Self Employed-how to set limits on your time

cannyscot_2

How if you are self employed do you stop your clients calling you, -well mailing especially-24/7-I have family and maybe I set myself up for it but they seem to think I can go anywhere and do anything at the drop of a hat. I feel also that it is reducing my earning capacity as I have to add in spare time to be available 24/7 and extra childcare. It's actually getting boring and to the point I want to be rude to most of them.

any good tips?

business/management consultancy -biggest problem is that management consultant's who are f/t work 24/7 -one of the reasons I stopped-and I often will not say no- actually I cant get to timbuctoo at 6am as i have 3 children to get out the door and they don't actually want to get up at 5am funnily.-as i feel it looks unprofessional? plus Im tired working through the night etc so I can do it all and accomodate the kids.

what's the answer please -I'm very fed up I just want to go shopping at Tesco sometimes and get points!-like any good mser.

ManAtHome

I'm an IT-er - have always offered a "call me whenever" service, if it's a system bug I'll sort it for free, if it isn't I'll charge £100 an hour.

Sure I'd have made more charging an annual fee, but I don't get many calls...

cannyscot_2

yes that's a good point I should charge more for calling me at off times -I hadn't considered that plus when they have an imaginery crisis they might stop and think if it actually is one??

Savvy_Sue

The beauty of the mobile phone is that you can switch it off when you are off-duty ...

And email - well, if you had a separate business account (via GMail?) you needn't look at that either ...

cannyscot_2

Yes maybe that is where I am going wrong -Do you just not answer?/reply -I always feel bad and guilty-don't know why? A few times lately I ahve said I am with somone and the person jut says well I need to speak to you now as I'm catching a plane-going to a meeting etc.

I have a seperate business acount but I feel obliged to check it day and night -literally people mmail me at 12pm on a Sunday night/6am and ask me to call them straight back.

I do feel i am setting myself up but just not sure how to bakpeddle and handle it. So any more suggestions welcome.

hurrah

http://www.onlineorganizing.com/ExpertAdviceToolboxTips.asp?tipsheet=16

cannyscot_2

hurrah wrote: »

http://www.onlineorganizing.com/ExpertAdviceToolboxTips.asp?tipsheet=16

I like that -I think I will write myself a little plan of action.

richt71

cannyscot wrote: »

Yes maybe that is where I am going wrong -Do you just not answer?/reply -I always feel bad and guilty-don't know why? A few times lately I ahve said I am with somone and the person jut says well I need to speak to you now as I'm catching a plane-going to a meeting etc.

I have a seperate business acount but I feel obliged to check it day and night -literally people mmail me at 12pm on a Sunday night/6am and ask me to call them straight back.

I do feel i am setting myself up but just not sure how to bakpeddle and handle it. So any more suggestions welcome.

You could set up a standard autoresponder that will reply automatically to all your mail which could say something like ' Thank you for your email. However outside office hours 9-5 you may not recieve a reply to your email.
They're cheap to set up now and many major internet providers offer them or you can get software to do it for you. You can then let it reply to all emails as standard or maybe just out of the hours you want to work. That way your clients get a response immediately. Hope that helps?

WHA

Get yourself:-

A separate mobile phone, one for personal, one for business. Don't give out both numbers to anyone. Keep your personal one switched on for family/friends, turn off the other outside business hours.

A separate home telephone line, same idea. Attach your works fax to the business line. Turn off the ringer and disable the fax outside your normal business hours.

A separate PC or at least separate email accounts. Feel free to log in and check emails for personal, but force yourself to not check emails outside work hours.

The above sounds harsh, but you'll never get any peace if you don't do it. Unless your clients really need to get hold of you at all times (i.e. you are on call), then nothing is so important that they can't wait until you "open". Unfortunately, it is a common problem with new business start ups - you want to take on all the work you can and try to get as good a reputation as possible and as a result, you offer too much - either do it too cheap or too quickly, or too accessible. A lot of people are "takers" and will always take advantage and just not care. These are the clients you don't want. There are plenty of clients out there who will play fair.

When I started, I worked from home and gave out my home phone and personal mobile number because I wanted to save money. What an absolute nightmare! 95% of my clients contacted me during sensible hours and weren't ridiculous with their demands. The other 5% were absolute idiots. Funny thing was that the idiots just didn't care and never gave any consideration at all, just rang and demanded things even though they weren't urgent, whereas the majority would always wait until sensible hours even when things really were urgent.


The idiots - they'd wake the whole house by sending a long fax at 3am in the morning, they'd phone at 10pm at night for routine non-urgent matters, they'd call at 6am in the morning at my door to give me some paperwork. There was one client who I did weekly payroll for and he never met the deadline for getting the wages info to me and once he actually faxed it to me at 5 minutes to 3pm, when 3pm was the deadline for submitting the figures to the bank, then gave me a load of abuse when I was 2 minutes late sending it back at 3.02. Within just a few months, I was ready to quit.

To preserve my sanity, I rented a tiny office and changed all the phone numbers, so that I could "turn off" the business. What a difference. The idiots soon learned and were soon "trained" to contact me during sensible hours and seemed to treat me with more respect. No-one actually took their business elsewhere except one who I sacked - one of the worst offenders who started getting abusive when I started to stand my ground against his ridiculous demands.

To succeed in business you have to "exceed" your customers expectations. But people often misunderstand what that means. Give your customers your working hours, make it clear you aren't available outside those hours. Customers will no longer "expect" you to do the impossible. Their "expectations" are lower, so when you do something unexpected for them, like work during the weekend or phone them in the evening, they are surprised and their expectations have been "exceeded", result a happy client. If you start your relationship with client expectations set too high, or raised to early, they'll always be disappointed - so start at a medium level to give yourself scope to impress them.

kimbatty

I do think it's a case of getting tough on yourself and making sure you have proper downtime for you and your family. If people call in those downtimes then it's just tough, I expect they're not working all through the night or at silly hours of the weekend

Myself and my partner both run our own businesses from home and we learnt the hard way that you have to proactively make time for yourselves and your family because if you don't your home life suffers. It's really not worth jeopardising you and yours in this way so get tough and organised with your time and set the expectation to your clients of what your working hours are. It's different being there for them in a real emergency but you need to make sure they understand what the difference is

It is tough getting the balance right but very rewarding when you do and have that great home/work lifestyle sorted and working for you

cannyscot_2

WHA-that sounds like you have learnt form bitter experience so I will take on board all you say -I worked till 3am las night and feel a bit tired but somehow invigorated as I am about to put my foot down with all concerned.

I am out and about most of the time and hate the idea of sitting in a small rented unit-but do you just use it for seeing people and storing files etc or do you actually sit in it?