Badassery Magazine Issue 3 August | Page 12

How To Draw Boundaries with Clients

to keep your sanity

by Laura Pennington

Owning your own business is extremely fun until it isn ’ t and you ’ ve got clients texting or emailing you at all hours of the day expecting an immediate response . The moment that I learned how to draw boundaries with my clients was the moment that my business took off in an extremely pleasant and scalable manner . Until then , count me in for questioning why I ’ d ever become an entrepreneur in the first place . Waking up in the morning to find text messages from 10 P . M . is what prompted me to lay down the law .

What follows are my best tips for keeping clear boundaries with clients and staying on top of your responsibilities .
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Having long been a person who owns my business while also juggling other responsibilities ( like being a full-time PhD candidate and managing other businesses or even having a typical 8.30am to 5.00pm job at one point ), boundaries are critical for showing that you are a true professional and for making sure that you have your own sanity and creative space to do what you need to do .
HAVE A SEPARATE BUSINESS LINE I currently use a business cellphone and a personal cellphone but you can also use a Google voice line to forward to your personal cellphone or get a relatively inexpensive number elsewhere . This helps to draw the lines between your business and your