Managing the Risks of Running a Small Class-Based Business

Let’s face it – running a small business isn’t all sunshine and rainbows—especially when you’re juggling class schedules, payments, and keeping track of your students. There’s a lot going on at any point in time and most likely you don’t have all the time, money or resources in the world. There are a few things that are top of mind –

• Admin Chaos: Ever feel like you’re drowning in paperwork and reminders? That’s what happens when admin tasks pile up.
• ‘Busyness’ Mistake: Human error happens when there is a lot going on. But in a small business, scheduling mistakes can often lead to missed classes, lost revenue or frustrated customers.
• Time? What Time? Managing everything manually takes hours, which could be spent actually teaching or expanding your business.

Outcoach’s scheduling and payment systems was purpose built to simplify some of these issues. There are a lot of point solutions that help automate scheduling – from Calendly to Setmore. But, there is not many options when you want one integrated solution for your business. It’s not super-efficient to have your scheduling in Calendly, payments in Xero, Contacts in a spreadsheet and nothing on your mobile!

Why Insurance Matters More Than You Think

All small businesses know the importance of having insurance. Accidents happen – whether it’s a slip or a fall at your venue, tennis racket gone wild or a dancer’s injury, small incidents can become big headaches.

• Accidental Injuries: Physical activities are awesome, but they come with risks. If someone gets hurt, you’re liable.
• He Said, She Said: Ever had a student or parent dispute over a missed class or refund? Its one headache that’s best avoided.
• Equipment Woes: Your instruments, dance floors, or tennis courts can suffer damage, leaving you with hefty repair or replacement bills.

Outcoach does not provide insurance, but what it does do is help you with clean record keeping. Everything is logged and recorded on the platform – communications, attendance, student performance, student details, lesson plans etc. Since everything is digitsed, logged and at your fingertips, atleast you know you have a system of records to lean in if you need to. Having documentation helps if you ever need to deal with insurance claims. 

Reducing Cancellations and No-Shows

Cancellations and no-shows are inevitable, but they can be reduced through proactive management.

• Last minute changes: Last-minute cancellations can be a pain as you’ve to reschedule other things around it. Sometimes, you still have to pay for the coach or there is a domino effect for classes downstream.
• No-Show Culture: There is a cultural aspect to this. When customers cancel without notice, it becomes habitual and difficult for you to manage it. This often results in awkward conversations and rescheduling to another day which is just painful to manage when there is a lot of students and classes.

Outcoach lets you level set by bringing everyone onto the same platform. It allows you to send reminders or even SMS so that you can reduce no-shows. What Outcoach does not do, is send emails. Most people get a lot of emails and a lot of them end up in junk. People are tuned in to ignore emails and that is why SMS and mobile reminders are the now the norm. You can also use the Outcoach Booking system to fill in last minute spots and let everyone know using the platform.

Health and Safety: Keeping Students and Coaches Safe

Safety is obviously a top priority for most business owners as there is a fair bit of risk and liability that comes with running classes.

• Injuries can happen: Especially in physically demanding classes like dance or sports, injuries are always a risk.
• Unclear Protocols: Failing to communicate health and safety guidelines can put your students and staff at risk.
• No documentation: In case of an emergency, not having a proper communication system can make things worse.

Outcoach has a document management feature that allows business owners to share important documents like safety manuals, emergency procedures and other important documents with all members of their team. Moreover, this is available to everyone on their phone for quick reference. Should there be an incident, staff can quickly check-up on the safety protocols, and also use SMS or notification to inform all the right people. Most importantly, everything is tracked and recorded so that there is clear accountability and audit trail which is super important when it comes to health and safety.

Maintaining Reputation: Managing Customer Expectations and Feedback

Your reputation can make or break your business, and it’s a delicate balancing act to keep everyone happy.

• Negative Reviews: Bad experiences can lead to negative reviews online, hurting your reputation. It’s hard to keep track of all the classes, coaches, students and their feedback.
• Inconsistent Experience: Different instructors or fluctuating class quality can lead to unhappy customers. Ensuring there is a minimum and standard quality in teaching is often difficult to establish and monitor.
• Unclear Expectations: Not communicating goals and progress can leave students feeling disconnected or parents unsure about the value.

Outcoach’s goal setting and class feedback tools ensures you stay on top of your customer expectations. Proactively managing feedback and addressing issues early on is key to ensuring that the quality of your coaching is maintained.  You can also share lesson plans with your teachers and coaches to ensure the standard of coaching is maintained and well understood across classes and teachers.

Handling Payment Delays and Financial Risks

Getting paid on time is crucial for any business, and chasing down payments is the last thing you want to do.

• Late Payments: Chasing payments can be quite painful and often leads to awkward conversations.
• Payment Disputes: Sometimes, there is disagreement about what is owed and what has been paid, and without clear invoicing, disputes can arise.
• Time Consuming Invoicing: Manually managing invoices can be time consuming.

Outcoach helps with invoice creation and accepting online payments. Since payments are automatically tracked, it reduces disputes. Plus, you can send out reminders easily reducing the need to have awkward conversations around late fees.

Student records: Keeping your students’ data up to date

In this digital age, everyone excepts a clean system of records. Do you have a contact database with all the details of your students including their allergies, medical information, parent / guardian details? This is super important so that all your staff have access to student information on their fingertips.  

• Student information on paper or excel: Student information is often stored in a register or at best on Excel or Google Sheet in someone’s computer.
• Unable to quickly find information: Staff don’t have access to information when they need it.
• Information becomes out of date: There is no central repository to update when new information is available.

Outcoach keeps all student information in it’s directory that is available to all your staff both online and on their mobile. They can look up any information quickly and also update information (like allergies, medical information, personal circumstances, special requests, personal preferences) very easily.

Legal Risks: Maintaining a system of records

In general, the more everything is clearly recorded and maintained, the lesser the risk of running a business. Without clear documentation and verifiable communication, things can be more riskier than they need to be.

• Disputes Over Policies: If your policies aren’t clear, disputes with staff and customers can become a real headache.
• Verbal Agreements: Verbal agreements without documentation can lead to misunderstandings or breaches.

Outcoach helps upload and share documents so that there is no ambiguity about processes, policies, procedures, forms etc It doesn’t need to be complicated – as long as it’s easily available on the mobile to look-up, verify or use, that reduces the risks significantly. Less is more here and that is what Outcoach aims to do.