How to Set Boundaries with Clients (5 Key Tips from a Lawyer for Energy Vampires)

Entrepreneurs
Written By Selene Snippe
Boundaries with Clients

Are you struggling with setting boundaries with clients? I’m sharing 5 essential tools to handle energy vampires and stop them from draining your energy (and bank account)!

I call clients who keep crossing boundaries “energy vampires.” They drain your energy and time, and if you don’t handle them properly, they’ll end up draining your bank account.

If you’re struggling with setting boundaries with clients who:

  • expect you to do things that are not even part of your scope (energy vampires being blind bats)

  • keep asking for more (even though you’ve already gone above and beyond)

  • keep canceling and rescheduling meetings at the last minute

As a business lawyer running my own practice, I know exactly how to set boundaries with clients so that I know exactly how to handle energy vampires when they rear their ugly heads again.

They’re everywhere, and no matter how well you are at vetting clients, they’ll somehow make their way to you when you least expect it.

In this blog post, I’m sharing 5 key tools every service provider needs to set boundaries with clients so that you won’t fall victim to an energy vampire again.

This blog post is all about the 5 essential tools every service-based business needs to set boundaries with clients.

5 Key Tools for Setting Boundaries with Clients

1. Setting boundaries with clients who… keep asking for things outside of your scope

Boundaries with clients pdf

The first set of boundaries with clients we need to set is those for the clients who ask for things that you never even bargained for.

Here are some examples that might be familiar to you:

  • When you’re a life coach or something similar, clients can ask for a range of services that are not within your scope (and you certainly don’t want to be held liable for, like…

    • a request to fix their problems for them or to intervene with a spouse, child, or friend

    • making life decisions for the clients, like a specific answer to what to do with their relationship, career, or financial crisis

    • or worse, a diagnosis of their mental disorder or treat a medical condition

  • When you’re a business coach or something similar, clients can ask you to:

    • write copy for their company website, create marketing funnels for them, or run an entire ad campaign

    • share legal contracts or help file legal documents

    • make financial business decisions for them, like how much to spend on ads

Here’s how to set boundaries with clients in this category:

1. Create a clear scope

First and foremost, include a clear scope section in your contract or T&Cs with a crystal-clear list of what’s included in your service + a full list of what is not. Make sure you define each service within your included list very precisely with measurable boundaries.

A lawyer’s tangent: I hate when contract templates include only a blank space for you to fill in your services yourself, with no guidance on how to word them properly or set boundaries.

A proper coaching contract template, or any other services agreement template, should include a complete framework for your scope so you can set clear, legally binding boundaries.

2. Set niche-specific disclaimers

You need more than just disclaimers for results and outcomes to set boundaries with clients. You need niche-specific disclaimers that clarify what you are not and what your services do not include.

That way, your client knows what your scope doesn’t include, and you can’t be held responsible or liable for issues you never claimed you could fix.

(Because you don’t want to end up in a lawsuit and lose way more than what the client even paid you.)

So, if you’re a health coach, for example, you need a comprehensive disclaimer stating that you’re not the client’s “doctor, physician, surgeon, specialist, registered dietitian, licensed nutritionist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, pharmacist…” and the list goes on. And that you do not provide “any other form of healthcare advice, diagnosis, treatment, support, or services.”

I created a full Niche Disclaimer Library inside my Coaching Legal Kit with different disclaimers for life, relationship, health, business, financial, career, social media, parenting, and writing coaches.

2. Setting boundaries with clients who… keep wanting MORE of what’s within scope

Setting boundaries with clients in social work

Other energy vampires might not ask for something truly outside your scope, but for more of what is within your scope.

For example, a client could request:

They’ll try to drain you for more than their money’s worth. And who can blame them if you keep giving more?

Here are 2 options you need to have baked into your contract or T&Cs:

1. Charge an additional fee

Just because a client asks you for more without offering to pay more doesn’t mean they’re not willing to pay you more.

And you might not always want to pass up an opportunity to earn more money. Maybe you have a little extra time to offer more. You just need to be compensated for that extra service.

State in your contract or T&Cs that:

  • You may charge an additional fee for additional services, and

  • You may charge that fee upfront.

2. The option to say “no”

You may be busy, and you may not want to provide additional services, even for an additional fee.

That’s why your contract should explicitly state that you have sole discretion to decide whether you’ll provide additional services for an additional fee.

You remain in control, and you always have the power to say “no.”

3. Setting boundaries with clients who… keep rescheduling meetings at the last minute

Setting boundaries with clients in case management

The real energy drainers are those who keep messing with your schedule.

