Percentage per Week vs. Client Base

[Hoof Hearted]

Hi.  I'd like to get an idea as to what percent of clients you see per week from your client base.You don't have to give me exact numbers on your client base, as I know some people don't want those numbers floating around.  But if you can give a perceneforum.xxxe, I think it would help everyone get a good idea as to the high and low end of what they can expect over the years.Here is a simple example.  If you have a client base (all clients you have seen since you began practice - the "countable ones") of 200, and you are seeing an average of 20 clients per week in a year, then you would be seeing 10%.I will start.Right now we are seeing 15% of our client base per week.

 

[Brain Testing]

Percentage per Week vs. Client Base

Hey Tex,If I am doing the math right, including all 3 of us, it comes out to 15% also.

 

[[email protected]]

Percentage per Week vs. Client Base

Thanks for the response, Kneadfulthings.I am hoping that everyone who works will respond to this post.  It is some simple math that will help us all get an idea of what to expect in our places of business for future reference.  It doesn't matter if you have a client base of 10 or 1000.  The main thing to note is the perceneforum.xxxe per week (preferrably for the entire year, or, if you are just getting started, it may be over the past two months).  If you are in business less than a year or more than 5, you may want to include that as a reference if your numbers seems a bit off.  (ex.  100% may be off, if you have 2 clients, have been in business 2 weeks and have seen both people two weeks in a row --- you know, that sort of thing).All input will be greatly appreciated.  I especially think the newer students who read this will get a good idea of the client base they need to generate to make thier business work and to plan for when the bills will start to get paid.Thanks again everyone!  

 

[Edwina Monsoon]

Percentage per Week vs. Client Base

I'm not sure I look at my business like that.  I also think I'm a ding-dong when it comes to numbers.  I know it seems to be a simple formula but well... : lolI guess the part that gets me is how many clients do you really have that come in once a week?  Sure that would just be super to have a bunch but I only have 2 that do this.  Am I working the figures wrong?  Do you just mean how many do you see a week compared to how many you have in the files? Or is it how many you see on a weekly basis?  Like I said, I'm not always the brightess when it comes to figures.  Although I am good with numbers at times...I just have to understand what I'm calculating...that's where it gets me!  ;D

 

[LilyEll?]

terab,No problem, I am definitely bad at numbers, but here is a simple way to calculate it. (now mind you there is probably a much, much easier way to calculate it than this,  but like I say, numbers are not my strong point).You should have a fixed number of clients in a "base". آ Those are all the people you have ever seen (maybe they come in now and maybe they don't, but at some time you have seen them).Take this number (your base), lets say 100. Now just hold this number aside, you will need it later.Now look at your past years' worth of work. آ Total up how many client visits you have seen in the past year. آ (this may also be four months if you have been in business for four months or shorter or longer). آ I like to use a year, since that is a simple number to explain with.So now, lets say you have seen 156 client visits over that year.Take 156 and divide it by 12. That equals 13/month. آ Now divide 13 by 4.33 to get how many average visits you see in one week. آ That equals roughly 3 per week.Now take 3 (3 visits per week) and divide it by 100 (base clientele). آ This should give you .03Move the decimal point over two to the right. آ Now you get your percent. آ You would be seeing 3% of your base/per year.Now, if you need to know if you can make a living on 3% of your clients, you do a little math for that.Let's say you charge $60/hour. آ 3 visits/week x $60 = $180/week.156 x $60 client visits per year gives you $9,360. آ Hmm. آ Not enough?Well, what I am trying to do here is get an average of what people see. آ If we find out that most people can figure they see 15% of their client base (let's say they see 15% of 100 -- which equals 15 clients per week), then it gives you some figures to work with (now you can figure you're making about $900/week on a $60 massage), then you can make a few plans as to how long you need to work part time jobs and be in with the "average". Or maybe we find out that most successful people only see 10% of their client base. آ Then you'd know to plan longer for working at a part time job. آ The numbers can really help someone who is coming out of school to get a fix on how long it may be before their business takes off. آ Of course, every office is different, but it gives a little something for people to start to gauge by.If I know I am seeing 15% of a 100 client base, but I need $1,800 to set up my retirement, then I know I need to get my hands on at least 100 more people. آ I need to get them into my office and hopefully retain them as clients.That is a straight need thing. آ And of course, as I truly believe, it is good to know what I need, and at the same time, temper it with care and kindness, and don't ever just look at my clients as a number.Hope that helps and you can help us too! آ 

 

[Tiffany Y]

One other thing.I tend to look at my life in weeks, right now. آ Maybe later my mind will illuminate to months. آ So, that is why I am asking per week.Basically when I look at my book on Monday and I have (lets say for kicks and grins) 11 scheduled... and I know I need 14 to pay the bills. آ Therefore, I may be able to take a little time off this week if I had 17 last week, and I am covered for this week and worn out. آ Or, I may feel I need to work a little harder on marketing to a few new poeple and can schedule it accordingly. آ Or, I may know that this is the third week of the month and the third week usually will generate the extra three I will need by Wed., so I shouldn't worry. آ Or, I may see that Thanksgiving Holiday is always slow -- the week after is always busy or vice versa and consider taking more time off around one of these weeks next year.Or any other combination of things I may be able to come up with.Or maybe my business is slow at Christmas every year and I want to take a part time spa job, since they will get busy.  Now would be the time to start looking.  After all, I only have 11 this week and next week the books have filled up.Hope that makes sense as to what one can do with these numbers and how it all works out.Ta Daa!

