Social events are a great way to build your community at a swim club. Some of the most common events include 4th of July parties, crab dinners, and adult socials/dinners.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to sell tickets – especially at swim clubs mainly run by volunteers. Here’s a quick and easy solution: offer tickets via a mobile app. You can plan events, sell tickets, and redeem them for paying members. With your events listed in advance, word will spread. People can get their tickets online quickly and at any time, with much less work than it would be with one person planning and selling tickets. Also, these events can be made public or private, so non-members can join in the event. It will build community and could make them want to become a member later on.
Features
Make events private (for members only) or public
Limit the number of guests
Track sales with a cashless system
Offer sales at the door
Conclusion
Selling tickets online has grown significantly in recent years. Between the different ways of buying tickets, digital tickets are the largest, at 47.1%. It is more convenient for both the organizers and swim club members. With our features, swim clubs can easily manage and track sales for their social events.
To learn more about how you can utilize tickets for your swim club social events, request a demo of our swim club management software, including our feature for selling tickets.
When it comes to sports scheduling, there are many problems and few solutions. If you’re in charge of scheduling everything from tournaments to practices and games, then you know about the headaches that come with managing all those moving parts. You also probably know that finding a sports scheduling app that offers affordable pricing, ease of use and powerful features is next to impossible.
Enter eSoft Planner: your low price solution for your sports scheduling needs! eSoft offers adaptable pricing based on how much power you need. So, if you have just one league or sport, we can help with some of the lowest rates and best user experiences in the sports scheduling industry. Even better, we don’t force anyone into signing unreasonably long contracts. We know the eSoft difference is something truly special! In addition, you don’t need to worry about customer service either – since we are consistently ranked #1 in this area among all sports software providers in the country. We’ve been helping organizations across America schedule their programs since 2007. There’s no problem we won’t be willing to assist you with.
eSoft Planner offers affordability and adaptability. With a la carte pricing, you aren’t forced into high rates; pay for what you need and want.
You can choose the features that work best for you and get the most bang for your buck. With multiple modules to choose from, you can tailor the software to your business no matter the sport, hobby, or layout of your space.
The software is easy to use and can be customized to fit the needs of any facility or sport. It’s designed around your business, not the other way around. Then, you don’t have to pay for features you won’t use or train staff on features they won’t need.
eSoft Planner is a favorite sports scheduling app among trainers, coaches, organizations, and academies across the country.
eSoft Planner is a favorite sports scheduling app among trainers, coaches, organizations, and academies across the country. After 15 years of leading the industry, eSoft boasts a growing list of satisfied clients. As the ultimate sport scheduler software, it helps optimize, streamline, and grow sports / training businesses across the country. There are eSoft Sports Software clients in every state in the country (and many more countries around the globe), and the number is growing every day!
The eSoft Sports Software is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that allows you to manage your entire sports business. It’s the only software in the market that offers both unlimited, consultative customer service from dedicated U.S.-based experts, as well as no pricing increase for growth or expansion. We’re here for you every step of the way.
There are a number of benefits to using eSoft as your sports scheduling app. One of the most important is that it helps you save time, money, and resources. It streamlines your business processes and reduces admin time and report creation. Also, the eSoft Sports Software allows you to create custom reports that can be exported in any format (PDF, Excel, Word, etc.) for easy sharing with your clients or other stakeholders. It’s just another key example of the power and convenience of eSoft Planner.
The system is flexible, powerful and so affordable you don’t have to think twice before buying – Whether it’s swimming pools, courts, fields, or something totally unique.
eSoft Planner is flexible, powerful and so affordable you don’t have to think twice before buying – Whether it’s swimming pools, courts, fields, or something totally unique.
Whatever your needs are, eSoft Planner can help. It schedules leagues, tournaments, and practices. Further, it can track inventory, sales, revenue, etc…
Whether you are looking for a way to track your players and their progress or just need a simple way to schedule games and practices, eSoft Planner has the tools you need.
