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Offers on Spring Promotions

Spring Promotions for Your Facility

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Plan Promotions for the Spring Now

Happy busy season! While your facilities are full and business is booming, it’s important that you think of the future. Right now you need to be preparing revenue-building promotions that can take your facility to the next level, even in the slow season. A rule of thumb to follow all year round – always plan quarterly.  Planning and promoting three months in advance is a perfect way to stay one step ahead and beat out competitors to get your clients’ attention.

Plan In Advance

What is important to keep in mind with any promotion you run, whether it is for memberships, combines, or camps – always maintain a sense of urgency. How many times have you seen “Only six spots left!” on promotional materials? There’s a reason you see everywhere. It works! Make your offer desirable to your current or potential clients, but don’t let them think it will always be there.

The spring and summer are go-time for baseball and softball, so most of those clients will see you again in the fall. However, you don’t want to miss all of the other athletes out there that want to utilize their off-seasons to improve. If your facility offers sports performance, now is time to expand to other audiences, two of the biggest being football and soccer athletes.

Maintain Urgency

In my past experience owning DNA Sports Center, there were a few strong promotions we ran for the spring and summer that kept our facility busy, even on the most beautiful days. We ALWAYS ran a spring combine program in May to help athletes assess and improve their skills before entering tryouts, showcases, and important recruitment seasons. You hear May and think “oh I have plenty of time” but I am here to tell you differently. Begin promoting now! Run early-bird specials and get those athletes committed before another program can pull them in. Keep that urgency and remind your audience of the limited availability in the combine so they sign up early and confirm they have a spot.

Do the same with your spring and summer camps. Secure your instructor, figure out the schedule, and promote! Another benefit of planning early – if one camp fills up and you have more interest than you thought, plan another camp! You now have the time to adjust your plans to maximize your profits.

Camps and combines are fantastic opportunities to increase revenue in the slow season and bring in new clients, but you will want to make sure you keep a recurring income. Membership drives are a tactic I utilized every year to make sure DNA Sports Center had a consistent cash flow and a full facility during the spring and summer seasons. Offer discounted memberships or camp/combine membership priority to incentivize new clients to sign up. You need to create a sense of urgency here too. Make the offer run for a limited time, or restrict the deal to 10 memberships and continue to include that in your promotion.

Key Takeaways

The three keys you should take away from this are:

  1. Begin planning AND promoting three months in advance 
  2. Maintain a sense of urgency in ALL promotions 
  3. Keep a source of recurring income during the office season. 

Want to know how to properly promote the ideas I have given you above? I have you covered! Check out my blog post on how to build a marketing strategy for your sports facility here. Have more questions? Reach out to us via email at contact@esoftplanner.com or book a consultation with me. Also, request a demo of our sports facility scheduling and management software.

Employees Discuss Sports Facility Sales

How To Do Sports Facility Sales without Selling

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How to do Sports Facility Sales without Selling

Most people working in a sports facility don’t see themselves as salespeople. After all, many of them got into sports facility ownership because they were passionate about sports and seeing others achieve their athletic goals. Not to promote classes, memberships and lessons.

There are a few reasons that the word “sales” elicits this type of response. First, your staff probably have had some negative experiences with salespeople. We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the manipulative, pushy, slimy sales rep. So the word doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation for people with no business background.

However, even if your staff has no problem with the idea of sales, they still might see it as a mysterious or innate skill that they just don’t have.

The True Meaning of Sports Facility Sales

Everyone at eSoft Planner enjoys helping athletes reach their peak potential. They are passionate about the games we play – baseball, football, softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and other activities. But if they were asked to describe their strengths, the word “selling” would not be included in their response.

Now, here’s the funny thing about this situation. If you’re like us, you know very well that your staff can sell. Mainly, they have the most important characteristics of any sales rep:

  • they understand our clients’ needs
  • they’re passionate and knowledgeable about what they’re selling (athletic training)
  • they’re articulate about the benefits that our services provide

To remove the sense of intimidation that inevitably pops up whenever we speak of the concept of selling classes, memberships and lessons, we encourage our sports facility clients to use more easily digestible terms like branding and promotion.

