For any small business owners who work with their clients, setting and respecting the personal boundaries is very important. And we don’t take a time for thinking about the implications of our personal boundaries until we get close to burnout and stressed out.
It is a balancing act as like the process of balancing the work-life. After all, you have to let go of the “all business, all time” concept and make a person into your business for proving exceptional customer service and for building a long-term relationship.
On the other side, it is very difficult for preventing that type of friendly and openness from blurring the professional line. So what shall the business owner do?
Here we have listed some of the ways of creating the personal boundaries that will help you in keeping your business dealing in the professional realm without having any kind of rigid policies which turns off the clients.
It is not necessary that your boundaries should have to be the 20-page policy document. Generally, it is enough to know about the way you want your business relationship to be structured and also make a habit that enforces that vision.
Focus more on the area that you feel like you need to create a more structure. And also be clear on how you want to interact and communicate with your clients. After that, implement those behaviours in your business.
Setting the boundaries is the part of creating habits and the best way of creating a positive habit is by doing something consistently. You have to work hard twice to respect your own ground rules next time if you give in once, or let something to slide.
Surely there will always be exceptions, even if you have defined and clear boundaries. For long-time clients, you may like to be gentler with your turnaround time and availability when the situation warrants.
And when this takes place, the key I to acknowledge to your clients as well as to yourself that it is a one-time exception for avoiding the future expectations to overrun you.
Communication plays a vital role in every part of the business. Likewise, it also plays a vital role when getting clients to respect your boundaries. You always don’t have to explain why you made a decision that you made in your business.
Sometimes, sharing only a little information can also help in facilitating the understanding of clients about your situation. It is all about the respect and treating your clients in the way you want to treat by them.
We have many things within us which make up who we are. And we all have got different personas attached to several roles in our lives. But there will always be some of the runs over when you want to keep those dimensions completely independent. The solution you find out to manage your personas is the thing which creates an open and genuine “you.”
You will be surprised to see how easy it is to put the best you when you accept the parts of you that create the whole package. It will also be easy to create and enforce your personal boundaries as well as be honest and consistent in your relationships.
