To fill empty class spots, first work out which classes are under-filled using a simple fill rate (enrolled students divided by capacity). Then fix the timetable before you spend on marketing: merge, move or split classes by level. After that, run a waitlist, reuse spots left by absent students, open casual bookings and ask current families for referrals.
It’s 4:30 on a Wednesday and the under-8s soccer group has six kids on a pitch set up for twelve. Across town, the Saturday 9 am class has a waitlist of five families who keep asking if anything has opened up. Same academy, same coaches, and nobody has looked at the two problems side by side.
Key takeaways
- Measure fill rate for every class before deciding what to fix. Your empty spots are rarely spread evenly.
- Timetable changes (merging, moving or splitting by level) often fill more spots than any ad.
- A waitlist and a system for reusing absent students’ spots turn demand you already have into bookings.
- Referrals, holiday camps and local partnerships bring in new families at low cost.
- A complete Google Business Profile helps parents searching nearby find you at all.
How do you find which classes are under-filled?
Work out the fill rate for each class: the number of students enrolled divided by the class capacity, multiplied by 100. A class of 7 students with room for 10 has a 70% fill rate.
Do this for every class on your timetable, not just the business as a whole. An overall figure of 80% can hide a Saturday morning at 100% and two weeknight classes sitting at 50%. Those two weeknight classes are where your empty spots live.
Set your capacity honestly. It’s the number of students a coach can teach well in that space, not the most you could squeeze in. If your swim lanes fit six beginners but you list eight, your fill rate will look worse than it is, and the fix is to change the number, not chase two more families.
A worked example
Say you run 18 classes a week, each with room for 10 students. That’s 180 spots. Across the week you average 7.5 students per class, so 135 spots are filled. Your fill rate is 75%, and you have 45 empty spots every week.
If each student pays $25 a class and you run 40 weeks a year (roughly four school terms), those 45 spots are worth $45,000 a year in fees you’re not collecting. Fill half of them and that’s $22,500 more a year, with no new coaches, venues or classes.
Your numbers will be different. Put them into the calculator below.
What your empty spots cost
Fill rate: 75%
Empty spots per week: 45
Revenue left on the table per year: $45,000
Revenue gained if you filled half of them: $22,500
Assumes every class has the same capacity and fee, and that each empty spot could be sold at your normal per-class fee for every week you run. If average students is higher than capacity, empty spots are counted as zero.
Sort your classes into three groups
- Full or waitlisted (90% and over): demand is higher than supply. These are candidates for a second class at a similar time.
- Healthy (70% to 89%): a few spots to fill. A waitlist, casual drop-ins and referrals usually do the job.
- Struggling (under 70%): look at the time, the level and the coach before you look at marketing. Something about the class itself may not suit families.
Which timetable changes fill the most spots?
The fastest fix is often moving or merging classes, because you’re matching the spots you have to the times families actually want.
Merge two thin classes
If Monday and Wednesday at 4 pm both run at five students, merging them into one class of ten frees a coach and a venue slot. Talk to the affected families first, give them a choice of times, and make the change at the start of a term rather than halfway through.
Move a class to a better time
Look at where your waitlists are. If Saturday mornings are full and Thursday at 6 pm is half-empty, ask whether a Saturday 11 am or a Sunday class would fill. For younger children, earlier after-school slots usually work better than evening ones. For teenagers and adults, the reverse is often true.
Split by level, not just by age
A class that mixes beginners and kids who’ve been coming for two years can lose both groups. The beginners feel lost and the experienced kids get bored. Splitting by level can make both classes easier to sell, because you can describe exactly who each one is for. “Beginner tennis for 7 to 9-year-olds who’ve never held a racquet” fills faster than “Junior tennis”.
Open a second class where you have a waitlist
A waitlist of six or more for one time slot is a strong sign that a second class nearby would fill. Before you add it, check you have a coach and a venue slot that won’t pull students from another class you’re already struggling to fill.
How do you run a waitlist that actually fills spots?
A waitlist works when you offer a spot the moment it opens and give families a short deadline to accept. A list on paper that gets checked once a term doesn’t fill anything.
- Take a waitlist name for every full class, with the child’s age, level and the other times they could do.
- When a spot opens, offer it to the next family straight away by text or email.
- Give them 24 to 48 hours to say yes, then move to the next family.
- Ask waitlisted families if another time would suit. Some will happily switch to a class with spots.
- Keep the list fresh. Check in with families who’ve been waiting more than a term.
Can you fill spots left by absent students?
Yes. When a student tells you they’ll miss a class, their place can go to someone booking a makeup or a casual session. That spot is otherwise empty for the night, even though the class looks full on paper.
Say 10 of your 135 students miss a class in a typical week. If those spots are offered to students who need a makeup, you clear makeup requests without adding extra sessions, and the coach still teaches a full group. Your make-up class policy should say how much notice families need to give, because a spot reported at 3 pm for a 4 pm class is hard to reuse.
In Outcoach, the makeup class settings include a “Make absent student’s spot available” toggle. With it switched on, every recorded absence opens that place for another student, including someone booking a makeup.
Should you take casual drop-ins as well as term enrolments?
Usually, yes, as long as term students get first priority. Casual drop-ins fill the gaps a term enrolment won’t, and a family who drops in twice is far more likely to enrol for a full term than one who’s only read your website.