If your staff is really invested in your programs and believes that they can help people live healthier lives, these efforts will be a lot more appealing to them.

Listen: Changing a few words around isn’t going to trick your staff into suddenly rushing out the door to hand out fliers on the street. Everyone wishes they could just skip the selling part of their work. Sales is difficult. It involves getting out of your comfort zone, making yourself vulnerable and risking rejection.

Yes, it would be nice if all your clients found you via word-of-mouth. However, that will never be the most consistent part of your business. If you want your business to be more than just a side income, you have to be proactive about getting new paying clients.

Conclusion

If you’re new to the idea of thinking of yourself as a salesperson, or if you just need help getting your facility staff and volunteers to understand how they can become better at branding and promotion, we would love to talk to you. Our staff at eSoft Planner come from a wide variety of backgrounds in multiple sports industries.

Click here and fill out the form to schedule a time to talk with us.

Equipment for Sports Facility Services

Adding Additional Sports Facility Services

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6 Great Ways to Diversify Your Sports Facility Services

Cash flow problems are almost always at fault when sports facilities fail. Unfortunately, most sports facility owners and managers don’t know that they’re putting their cash flow at risk by relying on too few sources for most of their income. So it is essential to add sports facility services to your business model.

Let’s say you run a softball academy, and softball lessons bring in 70% of your annual revenue. You can struggle to make ends meet during the slow season for softball, and a serious competitor could easily force you to shut your doors.

Sports facilities offering a variety of services that are helpful at different times and to different groups can minimize their risks. You can’t offer everything to everyone, of course, but there are simple, smart ways to diversify your business and still stay within your original mission.

Here are some common options that many sports facilities have used to diversify successfully.

1. Sell retail

One of our clients’ pro shops is so successful that it accounts for about half of its total revenue.

But you don’t need to open a full pro shop to take advantage of retail benefits. If you have good relationships with suppliers, you may be able to make orders on your clients’ behalf — giving them discounts and allowing you to make a commission on each sale.

These relationships can take time to develop, but you can have a good return once they’re in place. After all, your clients are already ordering uniforms and equipment. They might as well order conveniently and through someone they trust.

A sidenote: One of the biggest obstacles to retail sales in sports facilities is often the high manufacturer minimum orders. Speak to your eSoft Planner representative or sign up for our monthly webinars to learn more about ways eSoft Planner can help you gain access to low or no minimum ordering!

2. Sell concessions

Depending on your business model, a concession or smoothie stand can be a profitable option. But again, you can make money from concessions without adding a full kitchen. Consider offering a variety of energy bars, bottled drinks, or dietary supplements. As these products can be used all year long, regardless of specific sport or fitness goals.

3. Offer sports-specific fitness training

Today’s athletes need more than sports-specific training. They also need general strength, speed and fitness training throughout the rest of the year. Such sports performance training programs have many benefits, both to athletes and to your business, which is why Compound Sports in Tampa, Fla., is home to a Parisi Speed School franchise. If you don’t offer complementary services, you’re missing out on a big business opportunity.

4. Offer related services

Most sports facilities have a lot of success hosting birthday parties. If you manage them right and optimize for revenue, secondary services can be very profitable.

Another great example of a complementary service is college recruiting. The parents of high school athletes are often willing to pay for personal guidance through the process of selecting and getting noticed by college teams. If your staff is familiar with the world of college recruiting, you may be able to offer this as a professional service.

5. Diversify sports training options

This is an easy one: offer training for more sports — preferably ones that have the opposite seasons of your facility’s most popular sports.

This might mean recruiting new instructors or developing relationships with other programs that specialize in those sports, but the extra revenue and security can make it worthwhile.

6. Offer services to new client groups

Most of your clients are probably school-aged athletes. If so, it’s time to target a wider variety of ages and interests.

You can create dodgeball leagues for young adults, fitness training for adults trying to lose weight, or sports fundamentals classes for preschoolers. It will take some work to get the word out to your new groups. Plan ahead and use best practices for promoting your camps and classes for a successful launch.

eSoft Planner’s staff is well-acquainted with the process of establishing secondary services. With the software modules, adding a new offering requires minimal setup effort.

