If you’ve ever been stood-up by a client or customer who was a “no show”, you now truly know what they mean when they say, ‘Time is money’. Tracking your time and appointments can be “tricky” because you’re trying to focus all of your attention on the customer and the task at hand. The last thing you want to do is to get to the end of the month or week and find out that you haven’t booked enough business.

Understanding where every hour goes in your business is critical to a healthy and profitable business. With that said, small businesses now more than ever are expected to do more with less, without sacrificing the quality of their customer’s experience.

So this week’s I’d like to share with you a fairly new booking software that was originally designed for booking appointments in hair salons, but I think could work with just about any small business that needs a up-to-date but affordable booking application – it’s called Timely.

Timely is an online booking app from the UK and is loaded with a flexible set of features that will allow you to add booking features to your website and/or social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

You’ll be able to get phone numbers, email addresses, take online deposits, full or even deferred payments. You can even give your customers the option to book different services with different staff members on different days. All of this can be automated or you can turn “on” or “off” any of these features to give you more control.

It’s Totally Customizable, Up-to-Date and Affordable

Timely also allows you to customize the app with your own brand colors and marketing messages or if you don’t want to be bothered you can choose one of their templates. They offer education and support both online and off and best of all it’s within reach. You can get a package for as little as $15/month, for a small group of 2 – 7 staff members or even a staff of 20 or more.

Now, just to be clear, I don’t want you to confuse this app with another time-tracking app called Timely that is used to track teams on project work. This is NOT that app. It’s a great tool and I don’t know why they have the same name, but that’s not who we’re talking about here.

So by now you’re probably thinking you can’t use this, you don’t own a salon. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. The software isn’t going to know you don’t own a salon and I don’t think the folks at Timely are either. What great about this app is that it’s totally customizable, up-to-date and affordable.

You could be a health and wellness coach, you could book in-store classes/workshops after hours. You could even book “one-on-one” video consultations – it doesn’t matter, just as long as you need to “book” something.

Take a Few Minutes to Look at What You Have to Offer

One of the biggest requirements of running any business these days is that you’ve got to be resourceful. You’ve got to think outside the box and this is the “beauty” of the digital space, they’re always looking for a new audience to serve.

It’s rare that a tech company (like Timely) starts out as one thing and stays there. Take for example, the telecom giant Nokia. It started out as a paper mill company in Finland in 1865 and did not go into mobile communication until the 1980s.

But let me bring this idea a little closer to home. Did you know that Colgate was originally a soap and candle company founded in 1806? They didn’t start selling toothpaste until 1873.

Did you know that Avon, founded by David McConnell in 1886, originally sold books door-to-door? He used to give little gifts of perfume to help attract more women customers. The perfume became so much more popular than the books, that McConnell started the California Perfume Company, which grew into what we know as Avon today.

You probably have a product or service, that has nothing to do with what you currently offer. This could potentially create another revenue stream or business altogether.

You can learn more about Timely here, but I’d love for you to take a few minutes to see if there’s possibly something that could bring more traffic to your door. No pressure – it’s just a little food for thought. 🙂

And hey before you go. . .I’d love to hear from you.

Question: How do you currently keep track of bookings for your business? Share your comments and questions below.

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