Boundaries
When you run your own business it can be difficult to switch off and to have any separation between you and your work. This lack of boundaries can have a detrimental effect on your mental wellbeing, your work life balance and can lead to feelings of resentment towards your business from both you and those you spend your time with.
These are my top tips to help you set healthy boundaries within your business.
CLEAR BUSINESS HOURS
There seems to be an unwritten rule that small businesses should be available 24:7, that emails and DMs etc should be responded to immediately otherwise customers will go elsewhere or that they will start leaving bad reviews. But why is this? Yes, large parts of society are more demand driven and want everything now but that doesn’t mean we should be available on demand. After all you wouldn’t expect big business to respond outside of normal hours, so why should you?
Managing this involves setting clear and easy to follow business hours – people need to know when you are (and aren't) available: both office hours and when you aren't on DMs in your socials etc.
So, the next part is communicating this in a clear manner. Having an out of office response, the details on your website etc.
PHONE USE
Everything is on your phone these days – work emails, social media, networking apps, Shopify store app (other e-com platforms are available!). Easy access to these means that it can be a bit too tempting to “just check in". But there is no such thing as a quick check in, everyone gets drawn in to reading, replying, actioning etc.
So what are your options? Unless you can start exercising some amazing self-discipline then you need to look at setting usage limits or access hours on some of the apps on your phone as a starting point. If you are someone who will just overwrite these and extend the access then this clearly isn’t going to work! In that case deleting the some of the apps off your phone is the way to go:
Do you need your work emails on your computer AND your phone? Probably not.
Do you need your e-com store app on your phone? If you can’t face the thought of deleting it then look at turning notifications off instead.
Do you need to know every time you get a DM on social media? Turn off the notifications so you only see them if you are in the app and think about setting up an auto response to direct customer service queries to an appropriate email address instead etc.
And last thought... if you can't face the thought of not having it all on your phone then look into having a separate work phone so you can just turn that off at the end of the day and put it away until the next working day.
COMMUNICATON
If you are making changes in how you work and your availability the key to making this a success is ensuring that you communicate changes with your customers, your team, and anyone else it will impact.
BE DISCIPLINED
Saying and doing are two different things so it’s time to get strict with yourself and stick to your guns otherwise you will be back to square one. A good way to help get you into your new routine is to put other activities into your diary to give you other things to do so that you have pre planned distractions to stop you slipping into your old habits.
And finally... it will be a work in progress and it is ok to say no to people if they are asking you to commit to something that falls outside of your new boundaries.
Rachael