The App That Saved My Business

[Note: Anything like this means that if you click through and buy something I may get a little money and it doesn’t cost you anything extra. I’m not all about the money, but I’m happy to share stuff I like.]

When I was first starting out, I wanted to do everything myself. And I did it all on paper. And it was hard.

Then I discovered Acuity Scheduling. I looked at several different programs and tested a few out. I had used a larger more well-know program as a yoga and Pilates mat teacher and found it challenging to learn and clunky to use. I especially was challenged by the fact that when I finally was able to speak with their Help Desk rep asking about a way to substitute a name for a sick teacher, I was told simply, no, you can’t do that.

Acuity Scheduling

Completely changed the way I do business…

My first week using Acuity under the Free Forever plan, I contacted them with a question and a possible feature request. They responded in 24-hours, actually understood what I was asking about, gave me a clear answer with a link to further information and asked some relevant questions about what features I really wanted and why. They cared about my experience and what I had to say, taking my feedback seriously. Amazing!

After using the scheduler for about 2 weeks, I realized that I loved it. Simple, easy to use and set up. Links directly to my Google Calendar. So, I purchased the 1 calendar plan (mostly for the automatic email reminders to clients) and got started. I linked it to my paid Zoom account so it would automatically schedule video conferences for my coaching calls and client work. I linked it to my credit card payment processor so my clients could pay for my sessions in advance and neither of us would have to worry about it. I put the app on my phone so I could see my day’s schedule at a glance and used it to process “on the spot” appointments so when I met with someone I could pull it out and they could schedule a time right there in the moment.

Acuity made everything so easy. Plus, I loved the founder’s story. He created this system for his mother, a massage therapist, and you can really tell in the care and thoughtfulness about what a solopreneur might need.

PROs - great real human customer service, lots of integration, well thought out interface, super easy to add link to your website or share in an email

CONs - [super technical gripe] when copying a link from the app to share - the system automatically copies the title of the link plus the link itself, so that if you go to add this directly to a third-party program such as What’s App, which I use for many of my clients to text internationally, you get an unusable link. I’ve had to create a workaround that involves copying the link, pasting it into a text message, re-copying only the portion of the link that is the link itself, and then pasting it in the What’s App chat. Seriously, this is my biggest complaint.

If you want to schedule clients, take credit card payments, automatically sync your calendar, and have client reminders, Acuity Scheduling is really amazing. Check it out for yourself!

PS - Let me know what you think. What’s your favorite feature or wish? Drop me a line and let me know.