Scheduling - Where to Start?

[Chris Sinagoga]

I am just looking for you guys to share how you start a schedule from scratch? For instance, we have a new wave of younger kids looking to train with us and I can't for the life of me figure out a schedule that they can all consistently attend.

How do you guys go about setting a schedule? It could be for a kids group, or gymnastics, or barbell, or whatever. Any input would be helpful!

[Sean J Hunter]

Hi Chris,

Here are the pretty standard scheduling options, I see around.

MONDAY - FRIDAY
AM1 - 0600
AM2 - 0700
Morning - 0900 (mothers / shiftworks kinda thing)
Masters - 1000
Lunch1 - 1230 (often less than 60 min, due to lunch break timeframes)
Lunch2 - 1315 (often less than 60 min, due to lunch break timeframes)
Kids - 1530
Teens - 1630
PM1 - 1730
PM2 - 1830
PM3 - 1930

WEEKENDS
tend to be
8-9-10-11 ish mix.
Most on Sat...depends on weatheryou open Sundays.
I wouldn't unitl you have a second lead coach.
You gotta have a day off for mental health
Running a business can own your ***

Does this help at all?

Sean

[Sean J Hunter]

We're starting off soon,

Your first offering needs to be large enough to avoid people not signing up cps they worry that can't make it the limited numbe of classes, but small enough that you don't have empty classes everywhere.

Remember, one of your primary cost metrics in CF is, it costs $X.xx to run a class (Labour and building %) the higher your average member per class, the more money you make per clas, the better your price can be. Also there is a critical mass of perhaps 4-6 per class to make it buzz, and really bringg in the social aspect.

Generally something like this can be a good balance, and meet the basic needs of your bigest market.
AM1 - M-W-F
PM1 - M-T-W-T-F
Sat - 9am perhaps

It really depends what you think your main market will be.

After this get full enough, you might roll out another PM slot or the 9am slot tends to be popular (M-W-Th first, then Tu and F)

And then it comes down to weather you crack into the kid / teens market or the lunch market.

This all can change drastically in some situations, university towns etc.

Does this help at all?
Who do you think your main market is? - High School kids, Uni Kids, Young Professionals?
Are you pushing more a 3 dpw or 5 dpw membership model?
The times are obviously effected by local timings, work times (9-5?)

Sean

[Chris Sinagoga]

Sorry Sean, I think I didn't explain myself well.

We have been running our ship for over five years and already have a good crew of about 50ish training with us - mostly high school/college kids.

I'm saying we have a new wave of kids from various people we know that want to get going soon. The problem is I can't settle on a time that they can all make. And I'll admit communication on my end needs to be better (schedule a meeting, etc.) So my question was say you wanted to start an Oly lifting club with your members or something, how do you settle on a schedule where everyone can make it?

[Sean J Hunter]

Ah, I see...

When I wanted to open some new time slots, I sent out a survey on survey monkey.

Time options 1-2-3-4-5-6-7- etc
A - Would definately be able to make it
B - Would be able to make it work
C - Not ideal
D - No way

Those who replied, I valued by how commited I thought they were. The uncommoted where given less weight then the hgihly committed.

The math figured itself out...it also made everyone feel like I was making a democratic decision, and those who lost out, felt it was fair.
Gawd people can throw their toys, when they don't get what they want.

Now....does that help :P

Sean

[Brendan McNamar]

You will never be able to accommodate everyone.

I would look at the school schedule and athletic practice/game schedule first. If you get good results the members will adjust their schedules to make it a priority as long as you are not in direct conflict with another high priority event in their lives.

[Chris Sinagoga]

Sean, Big help! Thank you. I think I'm gonna do that.

Brendan, thanks for the reply. The hardest part right now is their athletic schedule. Ages 8-14 is elementary, middle, and high school. There are about 15 different kids playing 6 different sports. But I agree, once they get good results they'll adjust.

[Sean J Hunter]

Originally Posted by Chris Sinagoga

Sean, Big help! Thank you. I think I'm gonna do that.

Brendan, thanks for the reply. The hardest part right now is their athletic schedule. Ages 8-14 is elementary, middle, and high school. There are about 15 different kids playing 6 different sports. But I agree, once they get good results they'll adjust.

Glad we could help

Let us know how it goes.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/

Should the group be to dispersed, perhaps run some smaller classes to start, to get them excited, and then combined classes. As long as they know this is advance you can amange expectations. You're likely to run smaller ramp up classes first anyway.

Sean

[Brian Diez]

what are your competitors doing?

That might be a shortcut.

[Chris Sinagoga]

Haven't really looked to be honest. Nobody in the area really trains the people we do so I rarely look at nearby gyms.