Having boundaries in business

Having boundaries in business is an area that many empaths struggle with. It can come up in different ways but one of the most common is over-giving. Often empaths give a lot of themselves, and want to help everyone and be available to support others as needed. Especially in the early days of a business, when you are just getting started and are keen to jump on any opportunities that come your way. If this isn’t managed with a little bit of awareness it can easily lead to over-giving and spreading yourself too thin, which will affect your health in the long run. You will likely end up feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.

Emails, social media and other forms of communication

• How and when do you communicate with your clients?
  Be clear with your boundaries and what times you will be available to answer to clients. Then stick to those boundaries.
• How do you decide what opportunities you say ‘yes’ to and which ones you say ‘no’ to?
  You may want to create an Avatar for ‘someone’ in your support team, before you even have a team. This can actually be you to begin with so that you have someone you can ‘use’ to answer on your behalf if difficult decisions have to be made. For example, it can be easier to pretend to be someone else saying ‘no’ to a request to do something if it doesn’t align with you. Over time it may get easier, or you can hire a freelance assistant or a team member to do this for you.

• The email inbox can be a nightmare for many empathpreneurs and can take up a lot of your time and energy. How can you manage your inbox so that you don’t get overwhelmed and ‘waste’ time checking emails and responding at all hours?
  You could only check emails at certain times, for example. Or set up rules to file certain emails so that you can come to them in your own time. In time you can always get someone to do this for you.

• When do you go on social media and how do you manage comments, messages, etc?
  I plan this in accordance with my cycle. I know that I get particularly triggered by social media and am more likely to compare myself to others at certain times of the month, so I don’t scroll, or I stay off of social media as much as possible during these times. What will work for you? There are also platforms that can support you practically with this e.g. you can schedule your social media in advance so you don’t have to log on all the time.

A good thing to do is to keep a note of the times you feel overwhelmed. Then ask yourself what has contributed to this feeling and what can you do to support yourself and change this.

If you would like support with getting grounded with your business, please book in a discovery call here and let’s feel into what it might be like to work together.

Photo by Joyce McCownon Unsplash