Clients love the service they receive from their account managers and other support staff at eSoft. eSoft Planner is consistently ranked #1 in customer service.
eSoft Planner has been trusted by thousands of sports organizations. Clients love the service they receive from their account managers and other support staff. In fact, eSoft Planner is consistently ranked #1 in customer service across the entire industry.
The executive team and employees at eSoft have a personal interest in the success of their clients. It makes relationships stronger and more meaningful than any other business in the sports planning space. Further, eSoft’s staff is comprised of former trainers, athletes, and facility owners, giving us unique insights into the industry and what it takes to help our clients succeed.
If you’re a coach or owner of a sports organization, you’ll find that eSoft Planner is the perfect solution for your needs. We offer flexible options to fit any size of business and budget. Also, our software is extremely easy-to-use, yet powerful enough to meet the demands of any coach or business owner. eSoft Planner is the industry standard for sports organizations and has been trusted by thousands of clients over the last decade. Clients love the service they receive from their account managers and other support staff, which is why eSoft is consistently ranked #1 in customer service across the entire industry. The executive team and employees at eSoft have a personal interest in the success of their clients. Therefore, relationships are stronger and more meaningful than any other business in the sports planning space.
The Problem With Sports Scheduling and Our Solution.
Sports scheduling and management require a lot of time and attention to detail. The problem with sports scheduling is that it can be hard to find an affordable solution that works for everyone. Our solution solves this problem by providing an affordable, flexible, and powerful software program. It has been trusted by thousands of sports organizations nationwide. Also, it aligns with the varied, diverse landscape of needs that confronts so many coaches, owners, and trainers.
With eSoft Planner, you can easily manage clients, classes, courts, guest passes, inventory, merch, and customers without spending hours on the phone or at a computer. Then, you’ll have more time for coaching, hiring, marketing, and growing your business!
You can even utilize the software’s marketing capabilities to send email updates, point to blogs and social media, and promote client achievements.
Affordable, Flexible, and Powerful
Sports scheduling has never been easier. eSoft Planner offers a low-price, high-power system that is customizable, user-friendly, and easy to use. It works with any sport or activity and can be used by organizations of any size. Due to that, sizes range from a single team up to the biggest leagues in professional sports. If you need an affordable solution for your sports scheduling needs, then look no further than eSoft Planner!
eSoft Planner is the simplest, easiest way for sports teams and organizations to schedule their games. It’s loaded with powerful features that let you easily manage your team schedules, player availability, game results, and more. To learn more, check out some of the capabilities below:
Another key aspect to consider is that as your program grows, your subscription rates will stay the same. Perhaps even better, our software is so robust, that we can actually personally tailor it to your exact needs. One sport, multiple sports, inventory management, marketing capabilities, and more! The sky is the limit, as we’ll never engage in practices that hinder your bottom line and/or your ability to grow.
Conclusion
Countless reviewers, clients, and coaches have found that eSoft Planner is the best option for sports scheduling. Given the unique variety of needs in the sports and training industry, we find that clients’ reasons for choosing the software are as robust and wide-reaching as the software itself. Whether it’s the ease of adding new trainers or clients, the powerful field/court reservation mapping options, seamless barcode-integrated guest passes, or one of the many other proprietary capabilities that have made eSoft the authority in the industry, there is almost a certainty that eSoft Planner will help you take your team, league, group, or academy to the next level. For more information, feel free to request a demo or give us a call and speak with a dedicated expert today.
As the sports scheduling market grows, you’ll want to lean into software that is built with you in mind, operated by companies that prioritize you. From time and time again, eSoft earns clients from under-committed competitors for this very reason. Finally, now is the time to experience the most robust, client-focused, sports scheduling and planning software in the country.
Pool bonds are responsible for almost all of the funding for the community pools in our country. Without the option of selling memberships, fundraisers created pool bonds that offered equity to future members of each pool. While the pools were considered nonprofits, pool bond owners were able to sell their shares and profit from their ownership.
The sale of bonds was typically a simple process but had strict transferring laws that would often force the sale rather than allow families to pass down their ownership. While unpopular for those purchasing bonds, this allowed pools to bring in more funding.
