligible, you need to have been registered as self-employed with HMRC for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before your baby is due. You will then be entitled to between £27 and £187.17 per week for up to 39 weeks.

How much you receive depends on how many Class 2 National Insurance contributions you have made in the 66 weeks prior to when your baby is due. To get the maximum amount of maternity allowance, you need to have paid Class 2 NI contributions for at least 13 out of the 66 weeks before your baby is due. If you haven’t paid 13 weeks of Class 2 NI contributions, your maternity allowance is calculated on what contributions you have made, and HMRC will contact you about making additional contributions to qualify for the maximum allowance. If you haven’t paid any Class 2 National Insurance, you will be entitled to £27 per week maternity allowance.

How long you take for maternity leave is up to you, but you can receive the allowance for a maximum of 39 weeks.

My experience

I planned to work up to the week before my due date, as long as I was well, and I reduced my treatment offerings, stopping offering massage services. My due date was the end of August and I planned to return to work eight weeks later – on reduced hours, but to fulfil commitments of training courses I had been booked to teach. I then planned to return to client work before Christmas. Things did not go to plan, and my daughter was delivered via caesarean section 14 days after her due date.

When planning my maternity leave, it never crossed my mind that I may end up having a C-section, as I had a pretty perfect pregnancy. Truth be told, I didn’t recover well from my caesarean – my spine was punctured during the procedure and I was losing cerebrospinal fluid that wasn’t reaching my brain. This went on for a week before I was listened to. Added to that I had a wound, was learning to breastfeed, my core had been cut in two and I was recovering from major surgery – but I had a beautiful baby.

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My pre-booked commitments were very understanding, and clients were so supportive, but they had been with me for between five to 20 years. I had struggled to conceive, and when it did happen, I was older and knew I only had one chance to build a special relationship with my daughter, which I believed I couldn’t do if I was working. So I made the decision that when I returned to work, I would only do evenings from 6:30pm to 11pm and Saturdays from 8am to 10pm – with breaks for expressing milk! That way our daughter was always with me or my husband.

I am not going to lie, it was a level of exhaustion I had never experienced before. I also lost a couple of clients, who were retired and didn’t like to go out on evenings and kept Saturdays free. It was unfortunate, but these things happen.

Top tips

A key thing I did, while on maternity leave and in those first two years of reduced hours, was keep communicating with clients. I cannot stress enough how important this is – don’t let them forget you. Whether you send WhatsApp messages, emails or postcards, keep your social media updated or call clients from time to time, keep the lines of communication open. While some of my clients couldn’t be accommodated because of my new hours, we remained in contact, and when my daughter started nursery at the age of two, most – if not all, of those clients returned to me.

I also recommend refreshing your industry knowledge and keeping up-to-date with new skills and trends, for example online when your baby is sleeping.

Just recently, my hours have changed again as my daughter has changed dance schools. It is a 150-mile round trip from home two nights of the week, so I work in the day, collect her from school, do the drive, carry out some admin then we drive home. It is tiring, but I won’t be the reason that her dancing dream is not a possibility, and I love nattering with her in the car.

I have no doubt as life moves on that my hours may change again, but as long as you communicate with clients they understand. Most of mine are mothers and understand the juggle. Also, my daughter and I have such a close bond because of the way I adapted my work to be present for her. I may have lost a couple of clients along the way, but I gained so much more.

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