Welcome to Sports Facility Expert – your one-stop shop for building, running and growing your sports facility
Marketing Research Basics for Sports Facilities
Every potential business starts with a great idea — or at least what seems like one. Getting market data for your sports academy is one way to test whether your idea will hold up. Detailed market research is essential if you’re seeking investors or plan to purchase a big piece of physical property. However, it’s […]
To Fix Your Programming, Focus on Your Ideal Customer
Introduction When it comes to creating sports academy programming, we often get it backwards. First, we get excited about a new technique or idea to help our athletes. Then, we try to convince our customers how cool it is. We should start by focusing on our customers’ problems instead. When we package programs as tailored […]
Managing a Sports Facility: Cash Flow Can Kill
There are lots of factors that go into opening and managing a sports facility. But just one truly determines your business fate. That factor is cash. If you have enough on any given day to cover your expenses, you can stay open. If not, you’ll shut down. Keeping enough cash on hand trips up a […]
The Top 3 Energy Killers at Sports Facilities
You can feel a sports facility’s energy as soon as you walk inside. Sports and fitness businesses like ours depend on projecting intensity, passion and top-tier competency. However, plenty of us fail to make sure our customers feel those things when they enter our space. Over years of working with sports facilities, I’ve noticed that […]
Unreasonable Team Parents? These Baseball Teams Don’t Have Any
One of the biggest headaches involved with running a sports academy that hosts teams? Unreasonable team parents. Confrontations with these parents are draining, persistent, and distract from important coaching work. That’s why I was so impressed when one of my eSoft Planner clients mentioned he doesn’t have these types of problems in his organization. Anthony […]
Your Sports Academy’s Approach to Preventing Overuse Injuries
We all know that families have been taking youth sports more and more seriously in recent years. This trend toward competitiveness tends to help our businesses. The most dedicated athletes are usually our best clients — they’re happy to spend on quality training for elite skills. But the pressure to perform younger and more frequently can […]
Get More Clients with Better Marketing Messages
5 Simple Things to Try at Your Sports Academy Many sports facilities stick to the basics when it comes to marketing. We’re often small businesses who handle marketing ourselves, and we have a lot of other work to do. However, even an extra 20 minutes improving your description of a camp, membership, or new instructor […]
Top Posts of 2016
In our day-to-day lives, we tend to put off long-term, big-picture planning in favor of urgent tasks. We also tend to hope for big goals without breaking them down into the smaller tasks that make them possible to reach. This week may be the perfect time to work on both of those things. That’s because […]
Not Letting Clients Schedule Themselves? Here are the Top 3 Excuses I Hear
Letting clients log in to schedule for themselves is a huge benefit for your sports facility. When customers can buy online, it eliminates confusion, cuts admin costs, improves customer service, and can even improve sales. These days, most sports facility owners have already invested in a web-based system that can enable client scheduling. However, too […]
How to Create a Sports Facility Hall of Fame
We all like to brag about our players’ accomplishments. We do it because we’re proud of them, and of course it makes us look good, too. Plus, when we highlight our players the right way, it creates a sense of community around our sports academy. Players feel more ownership in their training when their achievements […]
7 Best Practices for Selling Sports Facility Rentals
Rentals are a major source of income for most of our sports facilities. They’re also a nice complement to the services that require more energy to run, such as classes and camps. However simple rentals may seem, though, they’re also more likely than any other service to ruin your profit margins. Use these best practices […]
Dealing with the New Overtime Law Changes (2016)
UPDATE: A few weeks after this was written, a federal judge issued an injunction that put a stop to these new rules for now. See a whole article explaining the status here. I will try to get back here and post updates on the issue as it develops. *** By now, I hope you’ve heard of […]
Tips for Running Profitable Concessions
Whether they’re visiting for a tournament, double-header, or even a long birthday party, families spending hours at your sports complex are going to get hungry. Why not feed them? Concessions stands are a great way to boost revenue and keep your clients happy — but only if they’re run professionally and efficiently. Brad Bischoff worked […]
A Winter Checklist for Sports Facilities
Things start to get hectic at indoor sports facilities this time of year — at least for those of us who don’t enjoy year-round warm weather. That’s why it’s a good idea make your winter plans now. Along with the heavier work schedule winter typically brings, we also get much busier in our personal lives […]
The Easiest Ways to Improve Customer Service at Your Sports Academy
If you want to keep customers coming back to your sports academy, you need three things. First, you need to deliver what they paid for: excellent physical training in a professional environment. Second, you need to invest time in marketing that will show your appreciation and keep clients away from competitors. (Related: The Ultimate Guide […]
A New Sports Complex Birthday Party Idea: Nerf Wars
If you haven’t updated your party packages lately, here’s a new birthday party idea to consider for your sports complex: Nerf Wars. DNA Sports Center, the sports facility I used to own, recently started offering Nerf Wars as one of its birthday party themes. When I looked into the idea, I noticed the popularity of Nerf […]
Use a Web Form to Land More Sports Facility Clients
When someone new visits your web site, they’re not usually ready to become a customer yet. They could be in the first stages of finding out what sports performance is all about. Or, they may be comparing local options. Maybe they ARE ready to buy or at least set up a trial with you. Then, […]
Marketing Lessons From a Standout Soccer Club
To rise above the competition and get clients excited about your business, you need more than a unique mission. You need to be able to explain and sell your distinct advantages to potential players and their families. For a great example of how it’s done, we can look at Alchemy Sports Complex, home of Alchemy […]
4 Tactics This Big Indoor Sports Complex Uses to Stay Profitable
Running a big indoor sports complex comes with big overhead expenses. Add in seasonal cash flow changes throughout year, and business management can get pretty tricky. So when a three-person team opened Center St. Louis in a shuttered, bank-owned facility with eight volleyball courts, a fitness gym, and a 90-by-135-foot turf field, they knew they […]
How to Make Profitable Recruiting Videos for Athletes
Not long ago, getting a college coach to notice an athlete generally meant a lot of traveling and overcoming some pretty long odds. Times sure have changed. These days, even novice videographers can put together a basic recruiting video and email it to a coach with a few clicks. Recruiting and highlight videos can make […]
How to Open a Volleyball Facility
Most volleyball clubs start out practicing on the rented courts of school gyms, health clubs, or multi-sport complexes. However, if you have the capital or have been running a well-established club for a while, you might be considering finding a place for your club to call its own. Running a facility with multiple indoor courts […]