October 3, 2021
Boundaries are woven throughout our entire business…they exist to protect us and our clients at every touchpoint and during every process.
Boundaries allow you to honour your clients by providing them with an exceptional service.
Clients feel safer and reassured within a solid framework—they love to know what happens next.
And, beautiful boundaries ensure you honour yourself, by living a balanced life, running a business in a calm environment and earning a good income.
If you have trouble setting clear boundaries, we’ve got you!
This is a transformative series where we look at some potential problems that might arise in your design business, and, we provide you with suggested boundaries that we believe every design business needs to get out ahead of those inappropriate requests and ‘red flags’—allowing you to be in control of your business.
Suggested Boundaries: It’s essential to have a suite of scripts on the ready for those tricky or inappropriate requests that land in your inbox or DM.
Like a blunt…”How much for a logo?”
Your script could introduce yourself, explain a little about what you do and why its impossible to have a set price on a logo without understanding their needs. Then, direct the potential client to your website initial touchpoint form.
Also, having a general policy about how long you take to respond to enquiries will take the stress out of feeling obliged to respond instantly. Your policy should include whether you will respond on weekends and after hours. Once you have a boundary in place, you can calmly schedule responses in.
Suggested Boundaries: Introduce a gatekeeper on your website by including cost indications. For example, Simple Branding Packages typically start at $X. This boundary ensures that people who do reach out to you understand what a starting point investment might be.
We recommend all design businesses include an ‘initial touchpoint’ brief or an ‘apply to work with me/us’ form. This beautiful boundary should include a welcoming intro that establishes your industry authority and intention. Include questions like, what is the deadline and what are you prepared to invest?
Suggested Boundary: Introduce a system where you have all of your meetings booked via a scheduler. Set email reminders via the scheduler—these could be one day prior, 2 hours prior and 15mins prior.
And bonus—these are additional touchpoint opportunities where you get to enhance ‘know, love and trust’ with your clients. Use your brand voice to make the reminders on point for your brand and ignite a sense of excitement for the upcoming meeting.
Suggested Boundaries: Set an agenda for all meetings. Be clear on the objective so that you can stay on track.
Always take the lead with meetings, guiding your client through each step.
At the beginning of each meeting firmly and gently state how the meeting will roll.
Remind your client of the intention for the meeting and make them feel safe by letting them know that you will make sure the meeting stays on track.
New client meetings are particularly tricky to reign in, so set up your intention from the get go by saying something like “This is an exciting process and we can easily get off track. But don’t worry I’ll bring us back to ensure we are on time and meet our objectives”.
This sweet boundary gives you permission to gently redirect clients back on track.
Suggested Boundary: You don’t need to keep scheduling meetings with people who aren’t respecting your time. If your red flag barometer is high, you can send out an email to the potential client to say that due to your schedule you are unable to commit to the project, and perhaps recommend an alternative contact, facebook group etc to reach out to.
Suggested Boundaries: Firstly make sure your messaging is aligned across all touchpoints and speaks to your values—this will be an organic gatekeeper.
Also, have a script ready to direct misaligned clients elsewhere. Something like “This project is not a good fit for the type of work I am currently taking on”.
Perhaps also have some recommendations on the ready to refer the clients.
Suggested Boundary: Firstly, let them know you’d love to work with them. Then communicate your current schedule, explain the way you work and the earliest time you can do it.
If you would like to take on the work and deliver within the tight timeframe…it’s a dream client after all—you could have a ‘Rush Fee’ boundary ready to go. You could say something like “I’d love to do this work with you, I do have a process that we will need to go through before we start, and I will have to charge you a rush fee for after hours or weekend work.” And add—”If there is any chance the deadline can be moved, the earliest I can schedule you in without applying a rush fee would be (insert date here)”. You’ll be surprised how deadlines can quickly become flexible once you are clear on your boundaries. And, remember clients will also see you as their dream designer and won’t want to miss the opportunity to work with you.
We appreciate this boundary is a hard one to set, especially when you feel they are a dream client. But be careful, whatever you do here is setting a precedent for future work with this client.
And bottom line, be prepared to decline the opportunity to quote.
Remember that by saying yes to something, you are usually saying no to something else. And vice versa.
Are you saying no to yourself?—your success and your happiness?
This can be a people-pleasing issue….please see Epsiode 38 all about this!
