When I first began my business I made a mistake. I forgot to set my boundaries and as a result my client would fax/phone me at all times of the day with ‘urgent’ requests. Everything had to be done NOW and that meant putting down my newborn bub or my toddler or my older son who wanted my attention, to do their work. I would become easily stressed and I felt that I had no time to be with my kids even though they are the reason why I decided to start working from home.

As time went by and I started to market my business, I of course started signing up new clients. My main client still didn’t understand why I wasn’t at their beck and call AND still didn’t understand what and why I was becoming stressful. They knew I had a newborn, after all they hired me despite my 34 week pregnant belly and they knew I had older children but this seemed to have no bearing on the situation for them. They had a need and I fulfilled that need. Only thing is, they were encroaching on my family time.

Eventually as I became busier and started thinking about becoming a multi-VA business, the decision had to be made. What was I going to do about the situation?

I began by reflecting on why it wasn’t working. How did the situation make me feel and how did that effect my business overall? Not setting clear boundaries with this client was holding back my growth and ability to take on new clients. It became clear that they had to be fired as a client and that is exactly what I did, despite the fact that I would be losing out on 15 hours a week billing time. A big chunk of change in anyone’s eyes.

I credit attending the Business Mums Network Conference in 2007 with making me sit up, take notice and make the decision to fire my first client. Since then I’ve gone from strength to strength. I’ve added people to my team and together we rock!! I also finally sat down and decided exactly what my boundaries were. Did I want to be constantly bombarded with chats via Skype? No I did not. Did I want to be constantly answering emails? No I did not. Did I even want to answer my own office phone? No I did not. I hired an in-house Virtual Assistant to help ME get my ‘stuff’ done and I lay down the law with my clients.

I no longer ‘chat’ on Skype unless it is something to do with my current task. I have Beckie to answer the phone and screen calls for me. The office is closed on Fridays to allow me some time to breath. I book in phone conferences in advance and try to get them done all on the one day. I return and make calls in a blocks of time instead of sporadic throughout the day and the side benefits of setting my boundaries is that I am becoming more productive in my work day.

So what did my existing client’s think? “About time, we were wondering when you would stop running yourself ragged”. I even get chastised for answering emails on a Friday or on the weekend by my clients. The amount of emails that come through are minimal because clients know to use Basecamp instead. I’m less stressed and my family loves it!

Moral to the story boys and girls is to make sure you figure out what your boundaries are. Figure out what is acceptable and not acceptable in your business. Make sure you lay down the ground rules and then stick to them. Not only will you be less stressed trying to meet everyone’s needs but your clients will thank you too.

Working from home comes with its own hazards. Friends dropping by, toddlers under the table, spouse not being supportive…..

The main hazard in working from home is the good ole ‘time stealer’. Time stealers can come in a variety of forms but typically look like your closest friend/sister/mother-in-law dropping by for a cuppa because ‘oh but you’re at home now’. It can also look like the washing waiting to be hung out to dry. It can also be you procrastinating by surfing the internet instead of doing client work.

How you deal with these time stealers will help to define you as a professional.

Begin with defining your boundaries to family and friends. Tell them you are working at to come back at 4pm. Once you do this a couple of times, not only is it liberating but they will start to understand. AND you’ll start to feel better and perhaps see yourself in a different light.
Remove all distractions. You’d be surprised at how much you can get done without that basket sitting there looking at you. If removing a distraction includes outsourcing certain things around the house, then do it.

Be mindful of the time you waste doing non-billing activities. If its to build your business or if its for educational/research purposes, then so be it. But if you are just flat out wasting time then you need to look a bit deeper and see why you are procrastinating. There is a stack of open source software out there on the internet that can log every stroke you make to enable you to analyse where you are spending your time. You might be unpleasantly surprised to just see where you time is going.

So share with us your time wasters. What are they and what do you do to prevent them from stealing your time?