I decided recently that I would take on a few more individual / private lessons lessons. Only for a few weeks. But I wanted to fill the slots without too much messing around – so I used a combination of some of the systems that I’ve written about on this blog in order to get 5 weeks of block bookings booked and paid for, which happened in 12 hours and amounted to £1200.
This article isn’t really about earning £1200 in 12 hours – it is more to demonstrate the benefits of these systems.
The Plan
- I planned 6 hours that I would make available for the lessons. Those were 4-7pm on Thursdays and Fridays.
- I planned that it would be a 5 week block of lessons.
- The cost would be £200, which is a slight reduction in my usual hourly rate – reduced from £45 to £40 per hour.
- I wrote some simple Ts&Cs – the main one being that the sessions could only be booked as a block, and if the client could not make one of the sessions, it would not be refunded but would be made up at a later date, at our convenience.
- This meant that there were 6 ‘blocks’ available to buy at £200 each.
How did I sell these blocks?
This is where the systems that we have previously built are so valuable. Here are the details, along with links to relevant posts on the subject.
Setting up the blocks to be bought online
It was important that, as soon as I advertised the sessions, people could just click and buy them online instantly. For this I used Jotform. It is a simple online form creator for which you pay a monthly subscription. You can create any kind of form, but also link it to payment – I use Stripe, but there are various options.
On this ocassion, I didn’t use our software, Tennisbiz, which we usually use for online bookings. This was simply because it is linked to our business and this project was something for me personally. Jotform is a simple and flexible alternative for taking online bookings.
Send out the offer to our database
Having set up the offer online, we are fortunate enough to have a large database that it could be sent to. This is one of the systems that I’m talking about. Our database includes about 3000 people. But not any 3000 people – they are people who may be currently in our programme / previously in our programme / attended camps / attended a school session / took private lessons / enquired. So they are not random people, they are likely to be interested in the offer.
Don’t worry if you don’t have that kind of database yet, you can start building it any time.
Then I needed a way to email that database. We do that through our software, Tennisbiz, which is excellent for all aspects of running a tennis coaching business. If you don’t have this kind of software, you can use an email service like Mailchimp.
The Results
It took me a couple of hours in the evening to set up the offer and email it out to the database. The email was sending when I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, maybe 4 of the 6 blocks had been booked – and within another hour or 2, the remaining 2 blocks had been booked.
So this was £1200 of income received instantly. With Jotform, you can set an automatic confirmation email with more information about what happens after they book – so there wasn’t even an urgent need to email those people. Actually I did email them, just to ask for some more information about who would be attending the lessons, but even that email could be copied and pasted after I’d sent it once.
Of course, now will come the work of actually teaching those lessons for the next 5 weeks – and that is work that I will take very seriously and give my absolute best. Those people are not just a number and I am determined that they will get absolute value for money. I am very grateful to them for committing to and paying for the sessions.
I did receive lots of emails with people asking questions, asking if they could do only 3 out of the 5 sessions or saying that they were going to try to move their schedule around and could they get back to me to confirm. But while all those people were asking questions, others were just going ahead and booking the slots. By the time I replied to the questions, it was just to say that unfortunately the sessions were fully booked. This was what I wanted – the whole system avoided all this kind of hassle.
Conclusion
This post was really about developing good systems, not about earning £1200 in 12 hours. I wanted to show you that by gradually developing these systems such as building a database, creating online bookings and using emailing software, that those systems will really help you down the line when you need them.
If I did not have those systems, how long would it have taken me to fill up those slots?
But remember, with any system, the time to start is now. Don’t worry if you don’t have the database, just start building it now – and the same with the other systems that I’ve written about.
2 thoughts on “How to earn £1200 in 12 hours tennis coaching”
Hi Karl , that’s great plan , many years ago when I was working on long hours , my plan was to give 1 hour free if they booked 9 lesson , in advance and yes I always kept 1 hour incase the customares could not make it or I miss the lesson.. Giuseppe
Thanks for your comment Giuseppe!