What My Clients Said When I Told Them About the Baby

In short: I've got back pain, a life-changing blessing in my arms, and I haven't had a full night's sleep in ages. The business is still running and so am I (barely). The gym has been cut from the schedule. I've picked up every baby care skill imaginable. I'll chase almost any opportunity given, but babysitting full-time for $100 an hour isn't one of them.

Pre-Parenthood

Over the past year and half, I've been dedicating a lot of time to grow my business. Some main points of my daily schedule included:

• Progress with current clients software building requirements.
• Write and add at least one article per day to my blog.
• Post and comment about my business on different social channels.
• Respond to client emails and send tailored emails to new leads.
• Hit the gym consistently.
• Deep work sessions and sometimes pulling an all-nighter.

Post-Baby

The same business, the same drive. Just with a lot less sleep and a lot more love.

• Client work happens in baby sleep moments. Naptime is coding time. Sometimes the naps don't last more that 30 minutes.
• All-nighters are in my thoughts but they barely happen cause of exhaustion.
• Physical training has been replaced by holding the baby through most of the day.
• Social media interaction has dropped significantly.
• I'm now writing 1 blog every 7–10 days to keep SEO momentum and content fresh.

How did this change affect my clients?

I was terrified to tell clients about the baby. I am usually very fast to respond to emails and deliver new updates or features. Would they think I'm less reliable? Less committed? Turns out, most clients are human too. When you're transparent about your situation and still deliver quality work, they get it. As an example, there was a week where my baby had caught the flu. I had a pending task with a client so I sent an email saying:

"Sorry for the late response, my newborn had the flu from the first day of childcare."

Client response was:

Sorry that your baby was not well, that's no fun. We completely understand and trust that you will get to projects when you are able to. We're very happy with our arrangement Elie.

Never feel like you're letting us down by taking care of your family. You've had to be patient with us this summer because we are spending time with our families.

This response taught me something powerful. Honesty about real life situations doesn't make clients lose confidence. It makes them respect you more and builds trust. When you're transparent about your situation and consistently deliver quality work, clients don't just tolerate the reality of your life, they become parts of it.

Your business doesn't need to pause because life happened. It just needs to adapt. The skills you pick up as a new parent such as working in small durations, making every minute count, and knowing what to prioritize get translated to better work. Always be honest with your clients along the way, you might be surprised by how much they have got your back.

If you're working on a startup or need to build software for your business, check out PaloozaLabs where you connect directly with a software engineer and have a real conversation about what your software journey might look like, get a detailed plan and start working together.