263: Setting Client Boundaries Without Losing Business

Setting Client Boundaries Without Losing Business

A client texted at 9 PM. Another ran your call 30 minutes over. You spent an hour compensating for an unhappy client, then 30 minutes stressing about it. Business strategist Cindy Gordon reveals how to refine your boundaries without losing clients - and why clear boundaries actually create better client relationships.

In this episode:

• Why your accessibility is eating into revenue-generating activities
• The true cost of boundary violations ($350+ per incident)
• How to create client guidelines that feel professional, not restrictive
• Why boundaries make clients feel more secure, not less
• The difference between clients who respect boundaries vs. those who don't

The truth: The clients who respect your boundaries respect you.

Connect: @exclusivelycindy on Instagram | The Visibility Room Waitlist | UNMISTAKABLE Waitlist

About Your Host: Cindy Gordon is a Selective Visibility Strategist and 5x online business founder behind Exclusively Cindy. With a Masters in Special Education and training in Behavior Analysis, she takes an individualized approach to visibility, helping female digital entrepreneurs decide what they stand for, where they show up, and how.

Learn more at exclusivelycindy.com

💌 Join 1,500+ entrepreneurs receiving weekly strategic insights and business clarity frameworks - sign up now! https://cindygordon.myflodesk.com/countmein