If you would like to discuss how eSoft Planner can help with diversification at your sports facility, we would love to talk with you. Click here and fill out the form to request a free demo.

Basketball Court in Indoor Sports Facility

The Pros and Cons of Opening an Indoor Sports Facility

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The Pros and Cons of Opening an Indoor Sports Facility

If you operate a softball or soccer league, you already know how amazing game day can be. There’s nothing better than being outside, relishing the bright, warm sun and the hum of excitement from the athletes and fans.

Owning and operating an indoor sports facility can be a great option to help you expand your offering beyond the warm and sunny months. Athletic training and practice can continue in a safe and comfortable space, at a time that is convenient for your clients. They are not restricted by the whims of mother nature.

Here are just a few of the benefits of indoor sports facility ownership.

Easier to Maintain Year-round

In the summer months, playability on outdoor softball fields can be affected by scorched grass. While early-spring soccer practices may be cancelled due to ice. And rain is an ever-present threat throughout the outdoor season. This can all have an adverse effect on your operations — and in return a negative impact on your revenue.

Indoor sports facilities are not affected by seasonal elements like snow and sun. Owners can set their own hours, and you don’t have to stop operations when the sun goes down. Clients will also be reassured of their personal safety with your state-of-the-art equipment and well-maintained surfaces.

Versatility for Off-season and Non-peak periods

While outdoor sports are less limited by space, an indoor sports facility allows owners to be much more intentional with their set-up. Walls can be moved, and equipment can be rearranged during non-peak periods. This versatility enables you to open your facility up to the possibility of hosting tournaments or weekend birthday parties or events.

Off-season training is a strong and growing business. As people see the value in one-on-one or small group instruction, having a place for these sessions can put your operations ahead of the rest. A flexible indoor sports facility gives you options and multiple avenues for revenue generation over 12 months. Rather than in season only.

The Trade Off of Owning an Indoor Sports Facility

These benefits provide a lot of upside to owning an indoor sports facility. But there are several things to consider before jumping in.

For example, people have different expectations for facility conditions. If an outdoor playing field is not perfect, clients will typically understand. Indoor sports facility owners do not have this luxury.

In addition, managing your time and space requires more precision and organization to ensure you maximize the ROI. You will need a way to control operations within your sports facility. And a reliable way to track and manage your facility usage.

eSoft Planner offers the ability for customers and staff to manage teams, track space availability, and communicate with customers.

When considering an indoor sports facility – as a new business or as an expansion of your outdoor organization – turn to the experts. Our team can help you streamline your operations.

If you want to discuss how eSoft Planner can help you start your own sports or recreation facility, contact us for a demo today!

Blog on positive community impact

Making a Positive Community Impact with Your Sports Facility

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Using Your Sports Facility to Make a Positive Community Impact

Over the past several years, youth sports have become increasingly competitive. The lure of college scholarships for the best athletes drives some to extreme measures. Unfortunately, a large portion of this cutthroat aggression comes from those who are not even on the playing field — parents and coaches. But, it is important to remember a sports facility can have a positive community impact.

The negativity surrounding youth sports makes headlines every year. Parents arrested for altercations with officials, parents suing over playing time, and other extreme examples of raising the stakes and taking it too far. But your sports facility shouldn’t be a part of the problem. A sports facility can have a positive community impact. Encouraging players from all skill levels to come together under one, unified passion for athletics.

Chris and Lisette Brough, founders of the El Paso Legends, took their love of sports to create a place that is making a difference in their community. They’ve utilized eSoft Planner to help them grow their business, also known as EP Legends, into one of the largest of its kind in area. Helping them reach more youth athletes with their positive message.

El Paso Legends

It all started when five-year-old Tony Brough — Chris and Lisette’s son — fell into depression after Chris was deployed in the military. Lisette found a baseball team helped improve his spirits. With each team meeting Tony’s mood lifted. She saw the positive influence his coach was having.

