31 Things You Need to Do Off-court to Create a Successful Tennis Business
TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to episode number 28 of the Tennis Business Academy Podcast.
In today’s episode I want to go through a relatively long list of off-court things that you have to do and decisions that you have to make in order to create a successful tennis business.
My goal here is just to really illustrate how much goes into creating a successful tennis business or club - which is quite a lot.
Some of these tasks will be really simple to tackle, but they do represent important decisions that will take your business or club in a specific direction, and should obviously be considered carefully.
Like deciding on pricing, for example. It’s a quick thing to do, but could have far reaching effects for your business, so you should think it through.
The other goals for this episode are to show you perhaps some tasks or activities that you haven’t considered yet, but that still need to be done, and also to maybe help you decide if there are any tasks that you feel like you should do yourself and others that maybe you should outsource.
Often we try to do everything ourselves, and that’s not necessarily the best way of doing things.
Seeing this list of activities all at the same time might prompt you to think that maybe you are trying to do too many things and that maybe you’ll be better off outsourcing some of them!
And the last thing that I’ll mention before we get started, is that I’ve added links to other relevant episodes in the transcript.
So, you can always check those out, if you want to learn more about a specific topic that I mention today.
Ok, with all that said, let’s go through the list of 31 things you need to do off-court to create a successful tennis business:
1) Decide on the products and services that you want to sell
Yes, we’re all selling tennis in one way or another. But what exactly are you selling?
Are you selling coaching? And if so what type of coaching? Just individual lessons? Individuals and groups? Cardio Tennis as well? What age groups? What levels of ability?
And is it just coaching?
What about memberships? Pay to play? Restringing services? Pro shop? Bar or cafe area? Any other sports or activities?
And so on.
The first big decision you need to make is around what you are selling exactly. So make sure that you’ve made this decision consciously.
2) Decide on pricing
Once you’ve decided what you’re selling you then need to decide how much you’re selling it for, of course.
What you end up charging will be influenced by a number of factors.
But just consider what kind of brand you’re trying to create and charge accordingly. If your idea is to create a more exclusive, premium brand then you should charge more. If instead you want more people playing then perhaps you should charge less.
Just bear in mind that whatever pricing you end up going for, the market will ultimately decide if they’re willing to pay for it, or not.
So, be prepared to learn about what the right pricing is for your business as you go.
3) Decide on payment model
When will you actually charge people?
Monthly? Quarterly? Yearly?
Course-by-course?
Via a Direct Debit or one-off card payments?
Different payment models will require very different admin processes and different types of customer interactions, so think through what will be best for your situation and what you’re trying to achieve.
(Also read/listen: 5 Reasons Why Direct Debit is a Better Payment Model for your Tennis Coaching Programme)
4) Create a well-defined and unique brand
A brand that you can be proud of and that represents the business or the club well.
And please, use a professional to do this with you!
If you don’t know any, email me and I can put you in touch with someone who knows how to create quality brands.
5) Create a comprehensive terms and conditions document
This document needs to be fair to both your business and the customers.
And you need to make sure to give all your customers the chance to see and agree to it.
No point in creating a good document that customers are never given the chance of seeing.
6) Decide on the software you will use to manage payments and bookings
This is probably the most important piece of software you’ll use, so choose it wisely.
Make sure you test and trial it yourself properly before committing to use it for the business.
And in case you’re still using bank transfers and cash, it is my strong opinion that you should stop doing that and use a piece of software that will make taking payments and bookings easier for yourself and your customemrs.
(Also read/listen: The Software I use to Run the Tennis Coaching Business)
7) Hire coaches and other staff
Including negotiating and signing contracts with them.
This is most certainly a very important part of any successful business.
8) Negotiate contracts with the venue
If you don’t own the venue where you work, this is probably one of the single most important tasks you’ll ever have to deal with.
9) Create strong health & safety and safeguarding procedures
And make sure that all relevant people are appropriately trained.
10) Create a system to manage and maintain equipment, inventory and facilities
Some sort of process that ensures that all equipment, inventory and facilities are kept in good order.
It will probably include some sort of checklist or checklists and a recurring appointment to check these things every week, every month, every year, or whatever might be relevant.
11) Collect testimonials from happy customers
Showcasing happy customers is one of the best ways to persuade other people to join.
So make sure that you have a plan to collect testimonials from happy customers regularly.
These can then be used on your website, in emails, on social media, flyers, banners and anywhere else that you think is relevant.
(Also read/listen: The Importance of Customer Testimonials)
12) Hire a professional photographer / videographer to take photos and videos of your club and/or coaching sessions
These photos and videos can then be used as marketing materials that will serve you for years to come on your website, on social media, flyers, banners, etc.
We are lucky that the activity that we’re trying to sell looks ‘cool’, unlike, for example an insurance company, which doesn't’ really have anything cool to show potential customers.
