How to Manage Appointment Scheduling for Freelancers

It’s not easy being a freelancer – you have to do 10 people’s jobs, all at once. You’re your own CEO, sales rep and accountant (to mention but a few) and it’s not easy to balance all of that while at the same time ensuring that your work gets done on time.

Using an appointment scheduling tool that works for you is an extremely important consideration for any freelancer – it’s like your own personal virtual assistant! If you’re not using one already, you should start using one… today! Whether you’re already an appointment scheduling pro or not, we’ve written this article to help you get the most out of your appointment scheduling tool, and take your freelancing business to the next level.

At AppointmentThing, we’ve put a lot of thought and effort into making sure our tool can be used effectively and efficiently by freelancers to manage their appointment scheduling. We want to turn appointment scheduling from being a distracting chore to something effortless and stress free. Here are our top 5 tips to help you manage your appointment scheduling as a freelancer.

1. Time is money
   Freelancers in any industry understand more than most that time is money. That’s why you should choose an appointment scheduling tool (or any tool for that matter) that takes the least amount of your time to set-up and use so you can get back to keeping your business moving. Easy set-up and low maintenance might not be the first thing you think about when choosing new software, but we think it should be!

2. Make it personal, but professional
   As a freelancer, when you’re selling your services, your branding is crucial. Connecting with your potential clients and convincing them that your services are worth paying starts from the moment they first encounter your online presence. Personalise your booking page by adding professional looking photos, descriptive explanations about your appointment types and services so that your clients know what they are signing up for, and personalise your booking page link to really drive home that you know what you’re doing.

3. Share your booking page link everywhere you have a public profile
   Speaking of booking page links, it is crucial to your success as a freelancer that you spread your booking page link to every corner of the internet that your potential clients can be found. Add it to your social media channels, your email signature, your linkedin profile, your personal website and so on. Putting your booking page link in all these places lowers the friction that exists when a potential client wants to reach out and use your services. When they see it’s as simple as picking a time that suits them in your calendar, they’ll know that you’re not going to waste their time. The more leads that you can get onto your booking page, and the easier it is for them to book an appointment with you, the better for your business. It’s as simple as that.

4. Set up your availability to work for you
   In our experience, this is the one area that most people don’t optimise correctly to really make their appointment scheduling tool work for them. As a freelancer, you want to be available for your clients, but not so available that it impacts the quality or quantity of the work you get done.
   The way we prefer to set our availability is to choose the hours that we are usually most productive, and mark that time as unavailable in your appointment scheduling tool. For example, if you do your best work in the morning, but feel like napping after lunch? Keep your mornings free for productive work, and then allow your clients to schedule calls with you in the afternoon. By doing this, you minimise the distractions while you’re getting work done, and then turn those hours when you’re thinking of nodding off anyway into meetings that are future potential sources of revenue, or ensuring that your existing clients are looked after.
   Make your schedule work for you first, and then for others.

5. Automation, automation, automation
   Automating as much of the appointment scheduling process as possible is something you didn’t know you needed until you try it. Trust us, you’ll never go back. And cutting out those endless back-and-forth emails trying to find a time that works for everyone is just the first step of many that are possible with modern advanced appointment scheduling tools. Set up meeting or appointment reminders (for you and for your clients) so that you never show up to a meeting unprepared, and reduce the number of times that someone doesn’t show up for a meeting, simply because they forgot. Do you use a video conferencing tool like Zoom, Google Meet or GoToMeeting for your remote meetings? Integrate all those platforms with your appointment scheduling tool to automatically create and include those links in the calendar invite.

Use AppointmentThing

AppointmentThing is the easiest way to schedule and manage your remote meetings and bookings as a freelancer. Our solution puts you back in control of your own calendar and helps you be more effective when communicating with clients, collaborators and leads. Simply define your availability with time buffers, various meeting types and more. Share a link to your booking page with contacts and allow them to schedule meetings with you in seconds.

Get started with a FREE 14-day Pro trial of AppointmentThing. No credit card required, super-easy set up.

Sign up for appointment scheduling from AppointmentThing.