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One of the main qualities that really sets successful small business leaders apart is their sheer passion for what they do.
However, when you’re that passionate, it’s easy to let your work become an all-consuming, top priority—or even your identity. And, if you aren’t careful, it’s easy to make your team feel pressured to do the same.
With this in mind, in this episode of Priority Pursuit, Mary Adkins, Treefrog’s operations director, explains how to set boundaries for small business success so you can create a positive and healthy environment for both yourself and your employees.
What are boundaries & why are they important?
As Mary shares in this episode, boundaries are guidelines that are put in place to protect everybody’s time, energy, resources, and reputation. And, they’re important because they help prevent burnout, missed deadlines, and letting work negatively impact life outside of the office.
If you struggle to set boundaries, we want to encourage you to go back and listen to “Episode 003: How to Set Boundaries in Your Business & Get Your Clients to Respect Them.”
But, in this episode, Mary explains that in addition to having their own boundaries, it’s important for small business owners and leaders to help establish and respect boundaries for their teams. Because they’re passionate about what they do, small business leaders are often tempted to work around the clock and—often without realizing it—expect or pressure their team members to do the same.
Please remember that your employees are your small business’s biggest asset. And, if you fail to respect their boundaries, this is only going to lead to a burnt-out team that isn’t capable of doing their best work, as well as a high turnover rate. Basically, when you fail to set and respect team boundaries, you limit your business’s ability to grow.
Why do small business owners & leaders struggle with setting & keeping boundaries?
Again, most small businesses are created because leaders—like you—have a passion to help others and solve problems. For example, Kelly created Treefrog because she saw a need and wanted to help other small business owners. Our mission literally includes the phrase “helping others succeed is what we are called to do.”
However, this passion to help others often (incorrectly) translates to small business leaders wanting to say yes to every project request, making themselves available at all hours of the day, not asking for or charging what they’re worth, and just many other instances of failing to set boundaries that are good for every party involved.
Basically, when you’re passionate about what you do and feel called to serve, it can feel counterintuitive to set and stick to boundaries.
According to Mary, another reason small business owners and leaders often struggle to set boundaries is because they’re scared. They’re scared of upsetting clients or customers, scared of losing business, and/or scared of not being enough.
And, those are all valid feelings. But, as Mary shares in this episode, when you fail to set boundaries, you’re more likely to upset people when you can’t meet deadlines or aren’t producing your best work because you fail to set boundaries in the first place.
Basically, small business owners and leaders often fail to set boundaries because they feel called to help others or are scared. And, while we absolutely empathize with this, this is a problem because when you fail to set boundaries, you and your team will inevitably become burnt out, miss deadlines, and experience negative impacts on your lives outside of the office.
What are practical ways small business owners & leaders can set boundaries?
According to Mary, setting schedules is like putting together a puzzle. And, the first step of putting together a puzzle is to find all the edge pieces and connect the border, or puzzle boundaries, if you will. There are just enough puzzle pieces to fit inside that border, and you definitely do not want to end up with extra pieces.
You can treat your schedule like a puzzle. You only have a certain number of work hours each day, week, month, etc. Those are your borders. Then, all of your business tasks are the puzzle pieces. You have to figure out how to fit your work tasks within those borders.
Here’s one way small business owners and leaders can define those tasks or puzzle pieces.
First, list all of the projects that are on your plate. Break them down into individual tasks that make up the project. Estimate how long it will take to complete each task—that’s how big each puzzle piece is.
Then, from the project deadline, work backward. By knowing when the project needs to be completed, how many steps the project will need, and how long each step will take, you can figure out where to start.
Sometimes, just determining a timeline for a project is enough. But, small businesses often have multiple projects on their puzzle table and need to figure out what to prioritize. This can easily get overwhelming, which is where a project management system like ClickUp becomes a huge help.
Through a system like ClickUp, you can easily plan project timelines, set priorities, delegate tasks, communicate with your team, and anything else you need to keep your projects running smoothly.
To keep with the puzzle analogy, this is like grouping the pieces by color or shape and working on those sections first, instead of trying to take on all of the pieces at once.
Essentially, in order for small businesses to set boundaries and priorities, they need to determine how much time they have, determine what tasks need to be completed and how long they will take, and then determine a project timeline by working backward from the desired completion date.
How can small businesses establish cultures with health boundaries?
In all honesty, this is something that we witness small businesses fail to prioritize pretty regularly.
There are a lot of different choices you can make to establish a work culture with healthy boundaries. As Mary shares in this episode, the most important thing to remember is to respect your team, give them the autonomy to advocate for their own boundaries, and—most importantly—communicate.
But, more specifically, small businesses can set predetermined working hours, communicate them, and stick to them. For example, at Treefrog, we work 10-hour days Monday through Thursday, and we’re not in the office on Fridays.
As Mary says in this episode, “Externally, it was really hard at first to say no when clients asked for meetings on Fridays. But, now, we communicate when we’re available, and not only is it easier to redirect those clients to a time when we are in the office, but we’re also getting fewer requests like that because we’ve communicated that boundary ahead of time.
“Internally, we do our best to respect office hours. We don’t over schedule our team members, and we don’t expect them to work late or on their days off. And, any emails received over the weekend can be addressed on Monday.”
Something else that small businesses can do to establish a culture with healthy boundaries is to document protocols for communication. This allows team members to protect their time and for projects to run smoothly.
For example, do you know who to go to in your organization if you need help? And, what is the best way to communicate with them? Email? Slack? The water cooler? For example, if someone has a job position or project that requires their full attention for an extended period of time, it wouldn’t be good to communicate with them in an intrusive way.
You would know, through protocols and communication—such as by looking at blocked time on their calendar—to leave them a message in a way that they can attend to it later when they are available. This prevents frustration and project flow disruptions.
Also, it’s important for small businesses to set rules for conduct and other expectations through an employee handbook. This sets clear guidelines, including what steps to take if those boundaries are broken. With a small team, it might seem easier at first to simply tell employees to live by the golden rule, but that is too ambiguous and will lead to trouble down the road.
With small business team culture, it’s important to listen to the team and know it’s okay to adjust the boundaries when necessary. While not every small business is able to offer extensive benefits, arguably every small business can serve its employees well by creating and keeping boundaries that help team members thrive.
Small businesses need boundaries. Period.
You may currently have too much on your plate because you didn’t set boundaries in the first place. It’s fine to deal with the consequences now, but take note of how bad this feels and make plans for how you can avoid this overwhelm in the future.
If you don’t start to set boundaries, nothing is ever going to change. As Mary says, “It takes a lot of practice and you’re not going to get it right every time. But, the key is to be organized and persistent, and those boundaries will lead to healthier business relationships, a happier and more effective team, and better project results.”
Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- Listen to “Episode 003: How to Set Boundaries in Your Business & Get Your Clients to Respect Them”
- Receive 50% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook
- Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services
- Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community
- Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
- Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
- Follow or DM Victoria Rayburn on Instagram
The Priority Pursuit Podcast is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
You can find The Priority Pursuit Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Stitcher, and wherever you listen to podcasts.
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