I started training over a dozen years ago, it was my second career change, after many different jobs in different fields. I moved from restaurant and bar management to health and fitness management not exactly on par with each other. One involved late nights, drinking beer and food, lots of food. The other early mornings, drinking power shakes and lots of food; I love training hard for many reasons one of which is that you can eat lots of food before, during and after.

Scheduling as a new trainer did not mean a lot to me as it seemed to be dictated by when the people whom I was training wanted to be trained, so 6am till around 10am in the morning and 4pm to 8 or 9pm in the evening. With many phone calls, emails and texts trying to confirm who was taking which of those popular spots.

To understand what this has to do with automation of your schedule we need to look at the fundamental basis of economics.

Scarcity, this usually refers to materials but for us trainers in the service industry it is time.

Trainers often forget this basic economic formula that we sell time as the commodity for money. Scheduling the exchange of time for payment is not only critical it is a basis of how our business functions. How does this relate to automation of scheduling? Let me tell you about the moment I figured it out.  

Years ago a great friend and client of mine told me something that I have never forgotten, Vic is a cardiologist and a very good one and his schedule is very busy. One evening Vic and I went out for dinner and got to talking about his business and mine and the basic similarities. We are both in health care, mine more preventive his more reactive, and we both basically trade our time for fees. What really struck me as the main difference; he had a secretary and scheduling system to help him. Since we both work 9 to 10 hours a day I asked why does he need a secretary and scheduling program, I do all of it myself? "Simple" he said "I make money doing what I am great at, I am great at being a doctor, the more time I spend being a doctor the more money I make."

It was like a whole bunch of glass was breaking around me and suddenly it became clear to me; spend more time doing what I am great at and I will make more money. How could this have eluded me for so long, it was the answer to a question that I struggled with for years. How as a trainer can I make more money? I looked around and found that every other profession that sells blocks of time used these two necessities of business the schedule and the secretary, doctors, lawyers, and dentists even my mechanic has a schedule and a person to book me.

Yet as trainers we often diminish these as not necessary and I truly believe this is one reason why so many trainers fail or have a hard time seeing themselves as a professionals.  "I am just a trainer" is something I hear countless times at trade shows and in webinars.

I know that most of the trainers out there cannot afford a secretary but scheduling software that acts as your secretary, accountant and scheduling assistant can be found for less than you bill for 1 hour of your time. If this means you can train more or run an extra boot camp then it will be money well spent. 

It is simple math the more time I save (paperwork), the more time I have to sell (train clients), the more time I sell the more money I make (no explanation needed). The bonus is this equals more time I get to spend doing what I enjoy. You truly could not ask for a better reason to automate your scheduling.