Financially, pool bonds were extremely beneficial. However, the tracking process was time-consuming and resulted in an added staff expense to the already high construction costs.
The ability to raise money through bonds made sense in the beginning. Pools were less common but extremely desirable. However, as the construction of pools has slowed, selling equity in them is no longer necessary. Now, pools search for ways to replace that income in order to fund upkeep and maintenance.
A Replacement For Pool Bonds
As the pool bond preference fades out, swim clubs and pools have begun using a one-time initiation fee to replace the bond payments. Instead of ownership, this fee is placed on new members but is limited to the first membership payment. After the initiation fee, members will only have to pay their monthly or yearly membership dues.
This initiation fee provides additional revenue for pool expenses throughout the season. It is also easier for pool staff to track and manage.
With memberships in place rather than bond owners, pool staff have more opportunities to find a management software that reduces their responsibilities. This software can manage membership and initiation fee payments, access control to the pool or swim club, and more.
eSoft Planner offers all of these functions to take on the time-consuming and money-draining processes of running an organized facility. To learn more about the benefits of management software, schedule a demo, or sign up to get access to one of our many webinars that cover our software in depth.
If you are interested in making some membership tracking changes, schedule a consulting appointment with me at contact@esoftplanner.com, and we can discuss what options fit your needs!
Homeowners associations are responsible for various aspects of how a neighborhood is operated. Add facilities such as a pool, tennis courts, etc., and the list of responsibilities that fall on the HOA board can become never-ending. In order to save volunteers time and energy to focus on bigger responsibilities, HOA’s, HOA management companies, and other property management businesses choose to utilize software programs. Swim facility management software can help these organizations in various ways, primarily access control and e-commerce.
Access Control
The access control feature in management software controls the tracking and management of incoming and outgoing members, as well as guests and childcare providers. In order to maximize revenue, HOA’s will want to restrict access to those that have paid for it. Many require a membership payment, as well as an additional charge for guest passes and childcare provider access. Rather than hiring staff to monitor the gate, HOAs can use software to allow access by the last name, barcode, address, custom ID numbers, or bond numbers.
The access control feature will save HOA’s money through a lower staffing expense, increase income through monitoring the guest pass purchase and usage, and it will provide an additional security measure for the pool.
E-Commerce
The e-commerce function to swim club management software opens up a secondary form of payment for members. While it is not necessary that HOA’s use this ability, it allows for an easier transaction between the members and the HOA. Many pools do prefer moving their payment methods digitally due to the convenience and ability to sell memberships during the offseason. The e-commerce side of the software can also include the purchase of guest and childcare passes, making it easier to repurchase as necessary.
Save Time and Increase Revenue with Swim Club Management Software
Time is of the essence — especially for swim clubs. Every year they must reevaluate how to arrange their pool schedules to stay competitive in a constantly changing industry.
Most clubs dedicate their space to two activities — swim lessons and open swim. Some choose to offer additional specialty programming, such as water aerobics or triathlon training lessons. But with a limited amount of space, these programs are a luxury many pools cannot afford.
It is important for swim clubs to be able to quickly and efficiently manage access control. Especially if they want to expand their programming. Jim Koller, a board member in charge of the membership portal at Maple Manor Swim Club in Maple Glen, Pennsylvania, has first-hand experience with swim club management software. eSoft Planner helped Jim save weeks of time in managing the club’s new and current members.
Maple Manor Swim Club
Maple Manor Swim Club has been in business since 1962. But they haven’t always used facility management software to save time. Prior to becoming customers of eSoft Planner in 2016, the club had been tracking membership activities using just a pen and paper.
“I joined Maple Manor Swim Club in 2009, and in 2013 I became a member of the board,” Jim said. “This is Maple Manor’s fourth year using eSoft Planner, and we couldn’t be happier.”
The swim club has over 300 family memberships. Maintaining check-ins and guest entry for so many members used to be a formidable task, but now that the club uses eSoft planner, membership check-in has become a seamless process.
“We save hours of time through the software’s self-service options, which allow our members the ability to get registered and manage their own profiles and contact information online,” Jim said.
