Episode 27: Why Saying Yes to Everything Costs You Money and Energy

  📍 Welcome to CreativeMind Smart Money, the podcast where creativity and business smarts collide. I’m your host, Samantha Eck, bookkeeper, business coach, and your go to guide for building the creative business of your dreams. Whether it’s mastering your money, streamlining your systems, or growing your business, I’m here to share insights that empower you to thrive.

Plus, I’ll be bringing in industry experts to dive into all aspects of entrepreneurship, so you can turn your passion into profit without losing your creative spark. Let’s get started.

  Hello, and welcome back to the Creative Minds Smart Money Podcast. Today’s episode is a little bit of a mindset episode. We’re going to dive into saying no and using that as a boundary in your business and why it’s not something that is mean or hurtful. But more about how to protect your own boundaries.

Now, as someone who is a bookkeeper, you might be looking at me and saying, Samantha, this is really your area of expertise. But boundaries are important in every business. I set boundaries in my business. I know my clients set boundaries. And I just think that Even as a bookkeeper, I always ask my clients, what are you setting up as your boundaries?

How are you protecting your time? Especially as people who are solopreneurs or, they hire a lot of help. I just want them to have those boundaries in place so that they’re not feeling overwhelmed or burnt out. And that’s something that we actually talk about during my strategy sessions. So obviously saying no can feel really awkward, but it’s so crucial to avoid burnout and building a sustainable business.

We want to talk about how we set, not just physical boundaries, but financial boundaries, say no without feeling some sort of guilt, and take control of our time, our energy, and of course our money. So the first thing that we want to talk about is why saying no is such a power move.

Saying yes to everything drains your time and energy and costs you money in the long run, and I want to give you a very personal example. When I first started my business, I said yes to whoever came my way and there was a lot. So when I first started my business, I was not niched down. I was just a bookkeeper for everyone.

And I still am. I still take people from all types of different industries. It’s just that my marketing is focused on creatives. So when I, First started I took on everyone I took on a certain client and I’m not going to say what their name is But they were a construction client and construction is definitely one of my weak points Especially because there is a lot that can go into it just aside from Job costing and everything like that There’s so many different aspects and so many small things that you need to do that.

It’s a lot more work Than it might seem So when I first started, I was like, yeah, this is going to be great. The problem then became, and I already saw these flags before I had hired this client, but I was like, you know what? I’m just going to go ahead and do it. They were messaging me every day before we even started.

And when I didn’t respond to an email right away, and this is before I got hired. When I didn’t respond to an email right away, I was called literally five minutes after they sent the email because I hadn’t responded to it right away. So it left me feeling a little bit pressured, and I ended up saying yes to this client.

As soon as I said yes to this client, I was called no less than ten times a day checking in on things. Now, obviously as business owners, we are completely and entirely different than employees because we have our own time. We have our own, you know, processes. We’re someone who comes into your business and helps, but you, As a subcontractor or a contractor, you are not actually able to tell us how to do things or what ways we need to do things.

It’s all up to us. You just have to place that trust in someone which is definitely something hard. Don’t get me wrong placing that trust in someone is hard, but It ended up being a thing where I was spending so much time with this client and I was undercharging huge. And I actually ended up refunding them their entire first month and said, I’m sorry, I just can’t work with you guys because there’s just, it’s too much.

And I learned from that point forward that I needed to respect my own boundaries and really analyze who I was bringing into my business to protect my time and my mental health because that was already causing me to have burnout. I was looking at my business and saying I don’t want to work today because there’s someone who is going to be bothering me consistently.

So as that was just an example of why saying yes to everyone costs you money But it also costs you emotional well being and time in the long run. So obviously some common mistakes is just Taking on low paying projects. So looking at a project someone comes to you and says you know Your lowest package is 350 and you say oh, yeah

This is my package price and they say, well, I can only afford 200 and you’re like, okay, you know what? Let’s do 200. It’s undervaluing yourself, but it’s also breaking that boundary and it can be very detrimental to you and your business as a whole moving forward. Also bartering for services or giving them away for free.

Now, I am someone who I love to help people. So there are many times where I will offer a lower package price to someone, but I will say, Hey, when we get to this point, the package price goes up because I’m someone who loves to help someone, but I’m never someone who thinks that you should just give your services away for free.

There should be some sort of, I guess, payoff for that. So it’s, it’s, Obviously, I’m not saying don’t, be charitable, but you can be charitable and also expect something in return. So if you’re going to do something for free, maybe say, hey, I need a really good review from you if you think I’ve done a great job, something like that.

I’ve never done work for free, but I also don’t believe in doing work entirely for free, especially when it’s your business. I think that you should protect your business and protect yourself as you’re running your business.

Saying yes to the wrong things is a no to your overall goals and financial growth because you’re saying yes to people who don’t align with you or your business. And obviously, again, saying no protects both your energies, your boundaries, and your bottom line, and it will just keep you so much stress free.

