It’s Time to Set Some Boundaries

As Virtual Assistants, it’s important to set up guidelines with our clients from the start. In most cases, they will follow your lead – so you need to lead!

When a new client begins work with me, I send him or her a welcome email immediately. The email includes guidelines of how I work, my pricing and an invitation to book time with me.

This is an excerpt of that email:

Scheduling Work Time with RocketGirl

Most of the time, I’m in the office and available, Monday through Friday from 9:30 until 6:00.

If you want to speak with me, please feel free to call at any time during those hours (617-755-6010). If I can’t pick up the phone at that moment, please just leave a message and I’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible.

I can also be reached via email; I check my email many, many times during the day. You may not hear from me right away after sending an email, but I am monitoring it for emergencies and quick requests. For more routine work, you’ll usually hear from me by the end of the day and certainly within 24 hours.

If you’d like to schedule a call or a working session, you can easily do this on my website at www.rocketgirlsolutions.com/talk (also found under the Contact tab on the website). If you’re not sure how much time to reserve, I recommend erring on the side of too much! And don’t worry, your Debit Card will only be charged for the time we use. You can also send an email to me requesting a working session.

One last thing: please don’t use text to send me work requests. They are too easy to lose/overlook and can’t reliably be entered and tracked in my work queue.

Above all, remember that just because your clients are working, it doesn’t mean you need to. By sharing my schedule and work policies up front, if a client sends me a request – even if they say “Can you do this right now?” – and it’s outside my regular office hours, I get to decide what to do.

Many times, especially with new clients, I ignore the request until the next morning. Then I send a polite email like this:

Hi so and so,

Thanks for your email. I wasn’t at my desk this weekend (last night, etc.) so I didn’t see this until now. I’m happy to get this in the queue for the day.

Note that there was no apology.

If this same request came on Monday morning during my established working hours, I would reply promptly with either a yes or no depending on my schedule for that day.

Overall, and because I’m clear about my work schedule and set guidelines upfront, my clients are very respectful of me and my time!

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A business workflow and productivity expert with 25 years of experience, RocketGirl Solutions Founder Belinda Wasser is hired by small businesses on a contract basis to act as their part-time, “business manager.”

In addition, she is the Founder of the VA Connection, a professional online community with the goal of educating and connecting independent virtual assistants around the world. Join her free online classroom here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevaconnection/