The Mind Your Time Podcast | Empowering Six-Figure Entrepreneurs to Streamline, Scale, and Live Their Legacy

How to Take Control with an Online Scheduling System and Boundaries

August 29, 2024 • Shannon Baker | Business Operations Strategist • Episode 178

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Are you tired of feeling like your business is calling the shots, instead of you?

Imagine flipping the script—taking back control of your time and setting rock-solid boundaries that allow you to use your energy where you want to. 

In this episode, we are going to talk about how strategically using an online scheduling system and setting clear boundaries can help you reclaim your time, boost productivity, and drive sustainable growth. 

Learn how to align your business goals with personal priorities and clearly communicate your boundaries using tools like the 90 Day Goal-setting worksheets and the Welcome Kit & Onboarding Process Workbook inside The MY-T Society membership. I'll guide you through creating an online scheduling system, helping you maintain a healthy work-life integration and protecting your family time.

These strategies aren’t just about getting organized—they’re about breaking free from the chaos and living your legacy while achieving success on your own terms. 

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale, these insights will empower you to run your business the way you’ve always wanted. Tune in and start taking control today!

6:19 - How to establish office hours and clearly communicate your boundaries to clients

15:24 - Why you need a welcome kit and onboarding process to set and communicate your boundaries

20:00 - The importance of you being disciplined and sticking to the boundaries you’ve established and communicated

24:00 - Hear a case study that emphasizes how streamlining the scheduling process saves time and money

References Mentioned In This Episode

Episode 173 - Is Your Business Growth Stuck? Implement These Six Core Systems


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Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Check Out The MY-T Society Membership

Listen to My Free Audio Masterclass

Schedule a 20 Minute Chat with Me

Let’s connect online:

Follow Me On Instagram: @the_shannonbaker







Speaker 1:

Are you tired of feeling like your business is calling the shots instead of you? Imagine flipping the script, taking back control of your time and setting rock solid boundaries that allow you to use your energy where you want to. Well, today I'm gonna help you take control, boost your productivity and even put some extra cash into your pocket and who doesn't want that? So if you're ready to break free from the chaos and live your legacy on your own terms, then keep listening. Your pocket and who doesn't want that? So if you're ready to break free from the chaos and live your legacy on your own terms, then keep listening. Welcome to the Mind your Time podcast.

Speaker 1:

I'm Shannon Baker, your coffee loving host and business strategist. Each week, I will share practical insights and bold strategies for six figure entrepreneurs looking to clean up their back office and create streamlined systems. The weekly episodes will help you take control of your time, scale your business and create success on your own terms. So grab your cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and let's dive into today's topic. What if I told you that the key to freeing up more time in your day doesn't require you to get more work done? I mean, imagine starting your day with a clear plan, knowing exactly what needs to be done and when to do it. No more scrambling to keep up, just simply focusing on what truly matters. And, the best part, you have access to all the resources that I talk about today inside of the Mighty Society membership, including tools that will help you with goal setting, mapping out your processes and even email management. Take a moment, think about this. How do you feel when you get to check things off your to-do list? I know for me, I get a great feeling of accomplishment because I can physically see my process. Now, the truth about checklists is they're a great starting point, but they do have limitations, especially if you create checklists for your processes. That's why I created the Process Mapping Workbook because it helps you go beyond a basic checklist and guide you through the process of actually documenting and automating your processes. When you rely solely on checklists, it often feels like every time you cross something off, three more things pop up out of nowhere. But this workbook can help you streamline and automate those tasks so you can truly free up your time.

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And speaking of free time, it's essential to make sure that your goals are aligned with your business priorities and your personal priorities. That's why the goal setting worksheets that are available inside of the Mighty Society membership. They're designed to help you define and align your priorities with clear, achievable goals. They actually guide you to set up a strategy that makes the best use of your time, so that you can make sure that every task that you complete moves you closer to your goal. Every task that you complete moves you closer to your goal. So let's talk about how we can take charge of your time, not by adding more hours to the day, because you can't, but by making better use of the 24 hours you already have.