What do financial boundaries actually look like? So first of all, you want to know your worth. You want to revisit your rates and make sure that they reflect both your time, your expertise, and your energy. We’ve talked about setting prices for yourself before and what needs to go into that. You want to make sure that you’re charging what you’re worth, but also that it’s sustainable.

Now when you’re hiring people, Clients or when you’re working with people, you want to make sure that you set clear policies. You want to create contracts with clear terms, timelines and scopes of work. So your contract should state exactly what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, how you communicate, all the payment terms.

So if there’s late fees or if there’s something else like that, it just needs them to understand and those expectations. So for example, let’s just say you’re a website designer, your contract needs to state when you’re Project starts and when your project ends Because it’s not good enough to just start a project and then Be like hey, it’s gonna end whenever this is so you’re even if it’s just a So if you are, you know, in your contract, you’re saying, we’ll take a maximum of 14 days or something like that.

Just set those clear policies so that you have those boundaries. Then your client isn’t consistently coming to you and saying, Hey, Jenna, , why is my website not done yet? You can say, well, in the contract, it states that we have 14 days, et cetera, et cetera. You can also charge for rush jobs and additional revisions.

You also want to make sure that’s also set within your policies. For example, for me, I am a virtual bookkeeper. So if I have a client that’s in Minnesota and they want me to come visit them in person, I can absolutely do that. But they, I, it’s stated in my and stipulated in my contract that they pay for all the fees for me to get there.

Now that’s never happened, but that’s definitely a stipulation that I have in my contract that if someone were to want me to come to them, that’s going to be added into the cost. And then you want to identify your non negotiables. So what are your automatic no’s? Are they clients that are like, hey, can I pay you this time instead of what you stated in the contract?

That should probably be a no. Do they require weekend work? Is it outside your niche? Do they require you to be on call? Are they consistently pestering you? And this is a really good time to understand that and say, hey, this is the time I’m working.

I will respond to you within these times. Outside of those times, I may not get a response to you. You are free to message me outside those times, but you may not get a response. Those types of boundaries are so important in your business. Now, When we’re saying no, we obviously don’t want to be jerks about it.

We don’t just want to say, hey, I don’t want to work with you. Bye. We want to be polite. We want to say, I appreciate you reaching out to me and trying to work with me. I just don’t think that we are a good fit. There are ways to offer an alternative. I always do this myself in my business. Whenever I have someone who is not a fit, I have a list of bookkeepers that I’m like, Hey.

I can send you to these people. I just don’t think we’re a good fit and I want you to stay firm now They might say well, I really think that you’re the right person for me. You can always explain why you think not Maybe they might change the way that they’re interacting with you You know if you explain yourself But again, you want to make sure that you have that boundary and you’re just setting it up clearly and firmly Obviously, when you set boundaries and you learn to say no, there’s a transformation that starts to just happen, not within yourself, but within your business, because you’re going to attract those respectful, high value clients, people who understand what you’re doing and aren’t going to argue with you if you say, hey, I’m not going to respond during the weekend.

You stop resenting. Projects because you’re taking on more aligned projects. You grow your income meaningfully because you’re focused on those meaningful opportunities. And you’re freeing up time to focus on creativity and personal well being instead of just saying yes to everything that comes your way.

Trust me, I am the queen of saying yes because I am a people pleaser. I want to please people. I want them to work with me, but I also know red flags when I see them and that’s why you have a discovery call. That’s why you talk to someone. It’s not just for your protection, it’s also for their protection because if you bring up in the call and you say, hey, I’m only available from nine to five, Monday to Friday, and they say, well, I need you to be available during the weekend.

That is immediately a place where you can say, you know what, we’re really not a good fit. I’m going to suggest you to someone else who might be available during the weekend. It matters. This really does matter. Setting boundary matters because no creates space for yeses that matter most. So if you’re someone who has limited capacity and you’re just saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to every project, suddenly you get a project that is so perfectly aligned but now you’re fully booked with all these projects that you should have said no to, you didn’t set those boundaries.

So now you’re in that kind of space where now you have to. Say no to the person that you could have worked with. That’s like your dream client. You want to protect your time, energy and finances because it’s so essential to your business and well being. And I want to emphasize the fact on protecting your time because your time as a business owner is so valuable that You deserve to be able to set that aside and say, you know what?

I’m just, I don’t feel like working with you is the right step for me.

📍 As we close out this episode, I want to remind you that you want to know your worth when it comes to setting your boundaries, know what your time is worth and how much you are worth as a business owner and say, no. You want to set those clear policies in your contract as to payment terms, contact times, everything like that.

And don’t hesitate to say no when someone doesn’t align with your goals, but do it in a very kind way. Remember that boundaries empower you to build a business that works for you. Now, if you are someone who needs help to set your prices confidently, maybe you don’t know if you’re profitable, you don’t understand them, I’m here for you.

Please feel free to reach out, send me an email. If you found this episode helpful, please leave a review and send it to a creative friend who might need it. I appreciate you spending some time with me today. As always, keep creating, keep growing, and I’ll see you next time. Farewell, fellow travelers.