 

[Pompal 09.]

Wow! Texas-gal!!    And you say you aren't good with numbers!  LOLI'll have to check this out and get back to you.

 

[{*RandomGirl*}]

This is interesting! And my left brain is enjoying it.  I counted the first 11 months of this year, and I get 2% of my base per week (9% per month -- I tend more to think in monthly increments). Which hardly sounds like anything, yet I consider this to be a great year!However, slightly more than 1/2 of my income comes from doing chair massage, and I did not count those figures.Also, if I were to see 15% of my client base per week, that would mean scheduling 7.5-hour days, 5 days a week, which is out of the question. (I had a 7.5 hour day this week -- what was I thinking??? -- my chiro got some business from me). But I digress... So won't your % of base per week go down, or at least plateau, as your business grows? Because the longer you're in business, presumably the larger your base gets, but the hours in the week don't increase...  :-/In _Business Mastery_, Cherie Sohnen-Moe has an interesting model for calculating what you should charge per session depending on how much you need to gross, how many days you'll be working per year, and what perceneforum.xxxe of your maximum hours you work per week.For example, she figures after weekends, 8 holidays, 10 sick days, 10 vacation days, and 30% of your time for non-paying office work, you're left with an average of 25 billable hours per week. Then, if you work, say at 90% of that 25 hours, (which is 22.5 hours per week), and you need to gross $35,000 per year, you should be charging at least $30 per hour. Which is nothing! But keep in mind, that's *gross* income (before overhead & taxes). To gross $75,000, you'd need to charge $64/hour for those 22.5 hours per week.I hope I haven't hopelessly muddied the waters --  I do think it's useful to "crunch" the numbers from time to time to see if it illuminates ways in which we can improve our business practices, but as Texas-gal says, without ever just looking at our clients as numbers.  Y

 

[Umair]

So won't your % of base per week go down, or at least plateau, as your business grows? Because the longer you're in business, presumably the larger your base gets, but the hours in the week don't increase...

I don't know, but it sounds plausable.I am really not a number cruncher.  And numbers realy do get my brain in a jumble.  I sort of do things in a way that makes sense to my brain, and usually they don't always fit into anything in particular.... however, my husband is a numbers man, and I'll ask him about this and see if he can give us some kind of figures to do a little calculating with to see what that looks like.  Thanks for the additional info.  So glad you jotted it down.  I will be doing some more figures to see if I can plan for real days off now!  I mean really!  

8 holidays, 10 sick days, 10 vacation days

  That would be wonderful to know you could do that!Thanks!  

 

[just me and my opinion]

You're welcome for the info! If you have _Business Mastery_ Third Edition, you can find the detailed breakdown on page 98.Ya, 28 days off per year -- take a month off, travel... now I'm dreaming!  Y.

 

[DLS]

I'm doing something in a kind of reverse from your equation. Right now I rent a room in a full service salon. My overhead (rent) is fixed, so its very easy to see if I'm making ends meet. In February my new place opens & I am the the holder of the lease, etc. My overhead is not only variable, but much higher than its ever been before. My thinking was, "find out how many massages per week, supplemented with the classes I want to have, to make enough for those higher (higher, higher) costs." Now, can I do it physically? Can I make the increase happen? I started with a yearly gross (an amount I 'thought' would be enough), and worked backwards. I always figure a 48 week year. I know for a fact that I take time off at Christmas (Christmas Eve through my first regularly scheduled work day in January) and because biz is slow in the hot summer, I take a week or two off in July. Another thread (the stuff with R&R, discussing pay) made me think this way:  If I were working for him & needed to make 50K , at $50 per therapy, how many per year/month/week/day does that compute down to? Something like 80 massages per month! I happen to know for a fact that I would probably be hospitalized if I had to do that with outcall work! ha. Now, working for myself at $65 per massage makes it different: 16 massages per week, based on my 48wk year. That, I could do... but how to increase my weekly workload by that much? It sure gets you thinking....Texas-gal, to answer your first question: I have been at this salon for exactly 2 years & have 250 new client intake forms from this place. I did bring a year's worth of other client work with me from another salon (same city.... most came with me). So how do I figure the equation? I guess I could just break down the last year, but then my client base number wouldn't be true (there are some people I have been working on/with for 4 years!) Anyway, right now I share my room & work a 3 day work week. I do an average of 8-10 per week. Before I shared my space I did 14-16 per week.My head is now swimming in numbers! haJill/Sagetherapist

 

[rightnow]

YogaLMT --OK, I did some crunching and you are right.  More client base (probably over more years) then your % should go down.Hmm.  Not sure that my original hypothesis of helping myself by asking for others numbers was such a good idea, but it has got me thinking and considering things.  And that, is always good!Thanks for all the replies so far!Jill, yours is really helpful too.  I kind of do the number crunching by how many per week per rates sometimes.  I am always figuring things, because I really want to do this for the long run.  Thanks for telling us so much.