Your boss isn’t likely to help you take care of yourself (cuz it’s YOU lol)

Whether you work for yourself as a small business owner or as a freelancer in the gig economy, it’s essential that you find ways to care of yourself… cuz no one else is going to do it for you. Unlike folks who work for large corporations that (hopefully) provide healthcare and that are covered by rules meant to safeguard the employee (like enforced breaks and limits on hours) if you work for yourself it is WAY too easy to abuse yourself, working LONG HOURS, sitting in UNSUPPORTIVE CHAIRS, and having UNHEALTHY (ie, no) BOUNDARIES with clients who text at all hours and expect instant response times. 

It’s up to *you* to create positive and healthy work habits that help you create a happy and sustainable business! Today I share one of my favorite golden rules and great habits for staying happy, healthy and productive as a small business owner: ​* GOLDEN RULE FOR SMALL BUSINESS SELF-CARE *

> Set and establish expectations with your clients 
about how (and when) you’ll communicate with them 

*and*

> post those expectations on your website, 
in your client agreements, on your email auto-responders, etcIn our company Seriously Happy Homes we have a “what to expect” pdf we give to clients that we send out with our design agreements, and one of the items it establishes with the client is that we do nearly all communication by email. This works well for us because it keeps everything in writing and helps us avoid confusion over which “blue” we specified, or when we said we’d send them an update, etc. If my clients text me I simply answer back by email. We only use the phone if someone is running late for a meeting, or to handle delicate emotional conversations (which are then followed up by a summary email). I even have “it can be faster and easier to reach us by email” as part of my voicemail message. I set a communication standard, and I do my best to share and reinforce that standard.

We also have an auto-response set on our email for our Sunday-Monday weekends. Since Sunday-Monday weekends are not the norm, we want to make sure that if someone emails us on a Saturday evening they don’t get anxious when they haven’t heard from us mid-Monday. It also takes unnecessary pressure of my team when they face their “Monday-morning inbox” on Tuesday morning. 

These are just examples of rules we’ve set in our team – you get to set the ones that work for you. One of my colleagues has alternating client weeks: one week for clients, one week for work, etc. Another of my colleagues LOVES text and that is her primary way of communicating with her clients. Yet another of my colleagues takes a two-week break from all media and screens over the New Year, and lets her clients know well-ahead of time that she will be out of contact during that time. There are no “right” rules. The key is simply to identify which work best for you and your company and then *communicate them to your client,* before they start working with you. 

Remember, you started this company and you are the only one determining how you’ll treat your clients and yourself. Take that responsibility as seriously as if you were setting those rules to safeguard your child or a friend! 

Stay tuned next time for another of my favorite self-care tips for small business owners. Until then, may your small business be seriously happy, and seriously successful!