How to Set Boundaries in Your Business

How To Set Boundaries In Your Business

How to Set Boundaries in Your Business

We all know especially as entrepreneurs and business owners the line between home life and work life can get a little blurry at times. You may find yourself eating breakfast over a Zoom call with a client or leaving work in the middle of the day to get your sick kid from school. 

Whatever the case may be you can never 100% separate work life from home life, there’s always going to be a mix of the two. But how much is too much and where should you draw the line?

Keep reading on and we’ll cover some things you should consider and steps you should take to make sure you have a fine work-life balance. After all, you deserve as much attention as you give everyone else. So sit back, relax, grab a coffee and read on.

Clocking Out

Now that you’re the boss, that means you set your own start and end hours, how awesome is that! But this also now means you’re unrestricted and can work as early or as long as you want. Knowing this comes with its own issues. This means you could start working at noon or five in the morning and all the way to midnight.

It’s quite easy to get caught up in work, especially if you’re feeling inspired and want to get ahead on the week’s work. While your clients may appreciate this, your body and mind will not.

This is when it comes in handy to set yourself your own routine or work schedule. You shouldn’t work more than eight hours in a given day. If you’re an early bird then consider working 6 to 2 or 7 to 3. That way you get all your work done earlier on and get to enjoy your afternoons off. Or, if you enjoy having long three-day weekends then consider spreading out Friday’s hours amongst the other four days. So this may mean working ten-hour work days.

Nonetheless, it’s important to make a schedule and stick to it because it’s important that you get time to yourself at the end of every workday to unwind and do the things you enjoy that will lead to further inspiration and energy for the next day.

Keep your Personal Number Private

As a business owner or entrepreneur, this may seem like an odd thing as it may be your personal number you’re giving out to everyone to contact you. You want clients because you have a business to run and giving your personal number away seems like the logical thing to do as it will connect people to you instantly.

Well, what happens when clients start calling you in the middle of the night because they’re from another time zone? Perhaps you’re out on a date, or maybe you’re having dinner with your family? Whatever the case may be, it is not only annoying to everyone else, but it’s also cutting into your personal space and time.

It’s important to have a separate work number or perhaps another means for your clients to contact you. Be clear with your working hours and how you should be contacted. Setting these boundaries is important so everyone understands when you’re in and out of the office. Your clients should be able to respect your personal boundaries as they would expect you to respect theirs.

Plan Ahead

You should know firsthand how much work you can handle. But sometimes when juggling multiple clients things can become a little messy and disorganised. This is why we suggest getting yourself a scheduler or agenda.

Having an agenda of sorts will help you stay on task and organise your work events. Here you can list the clients you’re helping, the work you’re doing for them, start and end dates, meetings, and your brother’s football game that’s happening next Friday night!

Making sure all of your plans are written physically or in a digital calendar is very important. This will ensure you’re not overlapping projects, personal life activities, and other events. Taking on too much at once can become cumbersome and lead to burnout.

This will also help you plan for new clients and find times and days you know you will be free and have time to dedicate your full attention to their needs and wants. You may even find you had a whole week booked off for a fun vacation to Hawaii you forgot all about. So, having a scheduler may just save your life.

Get used to saying “NO”

We know how hard it can be to say no to people. Especially when it comes to family, friends, and clients. But it’s a necessary word you need to learn and practise using. Otherwise, you may find yourself taking on more tasks and responsibilities you may not have previously agreed upon in a work order.

Saying no isn’t the end of the world and you need to make sure when you say it that the person you’re telling no to also understands why you cannot perform what they are asking of you to do. 

There may even be times when you’re being asked to do something you’re not 100% sure you can do or have the resources to complete. You may not even necessarily need to say no, you may just be unsure.  So even saying to someone, “I need time to think about this and I’ll get back to you” is also fine. Just be sure to communicate when they should expect to be hearing back from you.

Boundaries Equal Happiness

We aren’t saying it’s going to be easy in the beginning. Like everything else in life, practice makes perfect. Start a little bit at a time each week adjusting your work-life boundaries. If you’re finding your employees are having the same issues as you, it’s important you communicate with them and perhaps even have a group meeting to discuss and implement boundaries. A successful business runs on a healthy culture where everyone feels motivated, energised, and excited to get back to work. 

Before You Go

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Check out my website for more information: https://aimsmmarketing.com/mentorship/

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