By: Anup Sohanta
Whether you’re working as a full-time freelancer or moonlighting for additional income, it’s important to have processes in place that protect you and your client. In the corporate world, boundaries like work hours, paydays and availability are already in place. But, when you’re a freelancer, it’s your own business so you have to establish your own boundaries.
In this blog, let's look at a few ways that you can set boundaries with your clients so that both parties understand what’s expected of them, and you can build lucrative and long-lasting relationships.
What is boundary setting?
Think of setting boundaries as establishing protocols for your freelance business and terms with your clients. For example, setting your work hours and making sure that the client knows you’re unavailable outside of your working hours. That means no responding to calls or emails when you’re out of hours.
It’s important to understand that while you do work for your client, you’re providing a deliverable in exchange for payment - they’re not your boss. Freelancers (especially entry-level) tend to fall into the trap of “doing what it takes” to make sure a client is happy and that can often result in rushed deliverables or completing extra work without charging more to the client.
Get clear on the content brief
Make sure you understand how you can solve your customer’s pain points.
Clients can often unintentionally leave items out of the content brief or they may not be clear on the project scope themselves. After checking out their proposal, ask questions to get clarity on what’s required from you as the freelancer. This will also help to ensure the client doesn’t include any additional items that you haven’t accounted for in your bill.
It's okay to take downtime
It’s easy to fall into the trap of “grind mentality” - just going at it until it’s done. But, one major problem with ceaselessly working and getting little sleep is suffering from burnout. Protect your own boundaries and mental health by providing yourself with a day or two off.
The great thing about being freelance is that it provides a huge amount of flexibility. You’re not restricted to 9-5 working hours and if you want to take a longer lunch - go for it. Recharging and resting when you need to ensures that you’ll provide your clients with higher quality work and giving yourself more work/life balance.
Charge for add-ons or extra revisions
Clients will often ask for revisions, they could be as simple as changing a couple of sentences or as drastic as changing large portions of the content. Tell the client beforehand how many revisions are included in your package and if there are additional costs involved for revisions over that limit.
An easy way to remind clients of your boundaries is to refer them to your contract and what’s included. Then inform the client that any additional work or revisions will be billed at an hourly rate.
When clients know the costs of add-ons or revisions before the project starts, it sets the boundary that you’ll be charging for extra work. This often mitigates clients requesting additional tweaks that could leave you out of pocket.
Set boundaries early and be consistent
Setting boundaries isn’t easy for everyone, especially if you’ve just entered the freelancing world. Whether you’re a writer or graphic designer, it’s important for you to make your boundaries clear from the first day. If your client disagrees or isn’t willing to have a discussion with you over your boundaries, then they may not be a good fit to work with you.
Consistency is key when it comes to communicating with clients. Keep your communication at a sustainable rate and make sure your client knows about all of your boundaries to avoid any confusion.
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About the Author:
Anup Sohanta is a freelance marketing and business writer from the UK with five years of experience. Alongside writing copy at a professional level for worldwide clients, Anup is a published poet and is best known for his poetry that mixes spirituality and romance. If you’re interested in more work from Anup, you can hire him directly on nDash.