Setting Boundaries for your Business
As a business owner, especially one just starting out, you want to work on your craft all day, every day, creating and responding to emails.
I am here to give you permission to allow yourself to take breaks and create boundaries to help you live a balanced life.
If you continue to go all the time, you will burn out and potentially lose everything.
Boundaries are a healthy way to create a schedule that fits your life and puts you first.
If you aren’t already, I highly suggest you create a schedule for each day. It blocks out time for you to focus on that task and only that task for the allotted time. When you are developing your schedule, use these simple parameters to help create your boundaries:
Decide when you will take meetings. You are not at everyone’s beck and call so by blocking out time in your schedule to be available, you are more in control of the flow of your day.
Determine your days off. Make that decision and stick to it. You deserve it.
If you are a client based business, you should also set boundaries with your clients early on so that they know what to expect when working with you. This includes:
Include everything in the contract. Like, everything - photos, consultations, duration of meetings, etc. Anything that they will be receiving from you needs to be included in the contract.
Give them only one way to contact you. Do not give them your personal number, email, or all your social profiles. Giving them one way to contact you will reduce your feeling of being overwhelmed or bombarded.
Creating boundaries with social media is good for everyone but especially good for business owners who use that as a main form of marketing. I actually have to work without my phone in the same room because I have a habit of checking Instagram and Facebook. Work your social media screen time into your schedule.
Schedule out posts for a week or month at a time. Doing a bulk schedule is helpful to free up your time so that you are not worrying about when you have to post, if you even posted today, etc. Schedule out a block of time (no more than an hour) to go on and engage with your followers.
Give yourself a break. It is really important to take a little vacation from social media at times, even if it is only one day. Clear your mind and you mind find yourself developing new ideas for content.
Creating these boundaries will eventually lead you to becoming more productive because of the schedule you are setting for yourself. It reduces the amount of time you waste trying to figure out what else needs to be done.
Setting boundaries is also very good for your overall mental health. Now, more than ever, we need to create that life/work balance to really enjoy ourselves.
No one can be mad at you for creating boundaries in your business as long as you are upfront and stick to them. Do you, boo boo.