[00:00:00] Kris: Welcome everybody. Today. We are talking about boundaries and this is a four part series that we’re going to be doing, um, all about boundaries. So we’ve broken it down into four different sections for you. Because it’s a big issue for designers. We talked about red flags in our last podcast and the antidote to red flags is boundary setting.
[00:00:25] Donna: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:00:27] Kris: not talk about it? Let’s unpack it.
[00:00:30] Donna: That’s right. And we know that beautiful boundaries set throughout your business completely from beginning touchpoints through to end, makes for a successful business where you are running your business your way. So we were so excited to put this series together and we can’t wait to dive in. Let’s do this
[00:00:49] Kris: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the first one is about client relationship boundaries, in particular new client relationship boundaries. When you’ve got those new contacts coming, they’re knocking on your door or they’re sending you a DM. There’s a few boundaries we need to have in place for that particular situation.
[00:01:04] Donna: Okay. So let’s get into the examples that we have ready for you today. Our first one, first cab off the rank is email or DM boundaries. That’s that first touch point when something first arrives in your email or your DM, because depending on how your business model is set up, it would depend on how people reach out to you. And it’s that feeling you get when something isn’t quite right, and you need to set a boundary around that. So having scripts ready to go, the key, across the board with boundaries, being ahead of it. Get out ahead of it. Be prepared. So having a general policy as well on how long you are intending to take to respond to an email or a DM. So making sure that if you have a 24 hour policy you make sure you stick to a 48 hour policy or whatever it may be, but making sure you have that set. So you’re not sort of scrambling.
[00:01:56] Kris: Especially if it intrudes on a weekend or in your weekend time and having a policy around that so you’re not being reactive, you’re being more proactive and having some scripts for those kind of odd messages as well. Like if it feels a bit blunt, if it feels a bit like, so Donna mentioned the red flag, so it might be just how much for a logo and nothing else, but they’re not using any kind of email niceties, or any kind of ‘love your work. How are you going?’ And it just feels a little off. Yeah. Having a script in place, ready to go. Before you get those kinds of responses, what are you going to say? How are you going to direct them? Are you going to direct them to the website? For example, what are you going to do? So have something in place. That’s the boundary.
[00:02:42] Donna: Get out ahead of it. Yeah, absolutely. Number two. Number two, on the list is gatekeeper having a gatekeeper on your website with regard to costing because there’s nothing worse than getting an inquiry, getting excited, especially if they’re aligned as a dream client. And you’re really excited about working with these people to invest a lot of time in preparing, taking a brief and preparing a cost estimate only to find that they are just, no, thank you. You’re too expensive for me. And it’s shattering and not to mention it’s a waste of time to have spent all that time, preparing the proposal because a really beautifully prepared proposal takes time. So a really beautiful boundary to set, a gatekeeper is to have an indication, just an indication doesn’t have to be your price is completely there, but an indication of prices from the get-go that people can see.
[00:03:38] Kris: Yeah, it could be, something as simple as prices start from X amount of dollars, brand packages start at X amount of dollars, things like that. You don’t have to be completely explicit about all your pricing structures within your business. That is a really good gatekeeper.
[00:03:54] Donna: An indication is so good because if a starting point for a brand with you is, is around three to $5,000, well then you’re not going to get somebody who’s only got a thousand dollars to spend and you’re not going to invest all of that time and effort into it. So it’s a brilliant boundary to set from the get, go.
[00:04:08] Kris: Yes, definitely. Um, another boundary with new clients is having a scheduler to book meetings with automated email reminders, because if you don’t have those reminders, people can forget. People might not show up. And that can be a red flag as well. When you’ve got a client who keeps on skipping meetings and that sort of thing. So we talked about that in the last episode of red flag problems that can happen. It’s so easily fixed with the boundary of a scheduler.
[00:04:35] Donna: Oh! Love the scheduler boundary. It’s an extra opportunity for that beautiful messaging, another touch point. So have fun with the language that you use within your scheduler. The messaging that comes through on that little reminder email can be effervescent and exciting and reminding them of their upcoming appointment or meeting. And it’s just another opportunity to, to build that know love and trust. And, most importantly, it’s a beautiful boundary to make sure that we’re catching those clients who are often late or not turning up to meetings. So it’s a good one.
[00:05:05] Kris: Yeah. And don’t just do one, one reminder email, do a couple, like it could be 24 hours beforehand and you know, one Alma beforehand or 15 minutes beforehand. It doesn’t matter. You can do things on repeat. You’re not going to be annoying. It’s all good. You’re just making them feel safe and that everything’s under control.
