HOW I MANAGE MY DIARY AS A DRIVING INSTRUCTOR

You ask any driving instructor and one of the biggest chores is managing your diary. Times have changed. There are now plenty of online portals instructors can use but the bulk of the work still needs to be managed. I personally use an early booking system via wix, I've not fully integrated this into my lessons as most people still want to send me a text message to change the lesson. A question I'm asked constantly is: I bet you need to work weekends as that is when students want lessons? Actually its probably the least busiest time, in fact its difficult to actually sell driving lessons at the weekends and I don't see a demand for them. Managing your time is important. I'm writing this blog post now between lessons. It's important to me that I stay ahead of the SEO and stay connected. My website looks fresh not only to customers but also to google which is important. Driving instructors do get a lot of free time between sessions, what they don't get is quality time between lessons. My diary is open between 8:30am and 8:30pm but I don't book that many sessions. My aim is to provide 6 hours tuition per day. Its a way of maximising the time and income. The costs of running a business are extremely high. I currently work 2 evenings a week and also provide refresher lessons on Saturday mornings. The biggest challenge is filling the early slot. If I felt there was a way of making this easier I would take it. People think we can work till late, but I've spent 50+ years getting up at the crack of dawn so by mid to late afternoon I'm dwindling. I can't sleep in till midday and start work, I wish it was that easy. On the long days I often break up the day with an afternoon rest period. I also take a proper lunch. When I started teaching I took lunch with me and say in the car, never came home. I've managed to work a local area. Some days I don't return but most days of the week I do manage to have lunch at home. Driving tests create a problem. We are gradually getting back to normal levels. My aim is generally to book a test at the same time someone has their driving lesson. This means it does not disrupt other students lessons. They are awkward times. The first one of the day is better. There is less risk and if the test does run late you can usually make up the time. I book 2 hour lessons. Ideally you would want a selection of different times. But it would cause havoc in the diary, and we need to earn money otherwise we would not be in business. Whilst 2 hours is probably too much at the start it is perfect as the training continues. There will be times when 90minutes works better but to cover a wide area it effective in the long run. It fits better with the online portal. Very rarely is one week perfect. There is always something happening. Its not unusual to have 2-4 students cancel lessons. Its important we stay slightly over booked to allow for cancellations. This is often managed via pricing. The alternative is to charge everyone for cancelling a lesson. I hope this gives people a little insight. The question I get asked a lot is Are you available? Yes, is the simple answer but can you be free when I'm available. I can sometimes move students around, but without the information to begin with there is no where to start.