In June 2019, once Chris Brough returned from service, he and Lisette started EP Legends Baseball Academy. They wanted a way to give back to the baseball community for helping their son through a difficult time. They’ve worked hard to spread their opportunities to military families and the wider community.

After a short time, EP Legends outgrew their first location and moved into a bigger facility. They are now the largest baseball facility in the area. With 17 batting cages and up to eight teams practicing in the facility each day.

“Managing so many different areas started to become cumbersome. We started to look for an affordable option to make the scheduling process easier. That’s when we found eSoft Planner,” Chris said. “One of the biggest values of the software is that it allows our customers self-service options directly through our website. They simply log into their account to register and sign waivers.”

Chris and Lisette also love how easy it is to communicate with parents. Tasks like alerting their clients about the recent closures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) have been made simple with eSoft Planner’s text reminders and mass email capabilities.

“We’ve been using the downtime during the pandemic to build our Pro Shop with eSoft’s point of sale module,” Chris said. “Once the economy restarts, we’ll be ready to offer our clients embroidered team jerseys, equipment, and other necessities.”

“When we started EP Legends, we had a single goal. To give the busy parents of baseball athletes a one-stop shop to get everything they need for an affordable price,” Chris Brough said. “eSoft Planner helped turn that into a reality.”

For the El Paso Legends, having the right tools helped them spend time on what matters most. Their passion for sports and their community.

Using Technology to Make Things Easier on the Community

Chris and Lisette found one of the major problems in youth sports is poor communication of athlete and parent expectations. With clear communication, sports facilities have the power to bring athletes, parents, teammates, and rivals from opposing teams together — all under one roof.

If you are a small sports facility or are just starting up, chances are you will have a small staff or even no staff. As a sport facility grows, the visibility and ability for self-service become invaluable. Clients can see the availability of every area of your facility — from batting cages to volleyball courts to soccer fields.

Schedule a Demo

Sports facilities have an important responsibility. Bringing communities together in the development and growth of every athlete that sets foot on their courts. eSoft Planner makes the administration of your business a seamless, almost automated operation.

Talk to eSoft Planner about how you help eliminate the paperwork and enable self-service in your sports facility. When you have more time to focus on your passion and your mission, your customers will notice the positive impact on your community. Contact us for a demo today!

How to gauge customer interest

Gauge Customer Interest by Using Client Management Software

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How to Use Client Management Software to Gauge Customer Interest

As a sports facility owner or manager, you should be tracking your clients’ interests. Your customers are more likely to engage with you if your marketing efforts are highly targeted and have a direct appeal to them. An analysis of their interests also provides extremely valuable information to you as a business owner when you consider new products and services.

Here are four simple steps to boost your bottom line by keeping tabs on what your customers want:

1. Choose the Format

To effectively analyze your clients’ interests, your data should be collected electronically and automatically. Sports facility management software like eSoft Planner makes this easy. But if you don’t have software that allows you to keep track of client information and interests. You need to manually add the information to whatever files or spreadsheets you’re using to track clients’ information.

To collect the information, a simple list of checkboxes for them to identify what topics they want more information about is sufficient. Clients can quickly tick the boxes when they sign up.

2. Decide Which Interests to List

Take some time to think strategically about which interests to include in your list before you publish your form.

You should have between 6 to 10 interest options that will offer a good selection, without overwhelming the client. If the interest checklist is part of an electronic form, consider making the question a required field and add a “none of these” checkbox option at the bottom. (If the field is too easy to skip, clients will skip it. Especially if it’s part of a form that is already relatively complicated.)

Some points to remember when developing your list of interests:

  • The field is part of a paper form, encourage your staff to remind new clients to fill it out.
  • If your sports facility offers a wide variety of services, you may need to keep the interests broadly categorized (for example: adult fitness programs, kid programs, mom and baby programs, sports leagues, etc.).
  • If you run a small, interest-specific facility, you can make the list more specific. For example, if you own a batting cage facility, you can gauge your customers’ interests in the available pitching machines or measurement technologies.

