How a Maternity Leave Created a Business That Was Built to Sell Just like many young couples, Ben and Ariel Zvaifler got a puppy and found themselves trying to figure out how to train their new dog. They also wanted to understand what toys and food they needed. The couple figured they weren’t alone and decided to launch PupBox, a subscription box for new puppy owners.
Ariel Zvaifler was responsible for operations, among other things. She took great care in selecting products and merchandising them inside each PupBox. She even considered details about how each package would be shipped and how it felt when the customer received their PupBox. When Ariel found out she was pregnant with the couple’s second child, she set to work documenting her standard operating procedures.
She put together instructions for her staff describing how to order products, merchandise each item, and ship boxes. It took Ariel six months to document everything, but by the time she was ready to give birth, PupBox was prepared to run without her. These standard operating procedures were a big part of how PupBox grew and why the giant pet retailer,
Petco acquired PupBox in 2017. How to Get Your Company to Run Without You Start by breaking down your job into tasks, and then preparing instructions for your team so that they can follow your standard operating procedures when you’re not there. Test your team’s knowledge by taking a couple of vacation days to see where your processes have holes. Plug the gaps with more details, and then take a more extended vacation. Keep lengthening your time away from work and tweaking things upon your return so that by the time you’re done, your company can handle your extended absence, similar to maternity or paternity leave.