Boundaries in Business: How to Set Boundaries with Clients

Why set boundaries in business

As a business owner, boundaries help you thrive. Boundaries allow you to show up as your best self, have high-functioning relationships with your clients, and manage your business — without burning out.

In this article, you’ll learn what business boundaries are, how to set them, and how to communicate and enforce your boundaries with clients.

What are business boundaries?

The APA Dictionary of Psychology defines boundaries as:

• a psychological demarcation that protects the integrity of an individual or group or that helps the person or group set realistic limits on participation in a relationship or activity

Simply put, business boundaries are guidelines that you put in place so that you can protect the time, energy, and respect of both you and your clients.

Examples of business boundary issues:

• A client continuously shows up late to your calls and then expects the sessions to go over time, but you haven’t communicated this is a problem.
• You have a client who always cancels at the last minute despite knowing your cancellation policy — and expects you to make an exception each and every time.
• You run a small group program and it never fails that the same person monopolizes the group discussion every week, leaving no space for others.

In each of these cases, a boundary issue is present. Often the issue is with others, like clients or prospective clients. Sometimes, though, the boundary issue is with ourselves (such as when we aren’t following through on our own commitments.)

Examples of business boundary issues with yourself:

• It’s your priority to create a course or group program to serve the excess clients you can’t serve 1:1, but you just can’t seem to get around to it.
• You have committed to yourself and your family that you’ll end your work day at 5 and be present with them, but it never happens.
• You’re maxxed out on client work, but you just can’t seem to tell people no.

 In either of these cases, boundaries are one of the root causes of the problem.

Why boundaries are especially important in personal services 

Coaching, healing, and therapy are all 1:1 services that rely on you forming a relationship with your client. 

Boundaries protect both you AND your clients by setting guidelines for the relationship itself. With boundaries, we can establish a sense of trust and safety which is integral to these client relationships.

As the coach, healer, or therapist, you are responsible for setting the boundaries for your work with clients and for your business. 

The benefits of setting boundaries in business

It’s your responsibility to protect your own resources and manage your relationships with your clients.

When you do: 

• You protect your intuitive, empathic, and spiritual gifts and use them to the best of your ability.
• You better manage your own time and energy — and your productivity increases.
• You strengthen your client relationships and build trust by being transparent.

You also feel more empowered, strong, and even more professional when you have firm boundaries in your business — and that energy emanates outwards.

Types of Business Boundaries

Boundaries aren’t just about protecting your time. They also help you protect your energy, your well-being, and your business. 

Here are some examples of the types of boundaries you will want to set in your business.

Values / Priority boundaries

Values:

• What are your top 5 values in your business?
• How can you uphold them and make decisions based on them?

Priorities:

• What priorities are most important to you right now in business?
• How can you ensure you devote adequate time and energy to them?

Policy boundaries

Payment: 

• When and how a client will pay you 
• What happens if a payment is late

Policies: 

• When and how a client’s sessions will run 
• When and how will sessions be used

Communication boundaries

During your work together: 

• Can a client reach out in between sessions, and if so, how? When can they expect to hear back?
• What topics are open for discussion and which are you not comfortable addressing (and in that case, may refer a client out)?

Handling issues:

• What happens when a client has an issue with you or your services or wants to quit
• What happens when you have an issue with the client or want to stop services

Time boundaries

With clients:

• What happens if a client is late? no shows? goes over time?
• What if a clients package runs late or extends past the deadline?
• How much time will you and are you willing to spend on a client in between sessions?

With yourself:

• How much time do you want to devote to your work?
• What will your work schedule be?
• When will you take breaks or have free time?

Emotional boundaries

With clients:

• What will you put in place to ensure you don’t take on the emotional energy of your clients?
• What types of issues are OK for a client to bring to a session vs. which are out of scope?

With yourself:

• How will you prevent yourself from getting burned out?
• How will you ensure you’re taking care of yourself?

Physical boundaries

Location and workplace

• Where will you do your work? Who is or is not allowed in your space?
• Are you offering a safe space for clients and what does that look like?

Role clarity boundaries

Between you and your client

• Where does your role stop and start?
• What specific topics are you equipped to support your clients with?
• Do you provide a more coach or advisory type role? Or are you doing any aspect of their work for them?

Social media / marketing boundaries

To manage your time and energy

• Will you use social media?
• If so, how long will you spend on it per day/week?
• What will you do to practice good energetic hygiene and stick to your allotted usage?

3 steps to setting boundaries with clients

There are 3 phases of setting boundaries, in business and otherwise.

Step 1: Setting the boundary.

This step requires you to get clear on what your boundary actually is. Remember you get to create them for your business, for example:

• Do you have a 24 hour cancellation policy or a 48 hour one? 
• What happens if a client chooses to not continue working together? 
• What happens if a prospective client flakes on you?

These are boundaries you get to set as a business owner, so be proactive and think about how you want things to run.

Step 2: Communicating the boundary.

