In a home based business trying to separate home life from the business can be challenging at the best of times. When we first start our business we will take on anything and everything whenever the opportunity presents itself. We are building a business after all. Invariably the times rolls around when our business is running smoothly and we can afford to be a bit more choosy about the work we take on and when we take it on - the problem now of course is that we have created an expectation whereby the client expects us to be available to them all the time.
I found myself in this position last year and after driving myself mad trying to keep clients AND family happy - I found a compromise.
Not sure what medium you use to keep your clients abreast of news/specials or prices in your business, I do send out a monthly newsletter and used this medium to convey my business hours to clients. What I also included was that if they needed to deliver files after hours or weekends, this could be arranged in advance but that they would have to let me know at least a day or two in advance so that I could make arrangements to be home. On the odd occasion where work needs to be done after hours or weekends, clients are billed extra (well in some cases
) If it really is not possible to have them deliver over a weekend, then I will either arrange to collect the files myself on Friday or first thing on Monday.
To date it has been my experience that when you lay out the ground rules clearly, clients are by no means offended - if anything they seem to gain a new respect for your time.
Best of luck, you can do it
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