3. Choose Both Current Services and Future Services

Client interests are a great way to test the potential viability of a new product or service. For example, you might survey your clients about is their interest in purchasing baseball and softball apparel and equipment. If more than 60% of your clients indicated that they are interested, it is safe to consider it as a serious option.

4. Require Clients to Frequently Update Their Interests

Make sure that your clients frequently update their interests. Especially when you add new interests to your list. eSoft Planner allows you to customize how often your clients are prompted to update their profiles. You can also export the interest lists easily for e-mail marketing purposes.

Gauging customer interest is a vital part of growing your sports facility business and increasing client engagement. Making sure you’re collecting this information easily and in a format that you can analyze and market against is important. It can help your business be more efficient. Contact us for a demo to see how eSoft Planner simplifies the process of creating customer interest surveys and integrating them into your other processes.

Planning a Sports Business

Starting a Sports Business with eSoft Planner

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Compound Sports: How One of Our Clients Started His Sports Business from Scratch with eSoft Planner

Back in 2015, Jeff Stamler had some big ambitions. He wanted to open his own baseball, softball and fitness training sports business and facility, but he wanted it to have more. A Compound Sports implementation team member recommended a Parisi Speed School that would develop the whole athlete, from strength training to core metrics. All the moving parts in a sports business require a superhuman level of organization. Jeff tasked Team Compound member Alan Stamler to find and recommend a top notch online scheduling and planning software provider. Alan realized early on that he needed to learn how other sports facilities balanced multiple instruction paths and clientele.

That’s when he began his research. He started Googling, and his search led him to the website of another sports facility with a great scheduler and planner. Alan liked the look and feel of the website, so he scrolled to the bottom of the page to find more detail about who created it.

It turned out that the team at eSoft Planner created the site.

Alan had been working with a different provider for his facility management needs, but he wasn’t satisfied with the software. Everything felt disjointed — especially the customer service experience.

“I requested a demo from eSoft Planner. To me, the interface was more comprehensive and easier to work with than the other software I had been testing up until that point,” Alan said. “Everything I needed — from scheduling to communication tools — was all in one place.”

During his initial conversations with eSoft Planner, it became apparent to Alan that Mike Meszaros, the Sports Facility Expert and president of eSoft Planner, and his team were experts in more than just the software solution. They had the know-how to manage a sports facility.

More Than Just Software

From beginning to end, the process of opening Compound Sports in Tampa, Fla. took a little over a year. But the process didn’t come without its challenges. Early on, Alan and his team experienced some delays due to zoning changes and architectural issues, but Team Compound overcame those hurdles. With the help and guidance of Mike and the eSoft Planner team, Alan and Team Compound developed a first class eSoft Planner scheduling and online booking/payment process which should result in many satisfied customers.

“Within the next few days, we’ll complete our final inspection, so hopefully we’ll have our grand opening in the next few weeks,” Alan said.

Compound Sports has divided their facility into a baseball/softball area with four oversized tunnels, a pair of long cages with ALL STAR ACE 5000 video pitcher simulators and available HitTrax Technology training and gaming options and a fitness training area.

For Alan, one of eSoft Planner’s most beneficial features is the ability to track everything. When Compound Sports opens its doors in a few weeks, every athlete and/or parent, instructor and staff member that walks into the facility will have their own login. eSoft Planner will allow staff and trainers to monitor the number of people using the facility at any time, so they’re using the space as efficiently as possible. Without the software, Alan’s team couldn’t manage the connections between availability of the space and the instructor for each segment of the building.

“We basically have two businesses within one — a Parisi Speed School (our fitness training side), and our baseball or softball side,” Alan said. “Without eSoft Planner’s scheduling capabilities, our business would require much more additional staff and added expense to manage.”

Managing Compound Sports’ Diverse Demographics

Whether a client is signed up for a fitness class, taking a lesson, or renting a cage with the ALLSTAR ACE 5000 and HitTrax Technology metrics tracking system, Alan and his team know where all his clients are in real-time. This consistency of data also benefits his clients. They each have their own login so they can easily access their class rosters, schedules and space availability.

