Prioritizing your time vs client bookings

[bootyclaps]

How do you guys setup your days so you don't get overwhelmed with a scattered schedule?
Do you have a template where clientele are packed together in a certain amount of hours so you dont have a big gap of waiting? or are you okay letting them setup a time whenever and catering to it?

I do a bit of both, and wish I could prioritize better so I dont have to be running back and fourth so much.
But if I start saying "Im gonna need you at this time because (put me semi complaining about spread out appointments here)" im gonna feel like a dick.

I think Im just missing a big part of what im doing in terms of prioritizing time so i dont burn myself out and would like pointers from you guys.
Also, the reason why i would even let my schedule feel overwhelming is because the other trainer at my club quit so I got all his clients forwarded to me. :P

[daddyuk]

How do you guys setup your days so you don't get overwhelmed with a scattered schedule?
Do you have a template where clientele are packed together in a certain amount of hours so you dont have a big gap of waiting? or are you okay letting them setup a time whenever and catering to it?

I do a bit of both, and wish I could prioritize better so I dont have to be running back and fourth so much.
But if I start saying "Im gonna need you at this time because (put me semi complaining about spread out appointments here)" im gonna feel like a dick.

I think Im just missing a big part of what im doing in terms of prioritizing time so i dont burn myself out and would like pointers from you guys.
Also, the reason why i would even let my schedule feel overwhelming is because the other trainer at my club quit so I got all his clients forwarded to me. :P

If you want your PT business to take off then work around your clients. If you only think about yourself you will fail.

[KyleAaron]

You just have blocks where you'll train people, and not outside that. 80% of all PT sessions happen 6-9am and 6-9pm. If someone can come at 0700, really they can come at 0630. If they can come at 1000, almost certainly they can come at 0930. And so on. Someone doesn't want to get up early, or wants an extra hour to digest the dinner they didn't bother making until an hour after they got home, and so on.

Depending on your schedule, just the mornings or just the evenings is common, if you're happy to live in the gym then do both; most will do some combination, like 5 mornings plus 2 evenings. Remember those 3-4 hour blocks won't be filled-out completely, nor do you want them to be, especially if you're doing half-hour sessions. Gets a bit much training all the different people in a row, and you do need to go to the toilet, have a coffee and so on. And you want a gap so if one of your regular and reliable clients need to swap that week, you can. Most commonly, the 6-10am or 5-9pm slots will have 2.5-3.0hr of the 4hr filled.

The clients who tell you they couldn't possibly train at time X and must come at some special time outside that are the ones who'll cancel at the last minute anyway. I have a former client, lovely woman but all over the place. She wanted to come back, my training times are nowadays Sun-Thu 1600-2100. She said, "I'd like to come in the mornings." Last time she was around, she came to 20 of 39 scheduled sessions. Should I rearrange my schedule, my family life, and put aside a special time for her? That's how it always is. The people who can't organise themselves and their lives so they can come at a consistent time are the ones who'll ask for some special time - and usually not show up.

If you enslave yourself to your clients' whims, you end up resenting them, and become a worse trainer, and don't keep them as clients anyway. So just choose blocks where you'll work and not outside them. Stick to the peak times, and at worse you'll lose 20% of potential clients. But you'll be more relaxed and refreshed and happy, so the remaining 80% are likely to be happier and more likely to go from 1 session a week to 2, from 2 to 3, stick around for longer and so on. So you won't lose money.

[bootyclaps]

You just have blocks where you'll train people, and not outside that. 80% of all PT sessions happen 6-9am and 6-9pm. If someone can come at 0700, really they can come at 0630. If they can come at 1000, almost certainly they can come at 0930. And so on. Someone doesn't want to get up early, or wants an extra hour to digest the dinner they didn't bother making until an hour after they got home, and so on.

