* This Week’s Feature Column ~~ Setting Boundaries
* Freebie of the Week ~~ How We Work Together
* Ask The Biz Coach ~~ How do I get a client to wrap up a job?
* Tell Me What You Think ~~ What's holding you back?
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Feature Column ~~ Setting Boundaries With Your Clients
by Kimberly Stevens

After the birth of our first child last year, my husband and I began to experience difficulties we could no longer deal with on our own. Three months ago, we started to see a therapist to repair the months of damage we had accumulated trying to deal with this transition. As a business life coach working with individuals during scheduled calls, I assumed I understood her situation much more than one of her average clients could. It was important to be there on time, not to joke around during the session and not to try to be her pal. I would be her prize pupil - therapist's pet.

All went well until the eighth appointment. Needing to reschedule our next session, she mentioned a week-long writer's retreat that she was taking to work on her book. My interest was piqued, but I stuck to the approved therapist-client script during the rest of the session. Two weeks later, being intrigued by both her pursuit of my own lifelong dream - writing a book - and the actualization of her own, I could no longer quiet my mind's wonderings. After all, getting clients to create lives they love is what coaching is all about and it's what gets me really jazzed about what I do.

After exactly 50 minutes (and zero seconds) of conducting live demonstrations of all of our inadequacies and vulnerabilities, my husband and I were being escorted out the door with her right on our heels, the edge of the door in her hand to close it behind us as closely as possible without it actually hitting us in the rear. My curiosity was killing me though, so the moment before my feet carried me past the invisible fence, I blurted out, "So what is your book about?" And quite suddenly, as if I were sucked up in a tornado funnel with cows and houses and flung out just as abruptly, I found myself plopped on my butt in the waiting area outside of her now closed office door. Stunned, I sat for a few moments more, my head still spinning from the unexpected maelstrom. Okay, perhaps it didn't happen exactly like that. It was a little more like her curtly saying, "I'd love to talk with you about that but not at the end of a session." (sound of door closing firmly). fire alarm in kiev

My husband snickered as we walked down the white, maze-like hallway away from her office. "You have just invaded my boundaries. You will now be escorted out by security," my husband joked jabbing me in the side. He was right - she had established boundaries, and I inadvertently tried to cross one and was zapped by the invisible fence. Truth be told, she was neither brash nor unfriendly about it; however, I was left with no doubt that she stuck firmly to the 50-minute session and didn't let the intensity of the discussion become diluted by post-session banter.

What does she do during those 10 minutes between sessions, I wonder? Perhaps she grabs a bite to eat, jots a few notes, or does yoga poses. Maybe she does some ancient Indian dance to cleanse her aura before her next client. Or, she might spend the time paying her bills, calling her husband, or filing her nails. The one thing I can tell you she is doing for certain is setting boundaries. With her ritual-like ending to every session which starts with her stating "I'm sorry, our time together is over" and ends with her rising from her seat placed furthest from the door so she can herd us out, she is protecting that precious ten minutes between sessions. where to buy azithromycin in uk

I can tell you from my experience coaching clients, there will always be clients who take up every minute you'll give them. Not only will they accept every last moment you provide, but presuming you enjoy your work, you will want to give it to them. Without that boundary, she would never get to eat, go to the bathroom, or relax her brain for one moment from the time she walked in the office until the time she walked out. She wouldn't have the opportunity to take notes between sessions and by the end of the day her brain would likely have mushed everyone's stories together so that the next time we went in, we'd have to talk about why I found myself attracted to my 60-year old cross-dressing mailman. She would join the ranks of all the other doctors who allow one late patient at the beginning of the day to shift their entire schedule leaving you and I wasting an hour of our day reading 2-year old issues of fashion magazines whose trends have already come and gone.

The point is that the boundaries she has established serve the best interests of her as well as her clients. As the owner of a service-oriented business, you either have or will encounter situations that require boundaries. These are not things we can plan for but things that become apparent to us during the process of running our businesses. Setting boundaries saves us time and money and cuts back on the stress of our jobs. If you run a time-based business, perhaps you insist that your clients be faithful to the clock. If you work on projects that extend for several months, maybe you construct a timeline that penalizes clients for stretching the project a certain number of weeks beyond the timeline. Boundaries take something that you feel is out of your control and puts it back in your control.

~~ It's Your Turn ~~

Think about something in your business that feels out of control and causes you stress. Are clients always late in providing their feedback on your work extending their project into time you allotted for another client? Are accounts receivable just hanging out there unpaid? Are clients no-shows for scheduled appointments leaving you stranded with an empty hour and no money? Make a list of those areas of your business that are screaming for you to set some boundaries. Then check out the freebie below.

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~~ Freebie of the Week ~~ How We Work Together

This week's download is called How We Work Together. It's a 2-page document (copy it front and back to make it a one-pager) whose concept can be customized to fit most businesses. You share it with clients during the first prospecting meeting and a second time when you give them the contract. The first exposure tells them that you have a very developed structure to how you get things done which gives them a sense of comfort that you can do the job and are a professional. The second exposure at contract time (have them sign it then) sets the expectation of who will do what and what the ramifications will be if either party fails to meet their obligations. This is a great tool for your boundary-setting toolbox. Download it at: www.askthebizcoach.com/

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~~ Ask The Biz Coach ~~ How do I get a client to wrap up a job?

“At 2pm last Wednesday, I got a call from one of my clients. Before I could barely utter my "hello," she launched headlong into her story - "I am so frustrated! I have this client who has been dragging her feet at every stage of our project…” Read more at: http://www.askthebizcoach.com/articles/settingboundaries.htm

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~~ Tell Me What You Think ~~ What challenges are you facing right now?

Let me know by email: mailto:kim@askthebizcoach.com

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