“Why didn’t you answer my emails this weekend?”
My new client had already forgotten the ground rules I had established before we started working together. For example:
I don’t work for free.
I don’t work over the weekend.
I don’t do calls super early in the morning or late at night (I make some exceptions for clients in radically different time zones).
I’m not available for texting 24x7.
I take time off for vacations, holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions.
I'm not available for panicked last-minute calls with the expectation that I drop everything.
Do you know why?
Because I did all the above as an employee, and it made my life miserable. I missed weekends with my children, dinners with my family, and vacations. I worked myself to death and damaged my physical, emotional, and mental health.
Therefore, I sure as hell would not design my business to replicate that misery. You shouldn’t either! As an employee, you have to put up with a lot of crap if you want to get promoted and keep your job. It’s an employer’s market now, and they know it.
When you create your first business, it’s easy to overlook setting boundaries because you may not have been allowed to do that as an employee. Even if you established some limits, you sure couldn’t set all the boundaries you wanted!
So, you may end up on a slippery slope of clients/customers pushing your boundaries inch by inch. It usually starts slowly with a late call here and some extra free work there. But, before you know it, you’ve let things go too far and you're finding yourself pretty miserable running a business that was supposed to set you free.
Let me be your guide for this and advise you to capture what you want your working boundaries to be now. Some you’ll know right away, but some you will discover as you work with more clients. No worries! Document the new ones and add these additional guidelines to future contracts.
I go into more detail in the audio of this podcast episode, so scroll up, hit play, and listen. I discuss seven critical categories to consider when establishing your boundaries with clients.
Communication Boundaries
Time Boundaries
Financial Boundaries
Scope of Work Boundaries
Professional Boundaries
Personal Energy & Emotional Boundaries
Legal & Ethical Boundaries
I created a Google Doc with placeholder operational guidelines for an engagement with clients and customers. Feel free to copy it and modify as needed for your type of business!
Would you like to brainstorm some boundary ideas with me? You can schedule a complimentary call.
Larry Cornett is a business coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become more invincible, and create better opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate! Check out his new Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal!
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