Transcript

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a client texted you at 9:00 PM asking for just a quick question. Another one scheduled a call that ran 30 minutes over because you were on such a roll yesterday. You spent an hour on Zoom with an unhappy client and then another 30 minutes stressing about it afterwards. You know you need better boundaries, but every time you consider setting them a little voice whispers, what if they leave? I am Cindy Gordon, a business strategist for female entrepreneurs who are done guessing what works. What's happening is that you have built a successful business by being responsive, helpful, and accommodating. But now that same accessibility is eating into your strategic thinking time and revenue generating activities. You are not just serving clients, you're managing them, and that management is expensive. Today we are talking about how to refine your client boundaries without losing business. Not setting boundaries from scratch. You already know what they should be, but communicating them clearly and enforcing them consistently when clients push back, this isn't the beginner's boundary problem of, how do I say no to bad clients? You have evolved past that. This is the challenge of managing clients who want more access to you because you are good at what you do. They respect your expertise. They are willing to pay, but they also think that that payment includes unlimited access. The quick questions aren't so quick. That call runs long because we're making such great progress. The expectation that because they can reach you, that they should be able to reach out to you anytime you are caught between wanting to serve your clients well and needing to protect your strategic capacity between being responsive and being available 24 7. Between delivering excellent results and managing every anxiety your clients have about their business. The challenge isn't that you don't know where your line should be, it's that you haven't communicated them clearly enough for your clients to respect them automatically. So let's talk about what happens when you have a client that expresses disappointment or unhappiness. Your people pleasing instincts kick in and suddenly you're offering an extra call, a partial refund, additional services, anything to make them happy. The expensive truth is that that extra hour you spend on Zoom to make things right. If you charge$350 for a one-to-one session, that overcompensation just cost you$350. That 30 minutes you spend stressing about the situation afterwards, that's another$175 of your mental capacity. Plus the opportunity cost of not doing revenue generating work during that time, you are not just giving away your time, you are paying to manage other people's emotions, and that payment comes directly out of your profit margin and your strategic thinking capacity. The clients who respect your boundaries, respect you. The ones that constantly push them are teaching you that your time isn't valuable to them. Why would you discount your rates for people who don't value your expertise? Here's a counterintuitive thought. Clear boundaries make clients feel more secure, not less. They know exactly what they get when they get it, how to access it, and the anxiety disappears. No guessing, no wondering, and no testing limits that client who keeps asking. Just one more thing, just one more question. They're not malicious. They're uncertain about what's included and what's not. That client that texts at weird hours, they don't know your communication preferences because maybe you haven't clearly stated them. Boundaries aren't walls that keep clients out. They are guidelines that help clients succeed within the relationship. When someone knows that they get two calls per month and they're scheduled for specific times, they prepare better when they know you respond to emails within 48 hours, they stop expecting instant responses. The respect you show yourself by maintaining boundaries teaches clients to respect you too, and the clients who respect you buy from you again and again. They refer others to you. They don't negotiate your prices because they understand your value. You probably know what your boundaries should be, but have you documented them in a way that clients receive them automatically? Most boundary issues stem from unclear expectations, not unreasonable clients. Create a client guideline document that covers the following things, your communication preferences, how and when do you respond to different types of contact? Your meeting protocols? What happens if calls run long? How to reschedule and preparation expectations and talk about revision processes. What's included, what's additional, how changes are handled. What constitutes an emergency and a hint there is most things don't. This isn't about being rigid or unfriendly. It's about being professional. Every other service provider your clients work with, their lawyer, their accountant, their doctor, they all have clear protocols, so why shouldn't you? When clients receive these guidelines as part of their onboarding, they're not restrictions. They are part of the service. They know what to expect and how to get the best results from working with you. So let's do the math on some boundary violations so that you can see the real cost of being flexible. So for our conversation today, let's pretend that you are charging$350 per hour for your expertise. Every boundary violation has a price that call that ran over 30 minutes.$175 lost that weekend email you felt obligated to answer$50 plus some mental energy. That emergency call for something that could wait, that's$350 of unplanned time. The stress and overthinking that follows difficult clients, that's immeasurable, but very expensive. Now, multiply that number times per month, these violations happen. That's an extra grand a month that you're giving away, or$12,000 per year of profit margin lost to poor boundaries. The bigger cost though, is that every hour spent managing a boundary violation. Is an hour not spent on strategic thinking, business development or revenue generating activities. You're not just losing money on the boundary violation. You are literally losing money that you could have made during that time. The key to boundary enforcement is making it about the service quality and not about you. When someone tries to extend a call, it's not, I have to go, it's, I wanna make sure that we end on time so you have space to implement what we've covered. When they text outside of business hours, the response isn't immediate. You respond during business hours with something like, got your message, and I'll address it at our next scheduled call so we can give it the attention that it deserves. When they ask for additional work outside the original scope. It's not that I can't do it, it's, that's a great addition to our work. Let me send you a proposal for extending our engagement to include that. You're not saying no to clients. You're protecting the quality of service you provide by maintaining the structure that makes excellent results possible. Some clients will push back when you implement clear boundaries. Some might even leave and that's okay. You can let them. The clients who respect your boundaries are the clients who value your expertise. They understand that structure enables better results, and they appreciate professionalism. They become long-term clients who refer others and don't negotiate your rates. The clients who fight about your boundaries are telling you that they don't value your time or your expertise. They want access, not results. They want to manage you not to be served by you. These are actually expensive clients disguised as profitable ones. The math is super simple. One boundary respecting client who books with you repeatedly and refers others is worth more than three. Boundary pushing clients who consume your energy and compromise your service quality. You're not trying to serve everyone. You are trying to serve the right people. Professional boundaries aren't about being difficult or inaccessible. They're about creating structure that allows you to do your best work for the clients who value it most. You've built a successful business by being responsive and helpful. Now it's time to channel that responsiveness strategically help your best clients get better results by being clear about how the relationship works. Protect your strategic thinking capacity by managing client access professionally. The revenue that you protect through boundaries isn't just money that you save on boundary violations. It's the money that you can make when your time. And your mental energy are focused on what actually grows your business. Your clients don't need unlimited access to you. They need excellent results from you, and excellent results require boundaries that protect your capacity to deliver them. If this resonated with you, I invite you to join my weekly newsletter with over 1500 other entrepreneurs who are learning to protect their strategic capacity while serving their clients the best that they can. Link in the show notes to join us. Your time is the most valuable asset. Treat it like one. Thanks for listening today. This is The Strategic Entrepreneur.