This episode explores the versatile uses of waiting lists in business, especially in tutoring, and how they can be a powerful tool for demand building, market research, and income stability.

Takeaways

• A waiting list is not a status symbol but a tool for demand management.

• Adding questions to your waiting list can turn it into a market research tool.

• You don't need to be full to benefit from a waiting list.

• A waiting list helps fill unexpected gaps in your schedule.

• Continuously adding new inquiries keeps your income stable.

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Let's talk about waiting lists. Now, when most of us think about a waiting list, we think of it as somewhere to put people when we are oversubscribed. You're full, someone inquires, you have to say no, and rather than lose them entirely, you take their details and get back to them when a slot opens up. And I'm here to tell you that you can do far more than that with a waiting list. Mine has done three jobs for me, and only one of them is the one I've just described. The other two are the reason I'm making this episode.

One of them actually changed the way I built my business, and it cost me one line on a waiting list form that I already had. So that's what we're delving into today. What a waiting list can really be used for and why you don't have to be full to have one. And the question I'd put on yours as soon as possible. If we haven't met yet, I'm Samantha McMahon and I work with tutors who want to earn more without simply working more hours and build something that gives them options for the future.

This episode belongs in a bigger conversation that I keep coming back to, which is how you build demand that you can actually rely on. Not the kind that arrives in a rush every September and then goes quiet. The kind that's steady, that you can see and that you can plan around. A waiting list is one of the simplest tools for that, and it's also one of the most misunderstood.

Before I get into the three jobs, I want to deal with one thing because I think it stops a lot of tutors before they start. People feel like they almost have to earn the right to have a waiting list. You have to get full, you have to be experienced, you have to be turning people away. And only then does having one make sense. Until you're full, it feels a bit presumptuous, like putting a velvet rope outside an empty room. I understand that feeling, but I'm going to gently challenge it.

A waiting list isn't a status symbol. It's a way of keeping hold of people who are interested in you at a moment where you can't necessarily help them. And that can happen whether you're full or not.

You might have a space on a Thursday and nothing on a Tuesday, but your client wants a Tuesday. You might not take on new families in the middle of a term or a new co or a cohort. You might be about to go on holiday or you might be in the middle of exam season or simply not ready to add anyone this month.

But you'd still like to fill some of those slots that you have a bit later. Every one of those is a moment where somebody says, I'd like to work with you, and you have to say not right now. And what happens after that sentence is entirely up to you. So, two permissions before we go any further. You don't need to be full to have a waiting list, and you don't need to justify having one to anybody.

Now

The first job is the one that people half expect, and it's still worth talking about because not everyone uses it for this. Think about how a space usually opens up in t in a tutoring business. Sometimes it's planned because you know that students are just gonna leave after their exams, but sometimes it's completely unplanned.

A family moves, a student finishes earlier than expected because of something personal. It can happen at any point and it might not be this week. We just don't know. And when it happens unexpectedly, there is a gap. And that can cause a bit of panic when you're relying on that income for your livelihood. What happens next depends on what you've got in place. If you've got nothing, the gap becomes something that you have to react to. You suddenly start posting, you mention it to a few parents, and you're waiting. And that hour, which used to be reliable income, goes quiet as you try to fill it. If you've got a waiting list, then that gap can be filled with an email. Sometimes it's just a message to one person.

I use my waiting list for this all the time. I've actually been full for more than seven years, but I've had a waiting list that entire time because it lets me fill spaces when students leave unexpectedly. Just this week, as I'm recording, one of my parents got in touch. Their worker told them that they needed to be in Portsmouth, which is a long way from where they live three times a week, and it meant their daughter wouldn't be at home.

She'd be in the car with them on a two-hour round trip. They couldn't find a way to make tuition work, so they had to stop. They couldn't give me much notice because they'd only just found out themselves. And they told me in the morning, but by the evening, I'd actually filled that space purely because I went back to my waiting list.

Sometimes, and it's only sometimes, I won't offer the waiting list to people because they need a tutor right now and they really shouldn't be waiting around for when I might have a slot. In that case, I'll suggest they look for someone else, and usually I post it on the jobs board in the tutor's mastermind. But if they're really keen to work with me, I'll still add them to my waiting list, but I'll say, look, I'll get in touch when a space opens up. If you're happy with your tutor, there's no need to change, but I'll offer it to you just in case you want it. And that's what has actually allowed my tuition income to be so stable and reliable. It's not because people don't leave, of course they do.