Depending on your schedule, just the mornings or just the evenings is common, if you're happy to live in the gym then do both; most will do some combination, like 5 mornings plus 2 evenings. Remember those 3-4 hour blocks won't be filled-out completely, nor do you want them to be, especially if you're doing half-hour sessions. Gets a bit much training all the different people in a row, and you do need to go to the toilet, have a coffee and so on. And you want a gap so if one of your regular and reliable clients need to swap that week, you can. Most commonly, the 6-10am or 5-9pm slots will have 2.5-3.0hr of the 4hr filled.

The clients who tell you they couldn't possibly train at time X and must come at some special time outside that are the ones who'll cancel at the last minute anyway. I have a former client, lovely woman but all over the place. She wanted to come back, my training times are nowadays Sun-Thu 1600-2100. She said, "I'd like to come in the mornings." Last time she was around, she came to 20 of 39 scheduled sessions. Should I rearrange my schedule, my family life, and put aside a special time for her? That's how it always is. The people who can't organise themselves and their lives so they can come at a consistent time are the ones who'll ask for some special time - and usually not show up.

If you enslave yourself to your clients' whims, you end up resenting them, and become a worse trainer, and don't keep them as clients anyway. So just choose blocks where you'll work and not outside them. Stick to the peak times, and at worse you'll lose 20% of potential clients. But you'll be more relaxed and refreshed and happy, so the remaining 80% are likely to be happier and more likely to go from 1 session a week to 2, from 2 to 3, stick around for longer and so on. So you won't lose money.

Awesome information, thanks alot!

[WoofieNugget]

Kyle is bang on here.

One other thing to mention is that if you want to pick a certain time frame, then market and prospect for those type of people. If you want to train mornings, find lots of shift workers, military or former military, or type A personalities that already do mornings. Evenings are easiest.

During the day it is easy to market to retirees or stay at home moms, self employed people or people who are so high up in their companies they don't have to worry about leaving.

[CharlottePT]

I use schedulicity.

95% off my clients are on a recurring schedule. (ex. my monday 500am is at that time EVERY WEEK)

I handle all scheduling, I don't leave that up to clients. I disabled where they can go in and book/reschedule sessions. I too have a set schedule of 500am-1030am then 445pm-830pm during the week. Noon time was always hard for me to fill and I sleep during that time. I have all the clients I can handle at this point.

If I have clients cancel a few days in advance I try to condense my schedule or offer to clients I know are available at that time. 90% of my schedule is just automated and the same thing each week. The other 10% may be late cancels, reschedules, vacations, etc...I can usually plug in makeup sessions during those particular openings anyway.

I also tend to have 2-3 floater clients who just come on short notice.

[KyleAaron]

Just to reinforce things... a while back I ran the numbers of my 4 years 4 months at the YMCA.

I had 66 different PT clients who together did 4,043 sessions with me.
But 10 of those clients were 50% of the sessions!
And 25 of them were 80% of the sessions.
36 were 90%.

So I could have got rid of half the people I ever trained, and only lost 10% of my income. Now, all those people who wanted special times and changed every week, guess where they were? In the bottom half of clients who gave me 10% of my income. The ones who were late, the ones who made no dietary changes, who complained about minor twinges as though they were major injuries, or who had major injuries but wouldn't go to the doctor, who whinged and moaned about how hard it was... that bottom half giving me 10% of my business.

As for referrals, guess who referred me clients? It was the people in the top half. And when I went and started my own place, guess who came along with me, and guess who stayed?

Other people's numbers will be different, but broadly-speaking, you'll find that most of your income is coming from just a few of your clients, the people who pick a regular time and stick to it for literally years. The time-wasters, you don't have to fire them, they'll drift away by themselves. Let them go, don't fuss over them. Take the mental energy you were using on the headaches, and give it to your best clients. You'll be happier and more relaxed, be able to put more thought into their programming, find interesting articles to send them, and so on. So when you ditch half the people you've ever trained, you don't lose 10% of your income, you gain more.

[KevFit]

Definitely stick to the specific blocks you want to work and don't even think about expanding them until you have those 90% filled. Otherwise you'll end up leaving and coming back to the gym 5x in a day.

If you have short gaps between clients use that time for marketing, communicating with your existing clients (shoot them a motivating text), or learning something new.