[00:05:23] Donna: Yes. Love that. Love that.
[00:05:25] Kris: All right. Another one that is important when you’re dealing with new clients is if you’re having a meeting, to take the lead with a meeting. So that is a boundary setting technique. To state at the beginning of the meeting, what’s going to happen, how the meeting’s going to unfold and really importantly, sticking to the timeframe of the meeting. So making sure that they know from the get go that this meeting is going to be a 30 minute meeting or a 45 minute meeting or an hour long meeting, making sure that there’s a lot of clarity around that. So that’s a really good boundary to set as well.
[00:05:58] Donna: Absolutely. That’s right. And you can even say these type of meetings are really exciting and it’s really easy to get off track, but don’t worry. I’ve got you. I’ll pull us back on track and, it’ll be my job to make sure that we cover everything that we need to cover in this meeting. And it gives you permission then when it does start to go out of control or off on a tangent that at least not really serving the intention of the meeting, you can pull it back with respect and, and it’s gentle. You know, you won’t feel bad about stopping a client off on a, on a tangent. That’s not serving the intention of the meeting. That’s the key. Is this tangent serving the intention of this meeting? Am I gathering intel that I need for the purpose of whatever this meeting’s about? And if it isn’t just remember, your time is a really precious commodity. So we can’t just be giving it away for free and giving it away willy nilly because clients aren’t able to, to stay to task. So there are beautiful ways to get them back on track where you are in control.
[00:06:59] Kris: Yep. You’re in control. You’re going to decide how this is all going to roll. Yeah. All right. Another beautiful boundary that we can pop in place for those new clients is if you notice from the get go that the values of your client or the potential client, aren’t going to align with yours. We need a boundary.
[00:07:19] Donna: If you know, instantly that this client is not going to be aligned to your values, it’s imperative that you really hear that from the get-go. And honor that in yourself and know that this is going to be a tricky relationship to work with. So having a script ready to say that the work that they’re asking you to do is not quite aligned with where your business is going at the moment. Perhaps even having somebody else, you can recommend for them for the type of work they’re after, but having a script ready from the get go so that you don’t even go down the path together because, you’ll know instantly if the values are out of alignment, because that is critical to the success of the project and your business that you are working in alignment. Alignment is key.
[00:08:07] Kris: Yeah, it’s so important. Um, and you can further assist this boundary in advance, like getting out ahead of it by being very clear about your messaging and your values, so that you’re attracting the people with similar values. So it’s on your socials. Your values, they’re clear, they’re clear on your website so that you’re not going to attract somebody who isn’t a good fit for that. And sometimes it’s as simple as that. It’s about having a script ready to say it’s not a good match for the kind of work that I’m doing at the moment. It’s not a good match for my business model and um, perhaps giving them an opportunity to reach out to somebody else. So making sure that your messaging is aligned across all the touch points and that your values are coming through clearly.
[00:08:52] Donna: Yes, absolutely. I love that. Sprinkling those values across the board, through all the touch points. It’s a really beautiful little gatekeeper, people will see straight away, okay. These are the values of this business. And they’ll know if it’s not aligned to them. They’ll be seeking designers and web designers and brand strategists that are in alignment with them as well. So having scripts ready to get out ahead of it. Yep. Alright.
[00:09:16] Kris: Last one. So you’ve got a potential client that’s reached out to you and they’ve said something like, I need this by next Monday. And it’s a it’s a super tight deadline and you’re just thinking. Oh, okay. It’s a dream client. I want to do this work. You’ve never dealt with them before they’ve reached out to you, but how do you handle this?
[00:09:41] Donna: And you want to do it and it’s like, gosh, but you don’t want to set any bad precedents in that you will just drop everything and work for them over the weekend. That beginning of the relationship. Once you do something once, once an expectation is set, it’ll be expected on repeat, oh, you worked for me the very first time that I got you to do a job, you did it and I needed it and you got it done over the weekend. And so we can’t set any precedents that we don’t want to do in the future.
[00:10:09] Kris: So the boundary that you could set in this instance is something as simple as referring to your schedule, talking about your schedule, talking about your availability. That sounds wonderful. My current schedule is this. The thing with setting that boundary is that you have to be prepared to say no to the project. You have to be prepared that the client may say no, that schedule doesn’t work with me. We talked about last week also um, rush fees and that sort of thing. You could do something like that as a boundary as well. But as Donna said, whatever you’re doing, you’re setting a precedent from the get-go. And so if you still want this happening in 12 months time with this client, make sure you set up the foundations correctly from the beginning.
