Boundaries: Maintaining Client Relationships & Keeping Your Sanity
If you have been searching for a way to achieve that coveted work-life balance, then search no further! I’ve got the answer right here for you, because ultimately, what it comes down to, is Boundaries. You need to set them, and you need to stick to them. There is this mentality around owning your own business that somehow translates into needing to be accessible to your clients and customers 24/7 in order to provide them with top tier service. This idea that if you aren’t burning yourself out every single day than you aren’t working hard enough is completely bogus. So, with that in mind, how do you create, and enforce, boundaries that will nourish healthy relationships with your clients and provide you with the much-needed downtime to recharge?
You start by taking a step back. Make space in a day to sit down and truly take a good look at your workload, client/customer base, number of meetings or appointments and any other work-related ‘housekeeping’ items that occur on a weekly basis. Map out when these things take place and group them together as much as possible with similar items to make the most of your time. For example, combine emails and phone call follow ups since you’re likely at your desk or workspace completing those. Combing out of office meetings with business-related errands (like stocking up on office supplies, inventory, etc.) so that you’re not running out the door every 5 minutes. When you’re grouping these like-minded tasks, you’re getting back so much lost time and like the saying goes, time is money! Timeblocking your week like this is a great tool to help keep you organized, on-track, and focused on one task (or group of tasks) at a time.
Once you’ve taken the time to review your calendar and to-do list, outline what your ideal hours are and cross-reference those with the type of work you do for your clients and customers. If you’re a Virtual Assistant who has already committed to being available 3 days each week from 10am-2pm, then this is already done for you. But if you have a goods or services based business that works flexible or ‘off’ hours then this is a little trickier. Keeping in mind that just because you may be completing work at 11pm or 5am, it does not mean that you need to be responsive during those hours (unless, of course, otherwise agreed to by you and your client/customer). I am often working late at night or early in the morning, finishing off projects or re-reviewing emails before scheduling them to go out during ‘business hours’, but really, that doesn’t mean that I am available for phone calls or ‘urgent’ chats at those hours. Think about what suits your business and your schedule and make those your business hours. Maybe you are only available via email Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9am and 4pm, and outside of that a video or phone call needs to be booked in advance based on additional availability on Wednesdays between 11am-5pm. Whatever hours you choose – make sure it works for you!
The how is also so important! In today’s age where everyone has a smart phone, it’s likely that your business number is attached to a cell phone, and that might even be your personal phone. Do you want your clients or customers texting you questions or looking for updates in the middle of the night? Or during the one day each week you go completely offline? Or better yet, trying to video call you while you’re driving or grocery shopping? It’s not always so simple as turning your phone off or turning off notifications; your phone has your camera, your music, your favourite meditation app, your GPS for that road trip you have planned – everything under the sun, really. You need to be able to disconnect from work without necessarily disconnecting from the world.
Once you’ve decided on your schedule, it’s important to set it in stone. If your work is client-based, make sure to include a section on ‘Business Hours’ in all of your new contracts. You can also send a memo to existing clients, letting them know of an adjustment in your availability and ask them to sign back their understanding or else provide them with an updated copy of your contract ‘to tidy the administrative side’, making reference to the added section on ‘Business Hours’. If you have a good relationship with your client already, they won’t be fazed by this at all. If you have a client that is more on the needy side, this might take some getting used to on their part but that is why it is so important to stick to it! Any push back can be met with a simple, polite phrase “to ensure I am serving my clients to the best of my ability, I will be available by email during the hours of xxxx.” It also doesn’t hurt to add an automatic reply to your emails during your ‘off’ hours so that any current or prospective clients will know right away not to expect an email from until the following business day or on Tuesdays and Thursday only. By being transparent with your clients you’re letting them know that they are still important to you and they will appreciate being kept in the loop and having a timeline for an expected response instead of not hearing anything at all.
If you’re work is more customer-based, you can include your Business Hours on your email signature, on your website, and in automatic replies as well! The same reasoning applies here – just because you work on your products during off hours, doesn’t mean you need to be reachable and accessible during those hours! It can be so easy to say to yourself that it’s just one email and you’re sitting at your computer anyway.... but one quickly snowballs into 10 and next thing you know, you’re working when you said you wouldn’t be – hey, we’ve all been there! Not to mention, you’re sending mixed messages to your clients and customers if you tell them to respect your boundaries and then don’t respect them yourself!
It can seem daunting, letting messages flit in without doing anything about them, but it is a short-term avoidance only. By setting these boundaries of when you can and cannot be contacted, and how you can be contacted, you are protecting your peace which in turn allows you the ability to focus more on your business and on your terms – which for most is the whole point of becoming a business owner in the first place!
