Setting boundaries for your Small Business
Creating & maintaining personal boundaries is imperative for everyone, in particular Small Business Owners.
If you work from home, this is even more important! Quite often people don’t think through the implications of boundaries until it’s too late….
As you already know, running a business is a constant balancing act. There are never enough hours & the list never comes to an end. While that’s the case, most of us absolutely love what we do, are fuelled by enthusiasm and passion; hence trying to work out boundaries can be difficult.
I’ve put together some of my tips for creating boundaries which I use in my businesses :
Set clear boundaries
It’s important that you are clear on your boundaries. If you’re unclear, how are any of your customers or clients supposed to know what they are…?
Quite often, setting boundaries comes down to channels of communication and also times.
Have a think about areas in your business where you need to create some structure with areas of communication with your clients, customers and also your staff.
Communicate clearly
When you’ve identified the boundaries you’d like to implement, it’s important that you let your staff and clients know.
Also, when on boarding new clients, ensure details are also outlined in their welcome pack.
If you need to adjust the terms or some pages on your website with some of this information, make sure you update accordingly.
As an example, if you decide that you finish work early on Wednesday’s , then ensure this information is clearly communicated. You should also place an out of office on your auto-responder for your emails too.
Be consistent
Setting boundaries means that it’s also up to you to ensure you stick to them. You’ll find that if you start responding to emails when you originally said that you are off-line at this time, your customer or client will naturally email you back. Before you know it, an hour of your Saturday may have been taken up with work. This really comes back on you as the Business Owner for not sticking to your boundaries.
Yes there are exceptions, however it’s important to recognise when something needs to be urgently dealt with over something that can wait.
Be You!
We all have a lot going on; running businesses, managing households, juggling families. At the end of the day my approach has always been to integrate work and life in a manner where it’s separate however it’s done in a way that i’m not trying to balance a certain amount of time in each area. I have a clear routine which allows me to have the best of both worlds, be highly productive and enjoy time away from work - even with a home office.
Whatever works for you is fine, however it’s important to find a way that is right for your situation. When you embrace your ideal balance (or integration), you’ll be surprised how it becomes easy to create boundaries and integrate your work/life in a manner that suits you.
Alison Morgan is one of Australia’s leading Business Coaches, specialising in helping small businesses grow & evolve
With over 20 years experience in Marketing and 8+ years Private Business Coaching clients with her company Relauncher, Alison knows how to create successful businesses.
Alison is also founder of Sticky Studio; a branding and digital design studio servicing businesses, brands and people.