How do I help people to run profitable businesses?
By Anthony Franklin, CEO of booking platform fibodo.
Anthony Franklin is a PGA golf professional turned business founder. He established fibodo to address a common problem faced by people who sell time-based services. Like most, Anthony wanted to spend less time on business admin and more time with clients. However, no tools existed to do it effectively. To solve this, he created fibodo to help people better manage their time and communications, take pre-payments, promote their availability, and more.
Here Anthony highlights that when time is money, a few simple tips will help you manage your time better and increase your profits.
Your most valuable resource
If you have a business where you sell your time or you’re part of the growing gig economy, then time is your most valuable resource – you never use it again and you never earn from it again. If you look at your time in this way, you’ll be in a better position to make improvements to your business that lead to more profit – and you’ll enjoy a better work-life balance.
Be honest about your hourly rates
If someone sells their time for £40 per hour, but they are only booked for two hours of an eight hour day, their earnings are actually £10 per hour.
Whereas someone who sells their time for £20 per hour, but is booked for seven hours of an eight hour day, actually earns £17.50 per hour. In addition, they also have more opportunities to earn more from up-selling other products and services.
The reality is that hourly earnings are based on what you earn over the course of a working day, working week or working month. Take an honest look at your hourly earnings and you may find you earn more by lowering your hourly rate to attract more more bookings.
How to manage peak times
When I was a golf pro, the most popular time people wanted to book me for was a Saturday morning.
I then had a choice – I could let a single person book me for an hour at £20, followed by another single person, then another. This would mean I worked with three people and earned £60 for my key earning time.
Or, I could do a group coaching session for five people, followed by another group of five, then another, with everyone paying £7. I’d then have worked with 15 people and earned £105.
To maximise your earnings, you should identify your peak times, identify the biggest opportunities and charge accordingly. Just like airlines that alter their prices depending upon demand, and holiday companies that increase their prices during school holidays.
Time = Money. Manage your time and earn more.
What you can learn from the travel industry
We’ve all been there: a client says they want your services – causing time to be blocked out and preventing someone else from booking. But then they don’t turn up, or they cancel at the last minute. Not only does this leave you out of pocket, it also upsets your existing clients. Because they cannot book you during the blocked out time.
When booking a holiday, people expect to pre-pay. Why should it be any different for booking your services? You can ensure that clients respect your time by taking pre-payments. It will reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations.
What to do when you’ve got availability
Even with the best will in the world, there will be times when you have availability within your schedule. What should you do?
You could write it off and do nothing, but that does nothing for your bank balance.
It’s smarter to share your availability through your social media network. That way you can get a last-minute booking for the available time-slot. This helps clients who want to book your services at short-notice. The result, you earn more money for your time.
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