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One of the six core systems that every business has to have in place is a scheduling system. Now, it might sound simple and you may have tried to use one before and it didn't quite work out, but trust me, when used properly, it's really a game changer, and one of the biggest reasons you need one is to help you to set some boundaries, no matter who you are or what type of personality you have. I know you struggle with this area that includes me and more than likely you have some boundaries in place, but you just don't stick to them. But we'll get back to that later. Boundaries are the invisible barriers that you need to create so that you can protect your time, energy and, most importantly, your sanity. Think of them as the guidelines put in place to train people to interact with you if they want your attention. And always remember this the only people that get mad at you for having boundaries and sticking to them are the ones who benefit the most when you don't have any. Yeah, that's right. I've seen this happen time and time again, especially among solopreneurs. You can get so caught up in trying to please your clients that you spend way too much time working for them like you're an employee, but you're not. So when this happens, the line between work and family really it's almost non-existent. Let me tell you, my friend, you might feel like you're providing the best service ever by operating your business like it's a 7-Eleven, but in reality, you're training your clients not to respect your time or your lifestyle.

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Here's an example have you ever been in the middle of cooking dinner and your phone rings? It's a client who has missed the deadline, despite your reminders, and now they want you to save the day. They say oh, I'm sorry, I'm just looking at your email. Is it too late for you to go ahead and take care of this for me, even though I missed your deadline and ignored your reminders. Now, of course, they're not going to say they ignored your reminders, but they're going to act like they never saw this before.

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Now, if you're a people pleaser, like I used to be, you might say yes, even though you're irritated because now you're going to have to work late into the night to get it done. Suddenly, you're in a bad mood, and who pays the price? Your family does. So not only are you irritated, but your family doesn't have your full attention at dinnertime. But your client hung up the phone and they're happy because they got what they wanted, even though they didn't give you what you needed to complete the task on time. Well, guess what? This is going to keep happening unless you change how you operate. This is going to keep happening unless you change how you operate. So today I'm going to share some steps that will help you so you never feel obligated to put your business above your family or using your time where you want to. So let's talk a little bit more about setting these boundaries.

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You need to set office hours, and these are not hours that you're actively working. Office hours are when you're available for work and when you're not. It's a window. Everyone has them. This isn't just about answering calls or responding to emails. It's about giving yourself time to focus on the important tasks without distractions. Now working hours are when you actually get things done based on your schedule. That week and those 90 day goal setting worksheets that I mentioned has some pages in there to help you plan your week out. Here's an example If your office hours are Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm, but you have to drop the kids off at school in the morning, you may not sit down and start working until maybe 10 am, and that's if you don't need to make a couple of stops along the way.

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So you decide you want to spend 20 minutes every evening after the kids go to bed to schedule email responses to go out the next morning during your office hours. You need to take control of your calendar, first of all by designating specific times that you're going to respond to messages and emails and even be on social media daily, and there's a workbook that I'm going to talk about later that will help you with that media daily, and there's a workbook that I'm going to talk about later that will help you with that. So you need to be clear about the days and times you're available for business calls. Those are your operating hours. This will help you avoid distractions and will allow you to be fully focused on what you're supposed to be doing. These boundaries are great parameters for your schedule, especially if you time block your schedule, like I do, because once you've set your boundaries, the next step is sometimes the hardest.

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Actually, it's not the hardest, but you have to do this. You have to communicate your boundaries. People can't respect things they don't know, and it shouldn't surprise you that I'm a huge fan of having a process for every repeatable action in your business. So when it comes to client engagement, you need to have a documented and automated process that starts from the moment they make first contact with you. That's when onboarding really starts. Once a client is ready to work with you, there should be a clearly defined welcome and I say that in air quotes process in place that clearly communicates what they can expect next. Now I use a template for my welcome email which includes my hours of operation and my response policy, holiday closures and my vacation notice policy, a referral reminder and a confidentiality reminder. But that's not all. These same policies are in my service agreement and then when I have that initial onboarding or kickoff call with my clients, we review those policies as well. I also send my clients a yearly reminder email to refresh their memories and inform them of any changes to my hours and my policies. You have to clearly communicate this, and regularly. So to help you establish and communicate these boundaries effectively, there is a welcome kit and onboarding process workbook inside of the Mighty Society membership. These resources will help you create a welcome kit for your business to ensure that your clients understand your availability and respect your time from the beginning. So go to theshannonbakercom, forward, slash membership and join today.

