Episode 232: Using Boundaries To Grow Your Most Profitable Design Business

Setting boundaries in your business may not feel like a priority, but it truly is essential in building a profitable design business. When your mindset isn’t serving you and you don’t have the boundaries in place to support you, strategy will only take you so far. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how boundaries create longevity in your business, how you can set boundaries, and a few boundaries that I’ve incorporated into my own business. If you’re looking to connect with other designers, get advice on boundaries, and have a safe space to ask questions, come join my free Facebook Group! I would love to see you there! JOIN NOW Building Longevity through Boundaries When you started your business, you were likely motivated to take that step by something that would be beneficial to you. Whether you were doing it for freedom, flexibility, or some other motivating factor, you built this business to help you experience a certain outcome. Boundaries are a really crucial way to ensure that you’re taking action with longevity in mind for your business. Considering that longevity and the benefits you entered your business with, you want to set up boundaries that support this. Let’s walk through what a few practical business boundaries look like. Why Boundaries Are Important Boundaries are meant to support you and protect you. This goes beyond the practical things like your office hours, your accepted methods of communication, or the days of the week that you work. Beyond those, you can have boundaries for yourself in balancing your life and your business—consider your energy levels, your emotions, or even your relationships. Oftentimes, our boundaries will come from uncomfortable situations or tough clients. While these aren’t fun experiences to go through, building boundaries as you go through them will eliminate the chance of the same experiences happening again. You also get to change these boundaries over time as you or your business shift—this is your business after all. Setting Boundaries in Your Business & Personal Life Now that we’ve established the importance of boundaries, let’s walk through when to know a boundary is needed and how to set it up. First and foremost, when you find yourself running into similar issues with clients, friends, or contractors, it’s important to identify what is causing that problem. This could look like getting business texts or calls during personal time—if this is a probelm you run into often and it’s giving you anxiety or you’re just not enjoying the interruption, this is a sign that you need to set a boundary. Two boundaries to potentially implement here are working hours that you can establish with your clients and communication preferences. Your clients will respect your boundaries and you will feel free from that unnecessary stress. A few professional boundaries to think about implementing include: * Office hours & the days of the week you’re working* Preferred professional methods of communication* Your average response time* Communication preferences for feedback & timelines As you build these boundaries, you may begin doing things differently in the past. While this can be scary, remember that this is your business and you started it for you. If you believe that everything is going to start working out for you, the way that you want, you will start to see all the possibility that c...