It's because that waiting list has been a real game changer for keeping my income steady. Now there's a second group of people, and I think these are the ones that tutors lose more often without really noticing. These are the people who want you but can't have you at the time you're offering. They inquire, you say the only slot you've got is a Tuesday at four, and Tuesday at four doesn't work for them. Nobody has said no to anybody. It's just an availability mismatch. In most businesses, that person simply disappears. They go and find someone else. And it's not because that's what they wanted, but because that availability happened to match. A list, a waiting list, holds those people. So when your Wednesday opens up in January or Tuesday or whatever, you've got somewhere to go. And that's the first job. The list catches people you would otherwise lose, whether to a sudden gap or a clash in the diary.

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So, what I've just described is the job that most of us already half expect a waiting list to do. It's useful and it's worth having for that reason alone. But here's one that really surprised me. This is the job that actually changed what I built in my business, and it's the reason I wanted to make this episode. Most people think of a waiting list as storage. Names go in, names come out when a space appears, and that's how it works.

But a waiting list is a form, and a form is a place where you get to ask questions. The moment you add a question to your waiting list, you've built yourself a small continuous piece of research running in the background of your business, answered by exactly the right people, the people who have signaled they want to work with you. They're the most qualified group of people you have access to, and most tutors don't ask them anything.

Let me tell you two things that really helped me. The first was many years ago. I was thinking about hiring tutors, but I was really unsure. I was worried that it might put parents off and that maybe they wouldn't want to learn with someone else. I just wasn't sure. So before I pressed play on the idea and invested my time and money into it, I just added a question to my waiting list, two tick boxes. Do you want to learn with Samantha, although you may be waiting a little longer, or do you want to learn with a tutor who works with Samantha and who she's vetted?

You would be surprised how many people ticked that second box. In fact, a lot of them ticked both, even though like I I hadn't given them a both option. That gave me the confidence that if I had chosen to build a team, the demand was there. Now, spoiler alert, I chose not to hire a team, but that was only because the file for it wasn't in my belly, I wasn't excited by it. But at least I knew that if I wanted to, the demand was waiting for me.

The second thing was when I was growing my group classes. I was already running group classes, but I wanted to fill more slots. And I had this feeling in the back of my mind, what if parents would prefer one-to-ones? What if I have to do a really hard sell? What if I lose people by moving to a group model, which is what I actually run now? I'm solely teaching groups. Now, so what I did was I added a question to my waiting list, and it's actually still there. I asked people, would you like a one-to-one? Would you like a small group class? Or do you not mind?

And what really shocked me is that to this day the majority of people select group or that they don't mind. And that surprised me. It gave me the confidence that, you know what, I'm fine offering groups, the parents that I'm attracting, they're not resistant to it. So you can see that your waiting list can act as a really valuable market research tool.

Now, there's also just this additional use that I'd like to put in front of you as an idea rather than something that I've lent on as heavily.

And that is qualifying the people on your list. Let's say you've spoken to someone, you've told them what you charge, you have, you know, they've joined your waiting list. What can happen is that after a while, they're resistant to that price or they've simply forgotten it. So on my waiting list, I put my prices, and people have to tick a box to say that they understand and agree. And it focuses their attention on it. It makes it more memorable, which means that when I contact them later, I don't tend to get any resistance.

There's no friction around the pricing because it's stuck in their mind a little bit more. I used it to make sure that people are also qualified in other ways. When people join my list, they tick a series of boxes to confirm they've got the right equipment and you know everything needed for online lessons. So by the time I contact them, they're prepped and we can move fast. And you can extend this into more research. Say you're thinking of raising your prices. You could put the higher price on the waiting list and

See whether people are still happy to agree to it. If they are, then that's your signal that you're okay to raise them.

So what should you be doing? Well, the first thing you shouldn't do is overcomplicate this. A waiting list can be simple, literally an online form, and it can be free. I used to use a Google form. You just want people to leave their details. I always take a phone number too, just in case emails bounce. Then you add your questions, and the questions you want are the ones that will really help you.

For example, my waiting list entries are timestamped, and I asked what year group the child is currently in. So if someone says year eight, when they join, I can see the timestamp, and when I contact them later, I can work out which year group they're actually in by then. So ask the questions you need for a good reference point. Then think about what you want to gather from the market research perspective and add those in too. And then remember to actually use it.

I know that sounds silly, but people are often hesitant to ask people to join. The most common question I get from clients is what if someone is on there for ages, don't you just lose them?

And the answer is yes and no, at least in my experience. Of course, the longer someone is on there, the higher chance there is that you'll lose them, you know, they'll find another tutor. But in my experience, very few people drop off. Many wait or they find another tutor but still want to hear from you when a slot opens.

The way I safeguard against it is by continually adding people. I've been full, like I said earlier, for seven years, but I still take inquiries, I still take discovery calls, and I still put people on the list. And it's to keep my income stable.

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