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Now, why do you need to do all of this? Well, basically because if you don't, you make it hard for your clients to understand how to best work with you and respect your time. And here's the thing Clients want the best work from you. After all, they're giving you their money. Boundaries help you do your best work and, honestly, they appreciate it, even though they might not like the boundaries. And I know that you may feel this is a little bit too restrictive, but it isn't. In reality, it's called being professional when you state your boundaries and expectations in a kind, respectful and professional way. Your clients will see it as part of your professionalism and will respect you for it. It strengthens your brand.

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Now you might be wondering well, how do I introduce these boundaries to my existing clients? Well, I hope you have regular checking calls with your clients, because it's a great way to do this. It's the best opportunity to review these boundaries or even give them reminders. If you see a trend where they're stepping outside of those boundaries, you can send them an email that summarizes your policies and then discuss any questions you have during your check-in calls. The key is to make sure everyone is on the same page. But I want to caution you. I don't want you to do all this work and get your boundaries in place and then you disrespect your own boundaries.

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Boundaries mean nothing if you don't have the discipline to stick to them. So you have to make a commitment to yourself and to your family to protect your time. This is the next big struggle I see among entrepreneurs. You have to be disciplined. No is a complete sentence. Now, keep this in mind because I mentioned it earlier, office or business hours and working hours are not the same. Do not feel obligated to reply to emails or any messages that come in outside of your office hours. Now, if you want to respond, you can schedule those emails to go out during your office hours and then respond to messages wherever else you receive them the same way. And here's why Sometimes let's be real clients know your boundaries, but they're just like children.

Speaker 1:

They will test your boundaries to see if you're going to sidestep them. But you have to be firm and you have to use discretion. Don't assume that they expect you to ignore your boundaries either. They may simply have just had time to email you late in the evening or on the weekend. That doesn't mean that they respect or they expect a reply as soon as they send the message, or that they want you to work on weekends. It just means that life has now paused or allowed them the time and space to respond to you. So that's what they do.

Speaker 1:

But you have to stick to your boundaries. Respond during office hours and, honestly, I've even made it a practice to send responses to other consultants that I'm working with when they make requests outside of my office hours. I don't reply until I'm supposed to be working. I want you to do the same thing Now if you choose to ignore my advice about boundaries. That's okay. It's your world, but I don't want you to ignore what I'm about to say. So, if you do nothing else, please make sure you establish a form of communication with your clients and keep as many conversations as possible in that place. So that requires a conversation. I have different platforms that I use with my clients and we pick what works for them outside of the email inbox, and that platform is where 98% of the conversations take place. It makes it easier for both of us to keep up with what was said, but my goal really with most communication is to shift it to take place inside of mondaycom, because I use those workspaces to manage projects with my clients. We'll see how that goes.

Speaker 1:

But something else that will help you stick to your boundaries in your business is using an online scheduler, and I intentionally did not start with telling you what the system was, because it won't work the way that it's supposed to if you don't have boundaries in place. An online scheduler is key to making sure you are not distracted by unscheduled phone calls and can focus on your work. But you also need to turn off those notifications on your phone so they don't distract you when you're working, especially email notifications, that way, you're not tempted to open up when you hear that ding because you're going to stop what you're doing. You're going to read it and then you're going to be tempted to open up when you hear that ding because you're going to stop what you're doing. You're going to read it and then you're going to be tempted to reply. Now, all of this being said, there are exceptions where you may need to meet the client outside of your normal business hours, but this should be an exception, not the rule, and you need to make sure that you clearly explain that when you make those arrangements. A good client will understand that and appreciate you even more.

