With vacation policies ... my clients pay for the space committed to regardless of its 'use'. I am paid for all stat holidays and than have two options with my 'fees' option A where you pay basic fee and do not pay me for my vacations or personal days and option B where you pay a lower fee but I get paid for 10 vacation days and 10 personal/emergency days ... if I were to take 'more' than that then they would be unpaid.

With EI ... I would definitely investigate the COST of it and your business plan analysis ... my understanding is that once you opt IN to it as a self employed person if you USE it you are then required to pay into it for the rest of your self employed business life.

So if you are going to return to the out of home situation in a couple years it might be 'worth it' to pay in to get your mat leave covered .... because once you quit and become employeed y ou will continue to pay into it through your wages.

However if you are planning to remain self employed long term cost analysis wise it might be way cheaper to put the 'payments' aside and save up for your own mat leave ... cause with EI premiums your payment while on mat leave will be 50% of the NET you claim as income not your GROSS ... so a pittance compared to the amount you will be paying into it .... it would be much cheaper to SAVE up the 50% of your net for a year ahead of time OR instead of taking a mat leave hiring someone to come in and 'work' in your stead so your clients remain and you can still have all the tax benefits of using your home as business and so forth but you can have 'time' with your babe as needed?

Personally - I am not going to be having any more 'babes' so mat leave is not an issue but the EI for 'sick leave' did appeal to me until I looked into it ... it was cheaper for me to pay into a 'short and long term disability' plan through a private insurance company OR to take the premiums I would have been paying to EI and put them into an RSVP - if I get sick I can withdraw and if I am blessed to remain healthy I am saving for my retirement ... with the EI or insurance if you do not 'use it' you loose it so to speak...I prefer to invest in my own family than lining the pockets of big business in the insurance industry!