How I Built a Full Clientele in 60 Days From Scratch (part 3)
Hey Insiders! I hope you had a chance to see the last 2 articles on how I built a full clientele in 60 days. Those articles cover the first two things I did to start attracting clients quickly so I could start making money. So if you haven’t checked out those articles, you know what to do… go and check them out so you don’t miss out on crucial information you need to get started.
The next thing I did when I got my business set up was something I wish was available a long, long time ago.
SET UP ONLINE BOOKING
As a solo artist, there’s only so much I can do at one time. Not to mention, I don’t have a lot of patience so repetitive administrative tasks suck the life out of me. I needed to have a system in place that could act almost as a personal assistant for me and with that, allow me to focus on what I’m good at… which is finding creating ways to apply lash extensions.
So I invested in an online booking system that I could embed into my website so that way, my clients could see my availability and book their own appointments. Once I added this service, I saw a decline in voicemail messages asking for appointments and more email confirmations showing appointments that were booked.
Ka-ching!
When clients see that you have online booking AND it’s simple to use, there’s a great chance they’ll use it rather than want to book by phone.
Personally, I use the online booking service, Acuity Scheduling because it does a lot more than show my availability and allow clients to book appointments. With Acuity, my plan allows the system to send emails on y behalf and text reminders. I can also send email follow up reminding my clients to re-book if they haven’t done so within a number of weeks.
On the back end, I love their reporting. I can see in advance how much I’m going to make based on the appointments that my clients have booked. The system also sorts and let me know which services bring in the most money and which bring in he least. Plus, I can take payments through Square, Stripe and PayPal directly within the dashboard.
With services such as these all built into my online booking, it saves me time. Instead of me having to answer phone calls and book appointments one at a time, Acuity does it all for me.
Similar to website hosting, there are online booking services that you can use which are completely free. From personal experience however, I’ve found that using a paid service with all the features I need outweighs the limitations you have with free services. So I’d suggest paid services like Acuity because in the end, the cost is completely worth it when you look at how much time it saves you on administrative tasks.
And what’s nice about their platform is that they have a range of packages you can select for a lower price point and you can always upgrade to a higher package as your business grows.
I really hope that by sharing the steps I took to get started in my business helps you to get started and on your way to building a successful business.
Can you do me a favor? If what I’ve shared in this three part series has helped you, can you let me know in the comments? I’d really appreciate it.