Boundaries ⛔: How to establish — and enforce — them as a freelancer
We all know the importance of setting boundaries in our personal lives. Whether or not your friends and family *actually adhere* to set boundaries comes down to how well you enforce them. And guess what? The same applies when you are dealing with clients. The problem in this case, however, is that you have to remain professional and can’t really let them have a piece of your mind.
So how do you do when your clients are being overly-needy? Well, as the old adage goes, prevention is better than a cure. In other words, it’s a good idea to have established boundaries between both parties before you get to work. But then it’s up to you to enforce them. Here are three tips for making it a little bit easier.
1. Make them aware of your office hours
Clients can be clingy and can end up taking up more of your time than agreed upon. If you let them. Before signing a contract, discuss what their expectations would be of you during working hours, and then let them know of your ideal time-management set-up. It’s important that you are all on the same page before you embark on a (hopefully) blissful freelancing adventure together. And any communication received after office hours? Unless it’s a legitimate emergency, feel free to leave them on read.
2. Set, and hold firm to, a deadline
Something that all seasoned freelancers are aware of is that things can often take longer than anticipated. And no, we aren’t talking about your payment, but projects themselves. Make sure that there is a clear deadline in place as far as your requirements and contribution are concerned. If they need you for additional work, they need to pay you accordingly. And, in any case, you need to check your schedule…
3. Let them know how you communicate
We have never been more connected than we are today. But while it is great that you can access everything you need on the go through your phone, this also means that people are able to contact you 24 hours a day. Not a vibe. Let your clients know how you would prefer to communicate, whether that’s via email or an internal messaging system, and ignore work-related messages on your social media channels and personal apps. They’ll get it eventually.