Compound Sports also benefits from eSoft Planner’s ability to manage online booking/scheduling and payment in advance. And everyone on Team Compound loves the communication features, enabling easily triggered reminder and update emails and texts to staff, instructors and parents.

“We’ll have many parents who will sign-up their children to use our facility. Most of them will value eSoft’s ability to accept online payment,” Alan said. “The software also acts as a CRM, allowing us to send emails to parents. On any given day, if the electricity goes out, we can send out one mass communication — we don’t have to get on the phone and call individuals to inform them that a class or lesson has been canceled.”

Conclusion

eSoft Planner and Mike Meszaros gave Alan and his team at Compound Sports not only the facility management tools necessary to ensure smooth operation, but also a wealth of knowledge in the intricacies of facility ownership.

“The peace of mind that Mike and his team provided throughout the process of opening our facility was invaluable,” Alan said. “I would recommend eSoft Planner to anyone that offers services to a broad clientele base within a sports or recreation environment.”

If you want to discuss how eSoft Planner can help you start your own sports business or recreation facility, contact us for a demo today!

Sports facility management software features

Sports Facility Management Software – What It Can Do for You

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Four Things Your Sports Facility Management Software Should Do

It’s true. There are sports facility management software options designed to help you schedule your space or your service.

But if this is the foundation of your business, chances are that you’re not looking for just any tool. You need support — a team behind the computer screen to help you manage a lot of moving parts, make sure you get paid and demanding clientele.

So how do you choose? Here are four things you should insist on in your scheduling software – for a swim club, an indoor sports facility, or any other business that has a space and an instructor. Go beyond member billing and schedule management.

Unlimited Locations, Instructors and Members

Most sports facility software programs charge a base monthly subscription cost or an upfront fee. On the other hand, some charge extra per instructor, location, or both. While others might include a fee if you enroll more than a hundred customers/members. Depending on how your facility is growing, you will see your costs increase as you grow. You could see an additional $100 or $200 added to your monthly bill for these surcharges.

Scheduling and management software that includes unlimited locations, instructors or members might be more expensive at the outset. Although, if you expect to grow your membership, you’ll thank yourself later for choosing a solution that grows with you.

Customer Support that Knows Your Industry

Your days as a business owner are complicated enough. You’re scheduling practices, lessons and events. In the meantime, you’re keeping inventory of supplies, preparing budgets, and ordering new equipment. Meanwhile, you’re maintaining communication with your clientele.

Before purchasing a management solution, you should know what kind of support team stands behind it. Do they only offer knowledge and support for their own product? Or do they go beyond that — are they familiar with the particular needs of your sport or activity? Moreover, you want a team that knows the technical aspects of your business and its unique operational needs. That can mean the difference between making a lot of mistakes or achieving great success.

Prevent Double Bookings

Double bookings are an all-too-common enemy of sports clubs and other scheduled activity businesses. Does your software offer safeguards against two customers scheduling the same time or place? Above all, consider an option that utilizes a two-step process. You need confirmation on what instructors are available, as well as information about the spaces or services that are available on a particular date and time.

By validating the availability of your services, you will show your clients that you value their time. Furthermore, you eliminate the hassles and frustration of double booking.

Allow Bulk Scheduling for Rentals

A lot of software offers the ability to bulk schedule. But not all of them let members make changes inside those repeat appointments. What if your softball instructor is only available every other Thursday at 2:45 p.m.? Or maybe she can’t make it on Valentine’s Day?

Being able to make modifications to recurring schedules is a must-have in the eyes of many customers. By all means, your facility needs to be able to make changes to individual events that do not affect the entire series.

Why eSoft Planner

eSoft Planner offers all these features and more. Our flexible payment and scheduling software delivers the functionality you need to be efficient. And with our modular-based design, we’ll never charge you for services you don’t use.

Your monthly membership also includes a support team that knows all fields of athletics — from swim clubs to softball to volleyball. Our team supports schools and lesson-based businesses across the board.

Retake control of your facility scheduling and management. Contact us today for a demo and see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration. eSoft Planner powers your passion.