Doing the Math

I have to give a shout-out to StyleSeat.com. Even though it's not currently the scheduling software I use, I do love the statistical analysis it offers. So I can't help but keep a copy of my schedule on StyleSeat, just so I can see what it has to say about what percentage of my book is full and what my projected earnings are.

This has turned out to be a very humbling experience. Every time I have a week where I look at my schedule and see no openings, StyleSeat calmly reports that I am “69%” booked or “74%” booked.

First I schlump in devastation, then I go post it on Facebook. Then I get a bunch of replies to my post from other techs who are trying to be helpful. People want to know if I can enter in my service times, they tell me to try another program, they ask me if it takes into account my personal time off...

So I promised to write a post about how it works:

My schedule technically consists of three 10-hour days (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) and one 6.5- hour day (Friday.) This how it appears to my scheduling software. In reality, of course, I'm here an average of six more hours a week, but those aren't open in the scheduling software, they are at my discretion.

StyleSeat doesn't care about all those little half-hour or 15 minutes spaces between clients; it makes its call entirely mathematically. It counts all those little breaks in my day, adds ’em up, does the math, and tells me that those breaks account for 31% of my schedule this week.

But I did the math myself and I'm thinking StyleSeat doesn't account for personal time (Labor Day) blocked off and it certainly doesn't account for the fact that I'm working on Wednesday when I'm not usually available. When I did the math myself, I am 90% booked this week! WOOOOO!

So there. That's my informal tutorial on how StyleSeat calculates how busy I am. And the lesson I've learned?

It's so totally worth doing the math yourself!