Speaker 1:

For and remember, a scheduling system is just one of the six core systems that every business needs to function efficiently and grow sustainably. Without it, you risk letting your business control your life rather than the other way around, and I'm going to put a link to that episode in the show notes because I give a high level overview of all six. But no matter who you are or how long you've been in business, you have to have a schedule to get things done and you have to manage your schedule to get things done and you have to manage your time and understand how to control your calendar instead of your calendar controlling you. Using an online scheduler really makes it easy for everyone to have your undivided attention at a designated time. You're telling people when they can talk to you and they can make a decision based on your availability and what works for them.

Speaker 1:

Research actually shows that 35% of customers prefer scheduling appointments during non-business hours. Get that Non-business hours. 40% of online bookings actually happen outside of those hours. I know I fall into that category. I'm someone who schedules appointments when I sit down and I'm looking at what I need to schedule appointments for. That's usually at night and guess what? My clients do the same thing. But in order for an online scheduler to really be beneficial for you, you have to have a calendar that you maintain in real time, because a scheduling tool has a two way sync with your calendar and displays the services that you offer and available time slots based on the windows that you put in the system, and you can even connect your scheduler to Google Calendar, outlook or iCal. It can collect payments for you if it's a paid appointment, so that means money when the appointment's booked and you don't have to wait for them to pay an invoice, appointments booked and you don't have to wait for them to pay an invoice.

Speaker 1:

Now here is what I feel are some of the biggest benefits that you experience when you use an online scheduler. It sends reminders for you. I mean, how many times have you made an appointment with someone and forgot to put it on your calendar so you were a no-show? That's embarrassing, right. And then when the shoe's on the other foot, how does that make you feel? It's irritating for me, so I can guess it's probably irritating to you too. An online scheduler removes your memory from the equation.

Speaker 1:

After an appointment is booked, your online scheduler will add that appointment to your calendar automatically. So it will block it off, so you don't have overlapping appointments, and it gives people the option to do the same. So everyone has it blocked on their calendar. It's also going to send automatic confirmations and reminders to the other person, which should reduce no-shows. You can connect your scheduler to Zoom, google Hangouts and even GoToMeeting. It will include the link for them to join your meeting automatically. You don't have to do anything but set it up. Those emails also take the hassle out of rescheduling or canceling appointments. All the person has to do is go into that reminder email and click the link.

Speaker 1:

But here's the best part An online scheduler can screen people for you in advance, before you hop on a call. How great would it be to have all of the important information you need in advance in one place so you can easily refer to it and prepare for a call. Well, if you have some qualifying questions that you want answers to before you get on the phone with a person, you can use intake forms in your online scheduler to gather that information for you. Now I use different forms for different appointment types. For example, my free consultation gathers the data I need to know about the business owner in their business, so I can gauge whether or not they're really ready for my services before we even hop on a call. I know what they do, who they serve, a range of how much their business makes, how they found me, why they're reaching out now and how much of a priority getting their systems in place is. Now the intake form for the back office assessment, which is only available for members of the Mighty Society membership. It's much more detailed and it gives me more background information, because I want that in advance so that I can prepare for their assessment. And if I'm having a guest on my podcast, it collects all the things I need their headshot, their bio, their giveaway, all of that as they schedule the chat. And that information is automatically entered right now into an Airtable base so that I can easily refer to it later. How is that for improving your productivity? Now let me share a story that perfectly illustrates the power of using a built-in scheduling system.

