If you don’t have the boundaries you need in place in your business, your business is running you which is why you’re overwhelmed.
Without boundaries, your business and your clients control you. You’re forced to sit at your laptop late at night and on weekends when you want to be spending time with your family. It also forces you to work overtime on client projects when you really want to be watching your favorite show or taking some time to invest in yourself and practice some type of self-care.
As a solopreneur it’s easy to get so caught up in pleasing our clients that you spend too much time working for them. So the line between work and family is basically non-existent. Now you might feel that you’re providing the best service ever by operating your business like a 7-11. But in reality, you are training your clients not to respect your time.
Boundaries give you the ability to clearly communicate expectations with clients so they will respect you and your time. If you’re always saying yes to clients, you’re saying no to something else in your life that your boundaries should protect.
So I’m going to share some tips to help you set boundaries, communicate them and stick to them so you can grow your business and enjoy life on your terms.
Three Boundaries You Need
I’m going to share three boundaries you need so that you can be more focused on specific tasks. This means you’re able to be more productive and less distracted. But you have to shift the way you operate your business and be more intentional with your time.
- Set your office hours
- Designate specific times to respond to messages, emails and to be on social media daily
- Designate specific days and times for business calls
These three boundaries are great parameters for your schedule if you time block like I do. If you want to know how to organize your schedule with time blocking, click here for some tips in my blog post. I explain how I use this game changing method to get more accomplished without a long to do list.
What do you do after you establish the boundaries you need?
Communicate Your Boundaries
When it comes to client engagement, you need to have a documented and automated process that starts at the moment they first contact you online. That’s when on-boarding really begins!
There are three key pieces you need in this process to create super fans. I go into these in detail in this blog post. But in a nutshell, once a client is ready to move forward and work with you, there should be a “Welcome” process in place that communicates what people can expect when working with you.
This is what’s included in my welcome email:
- My hours of operation and response policy
- Holiday closures and my vacation notice policy
- A referral reminder
- A confidentiality reminder
These same policies are in my service agreement. And when I have the initial on-boarding call with my clients we review these policies. But that’s not all, I also send my clients a yearly reminder email to refresh their memories and just in case there are any changes.
Why do I do all of this? Well if you don’t, you make it hard for your clients to understand how to best work with you. Clients want the best work from you as possible. Boundaries help you do your best work possible and honestly, your clients really won’t mind.
You’re not being strict, you’re being professional. And if you state your boundaries and expectations in a kind and respectful way, your client’s won’t see you as being strict. They’ll respect your professionalism!
It’s never too late to communicate your boundaries to your clients. You can send them an email that summarizes what your policies are and then ask them if they have any questions about the email on a check-in call.
Once everyone has been informed of the boundaries you need, move to the next step.
Stick to Your Boundaries
This isn’t going to be an easy step because you have to say “NO” to yourself first. Your boundaries are meaningless if you don’t have the discipline to stick to them. So you need to make a commitment to yourself to protect your time. YOU HAVE TO BE DISCIPLINED.
Now keep this in mind, business hours and working hours are not the same. Don’t feel obligated to reply to emails or any messages that come in after hours. You need to schedule emails to go out during business hours and respond to any other messages the same way. If you use Gmail, be sure to check out this blog post where I share five time saving hacks you can use in Gmail including scheduling email responses.
Now sometimes your clients know your boundaries, but they still seem to be sidestepping them. Don’t assume that they are expecting you to ignore your boundaries. They might simply have only had time to email you late in the evening or over the weekend. STICK TO YOUR BOUNDARIES, respond during office hours.
And if you do nothing else, do this. Establish a main form of communication with your clients and keep as many conversations as possible in that place. I use Slack with my clients and that’s where 98% of our conversations take place. It makes it easier for both of us to keep up with what was said.
Something else that will help you stick to your office boundaries in business is using an online scheduler. This keeps you from being distracted by unscheduled phone calls and you can focus on your work. And turn off all notifications on your phone so they don’t distract you when you’re working.
Now all this being said, there are some exceptions where you may need to meet with a client or take a call outside of your normal business hours. But this needs to be an exception and not the rule. And you need to make sure you explain that when you make the arrangements. A good client will understand that and will appreciate you even more for it!
Setting up the boundaries you need in your business will protect your sanity and you will be able to focus on keeping your customers happy. Not to mention your income will increase and you will also be able to enjoy quality time with your family and friends!
And don’t forget this, If you say yes to something outside of the boundaries, it means you’re saying no to something your boundaries are supposed to protect. The longer you’re in business the more important it is to set aside time to review the boundaries you’ve set. That way you can ensure they are still serving you and moving you forward to your goals. Most importantly you want to make sure they are letting you live a more intentional life.
If you need help creating a welcome kit or getting your on-boarding process in place, book a 60 minute clarity call with me. We can get all of the pieces in place so you can cross this off the to-do list and focus on growing your business this year.
Now I want to hear from you! What boundary do you plan to put in place first? I would love it if you’d share it with me. To do that you can screenshot this blog post or the podcast episode, hop onto Instagram stories, post that screenshot and write what your boundary is that you are choosing to set with your clients from this moment forward and tag me @the_shannonbaker.
If you would like to hear the expanded audio version of this topic, be sure to check out episode 47 of the podcast. Tune in on your favorite platform by clicking one of the links below.
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