01 The gap you did not fill is the money you did not make
When you are the only person, an unfilled hour is not an inconvenience — it is the day’s margin. That makes two unglamorous things matter more than any feature: a booking page people actually complete, and a reminder that reaches them.
The booking page is three steps on a phone and never offers a time you cannot honour. The reminder goes out once, however many times the sending job retried, with a way to move the appointment rather than just be informed about it.
02 Deposits, for the jobs where a gap hurts
A no-show is not a hole in the diary; it is a slot you turned other people away from. A deposit changes who turns up, because a customer who has paid something has made a decision and one who has only picked a time has not.
They are set per service, so a four-hour job can ask for one and a fifteen-minute one need not. The number that works is usually much lower than instinct suggests — enough that forgetting is inconvenient, low enough that nobody hesitates at the last screen.
03 A website, if you have not got one
Every account comes with a booking page at its own address, ready to share on Instagram or in a text message. There is nothing to build and nothing to host.
If you do have a site, the same booking page embeds into it in two lines of HTML — no plugin, no build step, nothing to keep updated.
04 Growing out of it later
Adding a second person is adding a person: their hours, the services they perform, and whether customers can pick them. Nothing has to be rebuilt and nothing is migrated.
The same is true of taking payments, selling products or issuing invoices — they are switches, not a different product.
Questions
- Do I need a website?
- No. You get a booking page at your own address with the account, and it is a link you can put anywhere — a bio, a text message, a business card.
- Can I take payment without a card machine?
- Yes, online at the time of booking through Stripe, PayPal or Square — the full amount or a deposit. You can also record a cash or card payment taken in person.
- What does it cost when I am starting out?
- Nothing. The free plan takes bookings, holds your customer records and sends confirmations. You pay when you want something it does not include.
- Can I block out time for myself?
- Yes — a lunch break, a school run, a day off. Blocked time is honoured everywhere a slot could otherwise be offered.