They have no problem:

  • rescheduling your scheduled session 15 minutes before its scheduled time

  • rescheduling a proper amount of time before the scheduled session, but 5x in one month

  • showing up 20 minutes late to your meeting, and asking you to stay on 20 minutes longer to make up for them being late

The last thing you want is an energy vampire hijacking your calendar.

Here’s what a proper cancellation & rescheduling policy inside your contract should have to set boundaries with clients:

  • A rescheduling window (like 24, 48, or 72 hours), so that if they miss that window, they don’t get to reschedule at the last minute. That session is simply canceled, and they don’t get a new one to make up for it.

  • A rescheduling limit, so they can’t reschedule sessions (even if they’re on time) 5x in one month. You could limit rescheduling to once, twice, or thrice a month.

  • A lateness window (like 5 or 10 minutes). If a client shows up later than that, you have the right to treat the session as forfeited, and you don’t have to wait around staring at your screen hoping they show up.

  • A no-rollover clause that makes it clear that if they don’t show up, the session doesn’t roll over into the next week. They simply forfeit that session.

4. Setting professional boundaries with clients who… keep texting and calling (even at 11pm)

Then, there are the energy vampires who just can’t get enough of you.

These are the all-consuming clients who will:

  • Text you at 11pm on a Sunday, asking for “your thoughts.”

  • Call you outside of client sessions with a “quick question,” and turn it into another hour-long session.

  • Email you with a laundry list of questions and ask for an answer by tomorrow.

Your contract needs to include these essentials (that most don’t include) to set boundaries with clients:

  • Your business days and hours (they can’t expect a response outside of those hours)

  • Your method(s) of communication (so they can’t reach you through DMs)

  • A response time within which you may respond (+ that you may take longer and they can’t hold you liable for late responses)

  • Meetings are scheduled through your scheduler (not through back-and-forth emails)

That way, they can’t expect you to be on-call, and you won’t tend to them whenever they ask.

5. Setting boundaries with clients who… will threaten you with refunds and chargebacks when they don’t get what they want

Clinical boundaries with clients

Some energy vampires will not like you setting boundaries with clients. And there are a select few that will turn from energy vampires into b… I mean witches.

Those clients are why we need to set up the legal armor to actually protect your boundaries.

There are many different legal protections you’ll need in your contract, but for these situations, you’ll need at least these 3 essentials:

  • A comprehensive refund policy that doesn’t just state “no refunds.” A one-liner like that, which you’ll see in many templates, is really not enough. You need to state all the different situations in which they won’t get a refund, like:

    • When they miss a session or don’t reschedule it on time and, therefore, don’t receive that service. They’ll still need to pay for that missed service. But if that’s not explicitly stated, the law requires you to refund for services not received.

    • When they want to stop halfway through your coaching program because it’s not working for them. It needs to explicitly state that they will not get a refund for the remaining sessions. Otherwise, again, they’re entitled to a refund for services not received. They can terminate the contract, but they shouldn’t get their money back for time that’s reserved for them.

    • When you have to terminate the contract because they broke the rules in your contract. A proper contract should require the client to treat you with respect while providing services, and not to steal your methods and strategies and then sell those services as their own. And if they break those rules, you should be able to terminate the contract early without owing them a refund. But if that is not explicitly stated in your contract, you do owe them a refund.

  • A solid chargeback clause that specifically prohibits chargebacks. When the nastiest witches can’t get a refund out of you, they’ll turn to their banks and file a chargeback. That’s why you need a chargeback clause so that you can show the bank, “Hey, this is what we agreed to, and they’re not holding up their end of the bargain, so I don’t owe them anything.” When you can show a bank a signed contract, and you’ve done everything in accordance with it, they’ll side with you.

See how important it is to set ironclad boundaries with clients?

Communicate and enforce your boundaries with clients

Burying all these rules in your contract or T&Cs isn’t enough. That’s what makes them enforceable, but you actually need to communicate and literally enforce them.

And make sure you communicate your rules before you enter into a client relationship. State your rules in the Q&A section on your sales page or checkout page. If clients apply through an application form, state them in your application form.

Restate your scheduling policy in your scheduler, so they’re always reminded of those rules every time they schedule a session with you.

And repeat your rules during your client intake session and your first real session with your client.

That way, your rules are really hard to miss. And when energy vampires still act like blind bats, enforce your rules. That’s what they’re there for.

Because there will always be energy vampires who will test your client boundaries, you just need to know how to handle them!

Want to have the right contract with the proper boundaries in place?

Or check out my other contract templates with these boundaries baked in for you.

This post was all about setting boundaries with clients for service-based businesses.

Now, you know how to deal with energy vampires; learn how to deal with these other types for nightmare clients: 3 Types of Difficult Clients & the Lawyer-Approved Fix for Each

Selene Snippe
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3 Types of Difficult Clients & the Lawyer-Approved Fix for Each