Are You a Coach or Consultant?
One of the complaints I've often heard is about people who book a session and then either cancel their appointment, or don't show up at all!
Questions Answered
Why take payments online?
Assuming that you're already advertising or marketing on social media and other online locations then the simplest method of getting a booking is to fix it with a payment that's simple and immediate. Many prospective clients will have doubts, but know they need your help. Once they've paid a deposit with you they've made an important committment. Without the payment it's easy for them to back out. Taking the booking payment at this early stage does both you and your client a favour.
Why change from PayPal?
Some people love PayPal, but some really don't. Why miss orders from them? There's also the point that PayPal's fees are quite high at 3.4% plus 20p per transaction (see the calculation lower down). A payment system from a reputable payment gateway and merchant account provider will cost a lot less than that. Finally, if a disgruntled client contacts PayPal they can freeze your account until the issue is sorted out. Other people will still book with you, but you can't receive any funds at all. Having said that, after a number of years trading without any problems PayPal may relax that rule. It can be well over five years. A frozen PayPal account can seriously harm, or even kill a small business.
Do I need a card machine?
No, the entire transaction is done online. If you want to take payments over the phone most payment gateways have virtual terminals that enable this. In addition they often provide methods of sending payment links and pages where a customer can enter their card details in person. But if you want one to there are lots of options available too.
Do I need a web developer to set it all up?
You don't need a web developer. If you want to take online bookings you may need a system to do that. There are plenty of plugins to do that, and we can help you with something if you don't have your own website.
Client Scenarios
Aidan
Coaching people to improve themselves has always been Aidan's dream...
When his employer of 15 years decided to cut his role in the organisation Aidan took a leap of faith and started his own coaching business.
He set up a Facebook page and Instagram account, then told all his friends about what he was doing. He asked them all to share his info and contact details.
It took a little while for the trickle of clients to grow, but he's getting there now. One of the biggest problems he had was people booking and then not turning up, or calling at the last minute to postpone their session. That was fine, but it meant he had dead time that he could have been using productively.
Of course, Aidan's clients weren't thinking about his wasted time. Their own lives took priority so they just did what they needed to do without awareness of the effect on Aidan's income.
The solution wasn't easy to find. At first Aidan just thought he had very flaky clients. What he didn't realise was that this is a problem most self-employed people like him have to deal with.
So how did he change his clients' behaviour?
Aidan moved his sessions higher up their priority lists by charging a deposit, and setting up regular payments.
Now if his clients didn't show up they stood to lose some money - and no one likes to do that. It also meant that no-shows still earned Aidan the money for his time that they'd committed to.
With his business is still growin , Aidan is now under much less pressure because the money he's due comes in smoothly.
Caroline
She's a very experienced professional, but Caroline felt constrained by corporate culture...
It's a common story, two or three years in any company always led to being tied up in corporate policy and company politics.
If you're anything like Caroline then you have to get out to be able to focus on the important people; your clients.
Caroline felt that the firm she worked for was more interested in sticking to its process than achieving a good outcome for its clients.
She knew to the core of her being that she could bring massive improvements to her clients' businesses by being more agile and creative in her analyses and recommendations.
It frightened her to think of joining the ranks of independent consultants - but she was thrilled by the challenge.
Her previous business experience was limited, but she understood how crucial getting regular payments from committed clients is.
Starting from scratch she realised that a flexible and transparent payments partner; someone she could actually talk to, would be a vital component of her business if it was to be a success.
Now Caroline considers herself not just a key consultant, but also a successful entrepreneur.