This phase is about communicating the boundary to your clients. It’s not enough to just have a policy. You must communicate that policy and ideally, get the client’s agreement to that policy. 

At minimum you want to have a client agreement. You may want to communicate the policies again in a client welcome guide. In some cases, you may want to communicate the policies verbally to the client in your first session. 

Be as clear as possible and communicate in as many ways as you can. This can eliminate confusion later on in the client relationship.

Step 3: Enforcing consequence of boundary violations.

This phase is about enforcing consequences when the boundaries you’ve set are violated. Many times, this is the phase where most people struggle.

What happens if a client continuously no shows for appointments? You want to consider proactive strategies for managing these issues. This could look like: 

• The first time a client no shows, it’s a warning and reiteration of your policy. 
• The second time, they could lose the session entirely and be billed for it. 
• The third time, you might consider ending the relationship. 

Only you can set the consequences for you and your business. It’s important to remember that even if you set consequences, you can still decide what to do on a case by case basis. 

The emotional aspect of setting boundaries

Having your boundaries in place and communicated via your policies is pretty cut and dry. But what about the emotions that can arise around setting boundaries in the first place?

Many of us were never taught to set boundaries (or in fact, our boundaries were repeatedly violated by others), so we feel uncomfortable doing so. But boundaries are an important part of respecting yourself and respecting others. 

If you are struggling with strong emotions around setting boundaries, I recommend the following:

• Do some work around strengthening your self worth. Boundaries are inherently about knowing we are valuable and protecting that value. The more you can strengthen your own sense of self-worth, the easier it will be to create boundaries that serve you.
• Explore your people-pleasing tendencies. People pleasers often subjugate their own needs in favor of serving others. If you resonate with this, you most likely adapted this behavior in childhood. Remind yourself that your own needs are important and advocate for them.
• Examine your belief about the client – coach relationship. When someone pays you, that doesn’t mean you need to be constantly available or at their beckon call. It means they are paying you money in exchange for your services. That’s why you want to clearly define the services you’re providing, so you don’t go outside your scope.

Often the emotional consequences of setting boundaries can hold us back more than actually setting the boundary itself. Give yourself grace as you navigate this deeper work.

How to set boundaries in your business

When it comes to setting business boundaries, you want to think about the boundaries you set in your relationships with clients, partners, and employees (if you have them). You also want to think about the boundaries you set with yourself. 

Setting boundaries with clients 

We all know we need to set clear boundaries with clients, but so often usually do so reactively, meaning after something has gone wrong.

Unfortunately, that puts us in a position of either needing to ask forgiveness for not communicating a boundary up front, or worse, fulfilling their request even when it means making a sacrifice we don’t want to make.

The key is to set expectations ahead of time, clearly communicate them, and most importantly, enforce them with natural consequences.

Examples of setting boundaries with clients:

• Communicating clear expectations, in your contracts and verbally. Spell out things like when to expect a response to an email, what happens if they’re late or don’t show up, and what is expected of your client throughout your work together.
• Letting clients know when a request is outside your initial scope of work and either renegotiating or saying no if it’s something you can’t or don’t want to do. 
• Not taking on clients that you either can’t or don’t want to work with. This is so important! It doesn’t serve you nor your client when you take someone on that you can’t / don’t want to work with.

Setting boundaries with yourself

It’s no secret: The better you take care of yourself, the better you can serve. In that way, boundaries are a form of self-care for coaches and healers.

Setting boundaries with yourself means paying attention to yourself and your needs, including:

• Tuning into what you really need. Every day, ask yourself, What do I need right now? It could be water, rest, a walk around the block, or something else. 
• Prioritizing quality over quantity. The ideal amount of clients is the number of clients you can serve powerfully while allowing plenty of time to tend to yourself.  Find your sweet spot and stay there.
• Stop comparing and “shoulding” all over yourself. Just because another business owner can go live on Facebook all day and pull 10 hour workdays doesn’t mean you should. 
• Do more by doing less. Focus on the few key important things and don’t worry about the rest. Save your energy for what’s most important.

Examples of setting boundaries with yourself:

•     Setting a work schedule and sticking to it
•     Saying “no” to things that aren’t on your priority list
•     Not taking on more clients when you’re at your max
•     Not overscheduling yourself with calls and meetings
•     Not giving free coaching or showing up anytime you are asked 

Keeping your word and your commitments to yourself is part of boundary work. It also reinforces that you can show up for yourself.

Business boundaries allow you to show up as your highest self

Remember, you weren’t put on this earth to serve everyone’s needs, but to do what you do best. In order to do that, you must set boundaries.

You can make a bigger difference in the lives of your clients and in the world when you show up as your most powerful self. And boundaries can help you do that.

As your own boss, it’s up to you to ensure you’re taking care of yourself and that you’re serving clients from a place of energy and power, not a place of burnout and resentment. 

When you communicate clear guidelines with clients, you manage expectations, create clarity and trust in the relationship, and build stronger relationships.