[00:10:52] Donna: Yes, and you can say to the client, you will look at your schedule, you’ll see what you can shuffle. You can be accommodating and come across as being flexible so that they don’t feel that it’s too rigid and they won’t be able to work with you moving from. As long as it’s your way, your schedule, you are the one being flexible with your schedule in a way that works for your business as a whole. So it’s okay. If you want to be like Kris just said those rush fees over the weekend, but again, it’s all about communicating exactly what’s happening with the client so they know, okay, I can get work done at a rush, but I will be paying for it. I can get work done with this designer, but I will be scheduled in and then they understand I’ve got to get out ahead of it as a client and be prepared and know that the designer’s is not just sitting there waiting for me, tapping their desk, they’ve got this beautiful bustling business and I have to be fit into that business. So, it’s okay. They will respect it. Clients will really respect the boundaries that you’ve put in place.
[00:11:53] Kris: Yeah. So the boundary is to educate and let them know exactly how you work, because the kind of project that they’re requesting may actually take you three to four weeks. If you’re going to do a thorough job, if you’re going to honor the project, if you’re going to honor your process and they just might not be aware of that, they just may need to shift their expectations and they may do that, but it’s just an education, an educational boundary.
So that is the first part of the series that we wanted to run through today. Just some boundaries around clients. Next time we’re going to be talking about boundaries around pricing and quoting. So that’ll be a very juicy interesting one.
Um, but when you think about boundaries, moving forward, boundaries can be really tricky because they can feel very triggering for people who want to please, all the people pleasers out there.
You know, they So if you’re having trouble with setting boundaries and you are a bit of a people pleaser, or you just really want to respect and honor the client, really, if you can change your mindset to setting boundaries is actually honoring the client. It is honoring the process. And it’s honoring you as well. I was listening to a podcast recently with, um, Glennon Doyle. It’s the we can do hard things podcast, beautiful podcast, if you get a chance to listen to it, check it out. And they were talking about people pleasing. And one of the ideas was to reframe from wanting to please the person to honoring the person. So let’s change our language around it.
[00:13:27] Donna: Love that so much, so much. It’s that little paradigm shift that will make all the difference to your confidence in setting boundaries. You just need to have that confidence that you are doing something beautiful for your business and for the client. And it will come with ease. You can just sort of release that icky feeling around, you know, not being the good person, letting somebody down, and that shift into honoring somebody. It’s so powerful. Thank you so much, Glennon Doyle, is such a beautiful gift to have that little shift.
[00:14:01] Kris: Yes, because you want to honor them by offering them an exceptional service. And clients feel safer. It’s just like children. Like clients, are a lot like children. It sounds funny, but we’ll probably use that analogy, um, from time to time, but they feel safer and more reassured if there’s a bit of a container, if there’s a framework around the whole process and they like to know what happens next and how things are going to happen. So you’re actually honoring them by doing this, and you’re also honoring yourself because you’re honoring yourself by providing for yourself a balanced and good life and a good income. And without boundaries, you’re not going to be able to do that.
[00:14:41] Donna: No, because just like children. You gave an inch, they take a mile.. So the other side of boundaries is it’s essential, essential for sanity and balance and all of those wonderful things that Kris has just talked about.
[00:14:55] Kris: Yeah. And when you are saying yes to something, you’re always saying no to something else. And that’s a really interesting way to look at it. You’re going to have to have these conversations in your mind about, okay. If I’m saying yes to this, what am I saying no to? If I’m saying no to this, what am I saying yes to?
[00:15:12] Donna: If you are saying no to you on repeat, really have a little look at that and ask why, why that’s happening. And it could just be that people pleaser coming out all the time, but it’s a really interesting question to ask yourself, I’m saying yes to something. What am I saying no to. Make sure it’s not you.
[00:15:31] Kris: Oh, yes, what a beautiful note to finish this episode on. good luck with your boundary setting. You’ve got this.
[00:15:38] Donna: Yeah. Get out ahead of it.
[00:15:39] Kris: Yep.
[00:15:40] Donna: Be prepared, be proactive rather than reactive. And, you’ll be so empowered if you do that. So have fun with it, everybody.
[00:15:48] Kris: Yeah. Have a beautiful day! Bye.
[00:15:52] Donna: Bye
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