Speaker 1:

One of my clients was struggling with getting meetings scheduled and someone managing an inbox, even though they had a VA. But they were paying the VA to handle every step of the process manually, even though they had an online scheduler. So this meant that sometimes emails to schedule a meeting were missed or there was a delay getting the meeting set up because of schedule conflicts, but then the VA resigned on short notice. So, of course, panic set in, but her back office wasn't ready to truly support a VA efficiently. So I took the opportunity to make that system a priority. I created template response messages for when someone system a priority. I created template response messages for when someone requests a meeting. We automated parts of the scheduling process, but it still maintained a personal touch. So this made setting up meetings much more efficient and it saved this client a significant amount of money. Previously they were paying a VA 10 hours a week, but five hours or more was spent on just scheduling and rescheduling meetings. Now that's automated. By streamlining this one system, she saved $700 a month and increased efficiency in her business, and now that more systems have been put in place, she can easily hire a VA and onboard them with ease. So not only did this save money, but it has improved overall customer relations, productivity and team morale.

Speaker 1:

I mean, think about it. What could you do with an extra $700? Maybe invest it back into your business, upgrade your systems or even take some well-deserved time off. Go sit by a beach, sip your drink and enjoy the sun. This is the kind of transformation just having a scheduling system can bring. And if you find your inbox overwhelming and feel like managing your emails is just taking up too much of your time, the Inbox Zero workbook inside of the Mighty Society membership is what you need. It will guide you through the process of taking control of your email so that you can reduce overwhelm, and it will allow for you to be more focused during your working hours. And if you need a little help, extra help setting up your scheduling system, or you're ready to create a welcome kit and get your onboarding process in place, then join us inside the Mighty Society, because the pieces that you need, like the message templates and the workbooks that I've talked about, they're all in the resource section, along with lots of other things that I know you can use. We need to get this off your to-do list and focus on growing your business this year.

Speaker 1:

Now let's review the three steps that you need to take to control. Take control of your time. One, you need to establish your boundaries, set your office hours, designate times you're going to respond to messages, emails and be on social media, and designate specific days and times for your business calls. Two, you need to set and communicate your boundaries. Make sure you create a welcome kit that clearly communicates these boundaries to your clients. Remind them of these boundaries every year and make sure you review them during your checking calls when needed. And then three, stick to your boundaries. Be disciplined. Don't feel obligated to respond to messages outside of your business hours. Use an online scheduler to manage your appointments and make sure your clients understand and respect your availability. These boundaries will protect your sanity and help you focus on keeping your clients happy and, believe it or not, they're going to respect you even more when these boundaries are in place and you stick to them. Not to mention, your income is going to increase and you'll be able to enjoy quality time with your family and friends and not be resentful. And don't forget this. If you say yes to something outside of your boundaries, it means you're saying no to something that your boundaries are supposed to protect.

Speaker 1:

The longer you're in business, the more important it is to set aside time to review your boundaries that you've set and make sure they're still serving you, moving you towards your goals and letting you live a more intentional life. Remember, the scheduling system is just one of the six core systems every business needs to function efficiently and grow sustainably. Without it, you risk letting your business control your life, rather than the other way around. So make sure you go to theshannonbakercom forward slash membership to join so you can get access to the resources that are going to help you. With all the tips and strategies that I shared with you today, let's make a commitment together to protect our time, live our legacy and grow our businesses without sacrificing what matters most. You've got this and I'm here to help you every step of the way.

Speaker 1:

If you, let me Thank you for tuning in this week. Remember, just listening to this episode will not get you better results, so I challenge you to break the mold and take action today. If you're unsure where to start, book a call with me to get your questions answered about the Mighty Society, membership or anything else that I mentioned. A link to my calendar is in the show notes. Not ready to take that step yet? No problem, be sure to connect with me on Instagram, at the underscore Shannon Baker. You can ask me your questions there, or let me know that you enjoyed the episode by taking a screenshot, sharing it and tagging me.

Speaker 1:

Now. If you haven't already grabbed my free audio masterclass, why don't you just start there? It's a great first step to assess your back office on your own, and this masterclass provides valuable insights and practical steps to help you organize your processes, reduce chaos and improve efficiency. Go to theshannonbakercom forward slash audio masterclass Now. If you haven't left a review for the podcast yet, please do so. I would love to hear from you, and it's an easy way to show some love to the podcast and help me reach more small business owners who are ready to defy the status quo. I can't wait to hear from you. So until next time, keep calm and streamline.