How To Set Boundaries in Your Creative Business
If you’ve been working with people for any amount of time, a few names may come to mind when you hear the phrase, “red flag client.”
(It’s unfortunate, but this is real life, people!)
Maybe the difficult client experience you’re thinking of is due to clashing personalities, indecisiveness, or other factors completely out of your control. But more often than not, challenging, draining, or unpleasant work experiences come down to the boundaries you’ve set with your clients — or the ones you forgot to implement from the start. Here’s the thing: Boundaries exist to protect EVERYBODY involved.
They can make or break the rapport you have with a client and affect how your work is received. They can dictate how a client treats you for the remainder of your time working together. They can determine whether or not you actually *like* the project you’re (figuratively) pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into.
In short, a LOT rests on the boundaries you establish early on in your client relationships.
Maintaining healthy boundaries is how you prevent burnout, keep morale high, and stay head-over-heels in love with what you get to do on a daily basis! Because it’s much easier to avoid a tricky or compromising work situation than it is to extract yourself from one, here are our top tips to make setting boundaries painless and easy peasy.
(Even IF you struggle with people-pleasing. Trust us, we see you.)
Determine What Your Boundaries Are
If you don’t know which boundaries you need to maintain to protect your peace (and creative energy!), ask yourself the following questions:
How and when do I prefer to communicate with my clients?
What does my ideal day look like?
What do I need to avoid (micromanagement, last-minute requests, etc.) to do my best work?
From there, you can start to figure out which boundaries need to be prioritized and how you can start communicating that with the people that are oh, so lucky to work with you!
If you want to go a little deeper, you can also make a list of whatever obstacles cause you to let go of your boundaries so you can create a system to work around those pesky distractions ahead of time.
Communicate Your Boundaries (and Expectations)
Knowing where you need to draw the line is half the battle. The next is communicating and maintaining the boundaries you’ve set to your clients so you can *actually* benefit from them. Here’s how you can make sure you and your clients are on the same page when it comes to your working relationship:
Establish your boundaries early on with proactive—instead of reactive—conversations.
You should make it clear upfront what is (and what’s not) your practice in terms of how you communicate, receive feedback, and address any conflict moving forward.
Put them in writing! Include your policies and expectations in your Client Welcome Guide to show them you’re serious about the parameters you’ve set. Clarity is key and if you’ve put everything on paper, you can point clients back to what they agreed to in the first place… You know, in case they forgot.
Remind your clients about your boundaries as many times as you need to get them to take you seriously. Don’t worry about repeating yourself or coming across too strong! Your time and energy are SO important. They are worth protecting. In our experience, a friendly reminder or nudge in the right direction can go a long way.
Put Systems In Place
Now, onto the good stuff! To get the most out of the boundaries you’ve created, you HAVE to maintain them. Putting the proper systems in place will help you dodge sticky situations from the start.
For example:
Don’t send emails, calls, or texts outside of office hours if you don’t expect the same in return. Though it’s easier said than done, you should maintain your own boundaries to show clients that the parameters you’ve set should be taken seriously. Remember, YOU set the tone for your working relationships. It starts and stops with you!
Define a clear set of deliverables in advance. Your offers can include built-in boundaries so clients know exactly what to expect when they pay the first invoice. For example, you can:
Cap the number of meetings that are included in a flat fee
Have a max amount of revisions *before* tacking on an extra charge
Require that feedback is provided by email within 7 days,
Use automations to your advantage. If you can leverage the business tools you use on a daily basis to stay organized, it will be 5x easier to maintain the boundaries you’ve set. Automated emails will inform clients of when they can expect a reply and keep you from staying chained to your inbox all day. Sharing your project timelines and systems will show your clients what to expect and help them feel more secure while they wait for the next step.
There are many ways to use automations and systems to your advantage, so don’t shy away from your tech! It’s there to support you in every area of your day-to-day.
Make Boundary Setting Easier by Shifting Your Mindset
Sometimes, it isn’t an outside factor that keeps us from maintaining the parameters we need to do our best work.
Much of the time, it’s our limiting beliefs tricking us into thinking:
“Being available 24/7 is providing great service.”
“This is a “red-flag” client, I should have known!”
“This is what I signed up for when I started my design business.”
I’m here to remind you that you deserve to have some sort of work-life balance—even as a solopreneur! You deserve to have time to yourself when you *aren’t* focused on someone else’s needs. Being a business owner doesn’t mean you forfeit that. But it does mean you have to do the external and internal work to make that happen. When you consider how you value your time, making moves to protect your time off gets much easier from there.
Side note: If you need help with the strategy portion of boundary setting, get in touch! Let’s talk operations, workflow, systems, and anything else you need to make your processes and expectations crystal clear.
