You’re rolling with your new virtual assistant business. All of a sudden, you’ve gone from checking your DMs every three minutes to see if you’ve got an inquiry, to being fully booked with a full inbox. Making the money of your dreams but that dream life is starting to feel swamped. There are client requests, emails, DMs, and endless time on your phone. Wondering what happened? How do you set work/life boundaries running an online business, right? We know, we’ve been there too. Here are our top tips for those beautiful boundaries that allow you to fully recharge and reclaim that dream life.

put working hours in your contract and email signature

Clients will ping you whenever you make yourself available. You have our full permission to set working hours from the start and be off-limits outside of them. (Trust us, your clients will recognize why you need it!) If you openly address them when the client books and add them to your contract, your clients will know what to expect and respect your boundaries. Chances are, they’ll be impressed. Anyone running a small business works long hours and craves time off.

don’t leave them guessing, set an out of office responder

With those working hours in your contract, you do not need to be glued to your inbox during your time off. Instead, let your mental energy recharge by looking at anything but a screen! You can remind your clients it’s outside of your working hours by setting an “out of working hours” auto-response. This will trigger whenever one emails you. Our communication professionals over at BRAND SPEAK Studio have a free template. It includes instructions on how to set up that automation if you’re looking for the easiest way to make this happen. Grab it here!

quit scrolling in your free time

Running an online business means that we spend a large chunk of our working time absorbing blue light from screens and staring into the glow. We all know losing ourselves in TikTok or Instagram can give you brain fog. This can also dampen your creativity. Set boundaries for yourself and don’t endlessly scroll in your free time. It’s an important mental boundary that will actually let you refresh outside of your working hours and let you truly live your dream life.

Learning how to set work/life boundaries running an online business is truly a muscle everyone learns how to flex. (Without it, you feel burnt out and it’s such a terrible place to be!) Moving forward, set yourself up for success. Adjust that contract, set up that autoresponder, and abide by the screen time limits you impose on yourself. It’ll be worth it and you’ll feel the benefits.

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Psst. Looking for more deets on the virtual assistant career path? Let’s go back to the basics and look at how to start a virtual assistant business.