So, we should make sure that we have good photos and videos that visually illustrate to people what it feels like to play tennis.
A picture is worth a thousand words as they say!
13) Set up a referral scheme
A programme that rewards customers who refer your organisation to their friends and family.
Should be fairly easy to set up.
14) Run regular customer feedback surveys
At least once a year.
And most importantly, you should develop a system for taking the feedback you receive and turn it into actions that benefit your customers and your business.
(Also read/listen: 6 Steps to Conducting an Effective Customer Survey)
15) Set up a reporting system
That allows you to track the key metrics for your business (including the financial ones) and make sure to run it consistently so you always know how your business is performing.
Consistently means at least once a month.
(Also read/listen: 7 Metrics you Need to Track for Your Tennis Coaching Programme)
16) Set up a tax record keeping system
Create a system for keeping all the information needed for tax purposes well organised.
Boring but needs to be done.
17) Set up insurance for your business
Make sure that your business or club has the appropriate level of insurance.
Again, very boring, but needs to be done.
18) Create an onboarding process for new staff
To ensure that they understand how things are done in your business or club.
Even if you hire really experienced staff, you should still have a process in place to help them understand how you do things.
Every business is different, so you shouldn’t expect people to magically know how things run in your business.
19) Create training processes for coaches and other staff
The idea being that at some point you’ll need to hire someone who you will need to train to be able to do the job you’d like them to do well.
Junior coaches are a great example of where a solid training programme will be needed.
20) Create a quality website
That looks like it was built in the 21st century, has a clearly defined goal and is easy and intuitive to use.
(Also read/listen: The Number 1 Thing You Must Get Right With your Tennis Website)
21) Create an annual events calendar
Basically answer the question: what activities and events are you running (and trying to sell) throughout the year?
You need to know which activities and events you will be running each year, so that you can plan for them in advance.
Don’t wait until the last minute to decide what you’re doing.
22) Create an annual marketing calendar
Tied to the events and activities that you have decided to run you want to create a marketing calendar that lists all activities that you’ll use to promote those events.
Because if you’ve decided to run an event or activity you want to market it well and in advance so that that event is a success.
(Also read/listen: 9 Proven Ways to Attract New Players to Your Coaching Programme or Club)
23) Set up a solid email marketing system
This system should automatically add people to your email list and allow you to easily email them whenever you want.
If it’s a struggle to keep your email list organised and/or to email people whenever you want, then your email marketing system isn’t set up properly and you should fix it!
(Also read/listen: Email Marketing Basics for Tennis Coaches and Clubs)
24) Send regular emails
To your customers and your potential customers. Basically anyone that’s ever given you their email address and said that was happy to receive your emails going forward.
Email is one of the best ways, if not the best way, to keep in touch with customers and potential customers and inform them of what is happening in your business or club.
So, you should use it extensively.
25) Create a social media plan
What will you post, where will you post and when will you post.
Social media is one of the best ways to stay top of mind with your customers and potential customers, so put some time into thinking about how you want to use it.
26) Post on social media regularly
Actually execute against your social media plan, or get someone else to do it for you.
27) Run regular digital advertising campaigns
Like Facebook Ads and Google Ads for example.
When done well, these types of campaigns have the power to generate a lot of interest in your services in a short period of time.
So, it’s definitely worth you running a few of these each year.
(Also read/listen: 5 Reasons Why You Should Run Facebook Ads)
28) Set up your Google My Business page
Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to manage your online presence with Google, including search and maps.
In other words, if you want to show up on Google when people search for tennis in your area you need to have a Google My Business profile.
And since it’s free to set up, it’s really a no brainer!
Just remember to keep the information on it, up to date.
29) Create an onboarding journey for new customers
What type of initiatives will you run to make new customers feel welcome and get them on the path to becoming loyal to your business?
A little thought put into this sort of thing can yield really good results in terms of customer retention and customer happiness.
30) Establish working relationships with nearby schools
Ideally so you can deliver tennis sessions to the kids in the school, and market your club programme to them and their parents.
31) Establish partnerships with local businesses and other local organisations
From my perspective, it’s always a good idea to embed yourself into your local community as much as possible.
So, if you can, look to establish partnerships with local businesses and local organisations, as it’s likely that there will be ways in which you can help each other out.
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Alright, there’s the list of 31 things that you need to do off-court.
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list. I’m sure that there are other things that need to be addressed, but hopefully this is a good starting point for you, if you had never thought about how much actually needs to be done off-court to create a successful tennis business.
And if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, just remember that you don’t need to tackle all of these at the same time.
No business is perfect. There’s always something that needs to be done or improved upon.
So, just find a way to work through the things that matter, even if it takes you a bit longer than you’d like to get there.
Alright that’s it for today’s episode. As always I’ll be back next week with another instalment of the Tennis Business Academy podcast.
Until then and thanks for tuning in.