Newsletter
August 2022 Newsletter
Setting Boundaries in Small Business
One topic we often discuss with our clients is how to avoid small business burnout and how to manage the ongoing pressures of being a small business owner. One of the key components to managing the daily overwhelm of small business ownership is to establish and set boundaries so that your small business doesn’t become your 24/7 focus.
With many small business owners having young families, outside hobbies and commitments, it’s important to have clear boundaries between work and home life. This balance is often hard for small business owners as work commitments slowly creep into one’s downtime.
Small business owners are infamous for working around the clock as the stakes feel so high initially. Long-term, however, this often leads to stressful and chaotic work environments as the line between work and life becomes blurred.
Here are some ways you, as a small business owner, can protect your time and space and work towards a healthier work life balance.
1. Lead by example
If you have a small team of employees or a business partner, it is important to establish expectations surrounding work hours and communication early on. It is much harder to revert bad habits, so it is important to start with a clear intention of how you expect your employees to communicate with you and when.
It is important to lead by example in this instance. For example, if you expect your employees to respect your home life and keep calls and emails within work hours, you must reciprocate. If you, as a employer, send emails at all hours it creates the expectation that you are always available and that you expect the same of them.
2. Set client expectations
Customer service is essential for the success of your business, however, when the lines are blurred between client and friendship, or perhaps you made an exception to work out of hours for a client during a busy period, you can find yourself in a cycle of working at all hours.
If a client phones you or emails you out of hours, it is important to reset the expectation by responding during business hours, so they do not think you are always online or always accessible for a quick question. Use your email signature to be clear about your working hours and update your voicemail to say that you will return calls during work hours.
Consider having a system such as www.calendly.com where clients can book you in for 15-minute phone calls, so they are aware you have a system in place and that your time is valuable and structured.
3. Prioritise time off
Just like your staff should always have breaks from work, you as a business owner, can set the tone for work-life balance by doing the same. Even if it is a long weekend here and there, small business ownership can lead to burnout, and it is important to take time away to re-energise and reset your intentions for the business moving forward. As an employer you should encourage employees to take time away for the very same reasons.
4. Encourage staff responsibility and autonomy
While it all sounds good in theory, you must lay the foundations for you to be able to comfortably step away from the business without being pulled back into work on your leave. For example, if you spend the entire holiday on the phone answering questions, it’s not a break. Setting your staff up to feel confident to manage the business while you are away and the expectation that you are only contactable in an emergency is a way of setting boundaries as a small business owner. Empower staff with responsibilities and the confidence to make decisions without your approval.
If you find yourself constantly “on” due to the environment you have created in your small business, consider setting boundaries around your work and prioritising work-life balance. It’s important that you start the way you intend to finish so when onboarding new staff or clients, be sure to set the expectation and be firm with your decisions and consistent with your behaviours.