- Price casual sessions higher per class than term enrolments, so committing for the term is the better deal.
- Only open casual spots in classes under capacity.
- Follow up every casual family after their second or third visit with an offer to join for the rest of term.
Make booking easy. If a parent has to message you, wait for a reply and then pay by bank transfer, many won’t bother. A booking page where families can see open spots, book a term or a single class and pay on the spot takes that friction out. For families who aren’t sure yet, a trial is the next step, and our guide to running a trial class that converts covers how to turn that first visit into an enrolment.
Also check your price. If your quietest classes are your most expensive, or your casual rate is so close to the term rate that nobody commits, see how to price coaching classes.
How do you get more families through the door?
Start with the families you already have. They know your coaches, they talk to other parents at school pick-up, and their recommendation carries more weight than any ad.
Referral offers
A simple offer works best: “Bring a friend and you both get a free week”, or a credit off next term’s fees for every new family who enrols. Tell families about it more than once. A message at the start of term, a reminder at mid-term and a mention in your re-enrolment email is a good rhythm. Point referrals at the classes with spots, not the full ones.
School holiday camps
Holiday programs reach families who can’t commit to a weekly class during term, and they’re a low-risk way for a child to try your sport or art form. At the end of each camp day, hand parents a short note on what their child did and which term class would suit them. Many of your next term’s enrolments can come from that note.
Local partnerships
- Schools: offer a free lunchtime or sport-afternoon session, or a flyer in the school newsletter. Many primary schools look for outside providers for clinics.
- Councils: councils often run holiday activity guides and community directories. Getting listed costs little or nothing.
- Clubs and other businesses: a dance studio and a music school, or a swim school and a junior triathlon club, share the same families. Cross-promote.
If you’re in NSW, it’s also worth registering for the Active and Creative Kids voucher program. Service NSW says the voucher is worth $50, is available twice a year, and is for families receiving Family Tax Benefit. Providers need an ABN, current Working with Children Checks for everyone involved in the program and the right insurance, among other requirements. Being listed means eligible families can use their voucher with you.
There are plenty of families to reach. AusPlay figures from the Australian Sports Commission, collected on the Clearinghouse for Sport, show that in 2022 around half of children aged 0 to 14 in NSW (49%) and Queensland (50%) took part in organised sport outside school at least once a week. The question is whether those families find you, or the club down the road.
Google Business Profile
When a parent searches “swimming lessons near me” or “kids dance classes Footscray”, the map results come from Google Business Profile. If you’re not on it, or your listing is half-finished, you’re easy to miss.
Google’s own help page on improving your local ranking says results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up. It also says there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking. In practice, that means:
- Verify your profile and pick the most accurate business category.
- Add your address, opening hours and term breaks as special hours.
- Upload real photos of classes (with parent permission) and your venue.
- Ask happy families for a review, and reply to every review, good or bad.
- Link to your booking page, so a search turns straight into a booking.
Your checklist for this week
- List every class with its capacity and current enrolment, and work out each fill rate.
- Circle any class under 70% and write down one possible reason (time, level, coach, venue).
- Check which classes have waitlists and contact the first family on each one.
- Decide whether absent students’ spots can be offered to makeups or casual bookings.
- Write a one-line referral offer and send it to current families.
- Check your Google Business Profile: hours, photos, category and booking link.
- Pencil in your next holiday camp and the term classes you’ll promote at it.
How can software help fill empty spots?
Everything above works with a spreadsheet and a phone. The hard part is keeping it up week after week, when absences come in by text at 7 am and the waitlist lives in someone’s notebook. Software helps by putting spots, bookings and absences in one place, so the gaps are visible and easy to fill.
- See capacity at a glance: Outcoach class scheduling shows capacity and enrolment on every class, so under-filled classes stand out.
- Let families book open spots: the online booking site lets families book a full term, drop in casually to a single class or holiday session, or book a makeup, and pay as they book.
- Reuse absent students’ spots: makeup settings let absences free up places for makeups, with credits tracked for you.
Check the pricing page for which plan includes each feature: makeup class management is listed from the Standard plan up, and the booking system for registrations is listed under Performance. You can start a free trial and load your own timetable to see your fill rates for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
There’s no official benchmark, but 80% to 90% across the timetable is a sensible target. Over 90% usually means demand is higher than supply and a second class may fill. Under 70% suggests the time, level or coach doesn’t suit families, so check those before spending on marketing.
Divide the number of students enrolled in a class by its capacity, then multiply by 100. A class with 7 students and room for 10 has a 70% fill rate. Work it out for each class separately, because a healthy overall figure can hide a few classes that are half empty.
Often, yes. Two classes of five at similar times use two coach slots and two venue slots for the income of one full class. Talk to the families first, offer them a choice of times, and make the change at the start of a term rather than partway through.
Yes, if your policy allows it. When a family reports an absence in advance, that place can go to a student booking a makeup or a casual session. Ask for a minimum notice period so you have time to offer the spot, and make sure the absent student keeps their regular place.
They often work best for small academies, because parents trust other parents. Keep the offer simple, such as a free week for both families or a credit off next term’s fees. Mention it several times a term and point new families towards the classes with spots.
