According to the Center for Women's Business Research, there are 5.4 million solo women entrepreneurs in the U.S. These women entrepreneurs generate more than $167 billion in annual sales. I count myself as part of this lucky group: I'm an entrepreneur, wife and mother.

After 19 years in sales management, I founded my independent coaching business in 1999. For five years, I worked hard to build my business. Then, at age 43, I found myself unexpectedly pregnant with my first child. I hit the mother lode.

My husband I had been planning to adopt when we found out we were expecting. We were thrilled. But there were some hurdles to overcome and contingencies to plan for. For example, I had to plan for the arrival of my child without the benefit of paid maternity leave, figure out how to manage my clients while I took time off and look for reliable child care.

So I took a few deep breaths and did some self-coaching. You can do this, too. Here's how:

1. Start making to-do lists. I pride myself on my organizational skills, and I preach this to my clients. Keep three master lists: personal, household and business. I realized that I had to mange my business and household finances to cover two months of maternity leave, so I put that on my list and saved every month to have the necessary financial reserves.
    
2. Plan as if you're going to deliver your baby one month early. Shorten the time frame on your projects so you won't be caught doing last-minute work on your laptop on the way to the hospital. This advice proved invaluable to one of my clients, who gave birth to her first child three weeks early. She called me after the delivery: "The funny thing was I had gone to the doctor for a regular checkup at 7 a.m. Monday. The doctor told me that women never go early with their first babies. The next day I went into labor, and my daughter was born at 11 p.m. on Tuesday."
    
3. Pay yourself ahead of time. If you can shorten the time frame on your projects by working extra hours pre-baby, you can pay yourself ahead of time and save that money for maternity leave. A client of mine develops online courses for associations and nonprofits, projects that usually take six to eight months. She shortened the time frame to five to six months. She finished her last big project in May, paid herself early for three months' maternity leave and delivered her baby in June.
    
4. Rethink your business model (the way you do business). See if there is a way to modify or change your business model to allow for more flexibility in your new role as mother and entrepreneur. Another of my clients is a financial planner. She knew when she had her baby that she was going to walk away from a paycheck for a while. My client was doing both fee-based and commission-based business. We looked at the fee-based asset-management model and saw that it gave her more flexibility: She didn't have to call her clients about every trade. While the fee-based model was not as lucrative initially, it has proved to be the best plan for accommodating her dual roles. Now she works only on a fee basis and earns her money from quarterly fees. She has turned the day-to-day management of her accounts over to other private money managers.
    
5. Ask for help. If you're in a new situation like motherhood and don't know what to do, ask enough people and you'll find the answer. Other women have been through this before. Your friends and neighbors can recommend pediatricians, child-care providers and the latest new gadget you can't do without. They can also tell you how they balance life, work, babies, puppies, in-laws, friends and family.
    
6. Learn to say no. If you are used to working 10-hour days, you'll have to make some changes. If you've been making your list of things to do, pull out that list (or lists). Decide which things have to be done immediately and which can wait until you come back from maternity leave. If you have more tasks than you can handle, you might have to find someone to pinch-hit for you--a business colleague or a virtual assistant.

Once the baby arrives, you may have to rearrange your priorities--and that may mean cutting back on your business activities. For example, I used to send out an e-newsletter twice a month; now I send it once a month. For seven years, I participated in a weekly networking group. Now I attend about one event a month. I'm more focused, and I cherish the time that I spend with my son.

It's true that having a baby is the end of your career (and life) as you knew it, but it's the beginning of a rich new adventure. Take time to enjoy it.