How do you set expectations with clients about turnaround time and availability?
As women who really care about other people (speaking to all the former teachers in the room!) we are used to filling the gap. We're used to caring for everyone, all the time. And don't get me started on the martyr mentality of the education system that expects women to give all of themselves for a worthy cause, without reasonable compensation or support. (I could rant on that in another post, another day!) I learned the hard way that the expectations and pressures put on teachers are simply too much for any one person to meet.
As a first grade teacher at a high needs school, what felt like the bare minimum of "doing right" by my students made me believe I must work 65-hour weeks. In those first few years, if I let a task slip between the cracks, or I said no to something that was asked of me, I thought I was failing as a teacher. I took my responsibilities very seriously — and added responsibilities that weren't even in the job description. It took me years to learn healthier habits around my time and energy. Fast forward to my ninth year, and I had much healthier expectations and boundaries.
One of the foundations of this virtual assistant career I'm carving out for myself is to create a healthier version of myself, for myself and for my family. This is something that really matters to me.
Here's what I actually put in writing with a client, and why.
Set up your payment structure
One way to make expectations super clear is in how you set up your payment structure. There are three different ways to do it:
Hourly, against a block of hours the client buys up front. They purchase a set number of hours each month, and you track your time until they're used.
Hourly units per deliverable. You bill a set number of hours per thing you make, no matter how long it actually takes you.
A flat deliverables package. A set price for a set list of work. No time tracking at all.
If you're just starting out, start with hourly. You can't estimate how long a task will take you yet, and that's not a flaw — it's just information you don't have. Tracking your time is how you get it. You got this!
Each one changes what the client is actually buying, and each one changes what happens to your pay when you get faster. I go into all of that in another blog post (click here to read about it!)
Whichever one you choose, naming the deliverables is what removes the ambiguity. If you're providing social media services for a client, don't just write "Social Media Management with 8 posts, and corresponding story slides." Yours can be much shorter than mine — but here's a very detailed example from a service agreement I've used, so you can see how specific it's possible to get:
Content Creation: Creation of 8 custom feed posts per month based on content ideas, written copy, and visual materials provided by the client, with two Story slides per post. Does not include idea generation and strategy. Includes:
Editing and formatting client-provided text, images, and ideas into ready-to-post graphics
Designing carousels, graphics, Reel covers, and story slides inside Canva
Basic Reels editing (cutting clips, adding text overlays and captions)
Repurposing provided content into new visual formats (e.g., turning a testimonial into a carousel)
Scheduling and publishing to Instagram and Facebook
Adding engagement tools (polls, questions, links) to story slides when applicable
Light maintenance of shared content calendar and idea bank
Write down what isn't included
In the service agreements, I write out here's what's included, here's what's not included. "I am not responding to DMs for you. I am not making more than one round of revisions." Naming it, being over-the-top clear with communication, helps. And people really do appreciate the clarity.
I also name for everyone: I'm an independent contractor. We are equals, we are peers. I'm not your employee, and I'm not a personal assistant. (This is written in the agreement that they sign, in more formal contract language!)
Set office hours
I set office hours. I work all other kinds of hours — sometimes at 10 p.m. — and I don't want my clients to know that. If I'm working late and I need to send an email, I don't send it right then. I schedule it for the next office hour. Otherwise I've taught them I work at 10 p.m., and now they expect a 10 p.m. reply.
When I updated my clients earlier this year, I set three days a week in two-hour chunks, where they know they can reach me in real time, or audio message me if they'd rather.
Thank goodness the iPhone now lets you schedule text messages, because I want to text back to get it out of my mind — I just don't want them to know I'm working.
I did this with parents when I was a teacher, too. I didn't want them to know Mrs. Yap was working at 8 p.m. Nope — you can talk to me during school hours.
Office hours tell a client when they can reach you. The next piece is how long they wait to hear back.
Give yourself a response window
I have a 48-hour response time with my clients, because this is a life-first business. My clients hired me because they value that too — in one way or another, the reason someone hires a virtual assistant is that they want their life back. So I share openly that I have young kids, and that this is how it works when you work with me. People tend to appreciate the honesty.
Name it when someone asks for more
Scope creep is not usually a client being difficult. I always assume the best with my clients! When I feel as though someone is pushing for more than what is written in our agreement, I choose to think that they're just really valuing my work, and they're excited about it. If you're feeling that way too, reframe them as a client who simply doesn't know where the boundaries are, asking for one more small thing. Your job is to say where the edge is, out loud, in the moment — don't just absorb it and hope they stop. Clarity is kindness for both of you!
The easiest way I've found to do that is to say yes and attach a price to it. If a client asks for more than what the package includes, I'll say: "Oh, that's so great. I would love to write a couple extra emails for you. That's outside of our current scope, and I can send you an invoice for that. How does that sound?"
Nobody has ever been offended by that. Saying it from the start, and naming it out loud, has helped a lot.
None of this came naturally to me. I spent too many years in the classroom believing that the way to do right by people was to give them all of me, whenever they asked. Setting expectations with clients is the same skill I had to learn as a teacher, just written down this time (in the agreement, in the office hours, in the response window). You're not being difficult by naming what you will and won't do. You're making it possible to keep doing the work!
