Welcome to Sports Facility Expert – your one-stop shop for building, running and growing your sports facility
Sports Facility Operations: Automated and Streamlined
As I train sports facility owners and managers on how to set up their businesses with eSoft Planner online scheduling software, they often tell me specifically how their facility operates. They expect the system to conform to their operations exactly. In reality, you’re not likely to find a system that can replicate your operations in […]
Scheduling Instructors: Simplify Operations by Giving Instructors Regular Time Slots
Ever since my company created a web-based scheduling software, I’ve been talking to sports facility owners and managers across the country to get their feedback. In fact, I still personally train many of our clients on how to use the software. I come across one complaint fairly often. Managers don’t like the fact that the […]
Sell Sports Facility Memberships Through Evaluations
Last week, I explained how important fitness / skills assessments are to keeping your sports facility customers happy and your employees accountable. Now I will explain why you should charge for these assessments, and how they can be an “ace in the hole” when you sell sports facility memberships. Many sports facility owners and managers shy […]
Skills Assessments Help Customer Retention, Increase Revenue
It’s important to make sure your clients are getting what they’re paying for at your sports facility. In general, the best way make sure that happens in sports or fitness facilities is through regular fitness / skills assessments. Customer Goal Setting I’ve mentioned before how custom packages at your sports facility should be tailored. As […]
How to use Client Management Software to Gauge Customer Interests
As a sports facility owner or manager, there’s no excuse to not make an attempt to track your clients’ interests. Your customers are more likely to engage with marketing efforts that directly appeal to them. An analysis of their interests also provides extremely valuable information to you as a business owner. Here are four simple […]
The Problems with Scheduling Semi-Private Lessons
My clients sometimes ask why eSoft Planner, the scheduling software my company produces for sports facilities, doesn’t allow users to set aside time for multiple group lessons as easily as they can set up multiple one-on-one private lessons. As experienced sports facility owners and managers already know, these group lessons, or “semi-private” lessons with 2-4 […]
Never Just a Kids’ Sports Facility
I’ve posted previously about making the best use of the space at your sports facility, and how to make sure that each area in your facility can potentially make money for your business at any given time of day or year. If you truly plan for this, you’ll quickly realize that you need to attract […]
Selling Sports Training at Your Sports Facility
Any sports professional will tell you that training is not a quick process. Learning the skills required for any sport requires hours of effort. To excel at any sport requires many more. Although some athletes learn more quickly than others, there’s almost always a substantial learning curve to understanding proper technique. With that in mind, […]
Rent Costs Can Kill Your Business
All new businesses need to keep overhead costs low to survive, and sports facility-based businesses are no exception. The most significant overhead cost that sports facilities typically have is their monthly rent expenses. Obviously, your property is a huge investment. It has to be big enough for sports teams to practice, which often requires thousands […]
Sports Facility Management Tip: Make the Most of Your Space
Scheduling is a big part of sports facility management. However, the physical layout of the building (how the space is divided up and what it is designated for) usually limits scheduling. That’s why you should carefully consider scheduling plans from the moment you begin seriously planning the build-out and structure of your sports facility. It’s […]
The Golden Rule of Vendor Relationships
As a business owner, it’s easy to focus your energy on your relationships with customers. You prioritize customers. Treat them well and make sure that they have the things they need and expect from your facility. Prioritize Vendor Relationships Another group that deserves the same respect when it comes to your business is your vendors. […]
Sports Facility Staff Training Should Include Telephone Etiquette
The way your staff answers the phone at your sports facility tells your prospective clients a lot about your business. As a sports facility owner, you may not know what impression prospective clients are getting of your facility when they call – after all, you’re not likely to call and inquire about your own services. […]
Baseball Facility Scheduling Generates Passive Income
One of my clients just had his highest grossing September of all of the seven years he has been in business. Interestingly, it was more than double his previous revenue record for September. And the best part: He and his staff didn’t even do any extra work to hit that record. In fact, he’s attributing […]
Sports Facility Marketing: Reaching 6-8 Customer Touch Points
Trying new marketing methods can get discouraging when they don’t seem to yield immediate results. However, as I always remind my staff, it takes an average of 6-8 contacts before a client actually buys. I’ve noticed that consistent marketing is something that sports facilities often struggle with. They’ll market an event or promotion one way […]
Sports Facility Management Tip: Safety Training for your Staff
Injuries are going to happen in the sports world, or whenever physical activities are involved — there’s no escaping that fact. As a sports facility owner, do you know how your staff would react in the event that one of your clients gets sick or injured while working out or playing at your facility? You […]
How To Hire the Best Instructors for Your Sports Facility
In my last post, I talked about how important your sports facility staff is to your marketing efforts. As you know, good instructors are also essential to ensuring that your clients have a pleasant experience at your sports facility and continue coming back. Your staff and instructors can make or break your business. Your instructor […]
Sports Facility Marketing through your Staff
On this site, I talk quite a bit about how to market your sports facility, so I definitely want to mention a marketing effort that many sports facilities skip. It’s one that I consider to be one of the easiest and most important branding/marketing opportunities available to you: your staff. Marketing isn’t just about buying […]
Sports Facilities Management: Getting New Prospects’ Data
Most of the sports facility owners and managers I talk to do a good job of keeping track of the customers who come into their facility for a service. They collect their clients’ contact info. Sometimes, they even take note of their interests for future marketing. The area that most owners/managers struggle with is going […]
Sports Facility Startup Financing Options: Choose Partners Carefully
Introduction One of the first things to consider as you begin thinking of starting your own sports facility is how you’ll get the financing to get started. Once you’ve put together a business plan and have a general idea of how much money you need, you can begin to evaluate your options. Some owners start […]
Increase Your Sports Facility Revenue with Electronic Scheduling
We’ve already discussed how electronic online payments and electronic online records can help your sports facility. This week. I’ll try to convince you that electronic, online scheduling is also essential to your sports facility operations. It increases your efficiency and eliminates a lot of confusion. Since I sell scheduling software, I make it a point […]
Sports Facility Startup Savings Tip: Accept Online Payments
Last week, we discussed how keeping electronic records lowers overhead and improves cash flow at sports facility start-ups. In the past, we’ve also discussed how requiring upfront payments helps keep more cash on-hand. You’ve heard it many times, but I’ll say it again: Cash is king for new businesses. Any efforts you make toward improving […]