As with any change, Maple Manor initially experienced some resistance from some of their members when they started using eSoft Planner. But even the folks who started out apprehensive about the technology quickly became convinced of its benefits.
“Last year, we started using eSoft Planner’s retail/POS options to sell concessions at our snack bar. Our members have been extremely satisfied with the ability to fund their club account balances and pay with a keycard instead of having to fumble with cash,” Jim said. “The membership cards make it easy for us to track our members’ activities. Our inventory control has benefited as well.”
Schedule a Demo
With the extra time Maple Manor has been saving, Jim and the other board members remain optimistic about the club’s options once Pennsylvania swimming pools can reopen. In years past, the club has allowed members to reserve pools for parties and other special events.
“We’d love to begin using eSoft Planner to reserve pools, courts and other areas of the club for parties,” Jim said. “Right now, we’re using the downtime to focus and plan additional special programming that will lead to new revenue streams.”
Talk to eSoft Planner about how you help eliminate the paperwork, enable self-service and save time at your swim club. When you have more time to focus on your passion and your mission, you have more resources to pursue revenue-generating options. Contact us for a demo today!
Many communities realize the value of implementing a Homeowners Association (HOA) because of their quicker response to necessary infrastructure repairs. Most HOAs also demonstrate their value through community amenities. These include pools, athletic courts, clubhouses, and parks. Communities rely on HOAs staffed by volunteers or third-party companies to maintain these amenities.
Swimming pools are one amenity that provides value to residents, but the pool’s management is no easy task for an HOA. Most HOAs aren’t able to supervise the pool consistently. Usually, they don’t hire staff or lifeguards. People tend to take advantage of the freedom. This can lead to lost revenue — without any way to ensure that only those who are current on their HOA dues are using HOA access to the pool.
A few of the common struggles for an HOA pool include:
Lack of access control
Coordination of guest tracking
Collection of membership dues
The good news for HOAs is that they don’t have to feel the impact of lost revenue due to poor control over their swimming pool gate.
By implementing just a few practices, you’ll be able to manage access control, track guest usage and even allow residents to schedule common areas, pool patios and clubhouses for their events.
To learn more about how our management software can manage your HOA access, read about our features here or request a demo.
Advertising is one of the most important investments for swim clubs to improve the membership revenue channel, but small advertising budgets prevent many higher-priced options from being within reach. Luckily, there are many swim club advertising options that fit any swim club budget.
Facebook
Facebook’s social networking platform offers significant reach, and it can be a great advertising option for swim clubs to reach their clients. Why? As Facebook’s popularity decreases with the younger generation, it is still at a peak for the parent-aged audience. This is the exact demographic you need to reach for when selling swim club memberships. Families make up the most common membership packages and reaching families goes through the parents.
Posting on Facebook on behalf of your organization can promote community and introduce your swim club to additional families.
If you have a small budget, you can also advertise through the Facebook platform. You can choose advertising styles to encourage more people to like and follow your page or to put advertisements about your swim club in front of target audiences. You can target people who match your current audience or even select an audience that has specific interests within your geography.
Flyers
For those with a slightly bigger budget, flyers are a simple way to advertise the swim club in your community. It is true that printing fees can rack up, but a lot of printers offer deals for printing in bulk.
Here are two free and effective places to post your flyers:
Schools:
Local schools are an ideal audience for swim clubs and are typically receptive to a request to distribute your flyers. For the younger students, teachers will include the flyer in take-home folders for parents. Older students who receive the flyers might either recommend your swim club to their family or join with a group of friends.
Neighborhood drops:
Have your staff drive around nearby neighborhoods and stick flyers in door handles, mailboxes, etc. The key here is quantity. While this isn’t as efficient as sending them directly through children, it does hit other demographics that may be looking for neighborhood recreation.
Member Referral Promotions
This is a popular method for any kind of business, especially swim clubs. A lot of clubs include member referral promotions in other advertising because it does not require any additional effort or budget. Referral promotions encourage your current members to advertise your club by including membership discounts and other incentives.
Not only will you increase your number of customers. But you will also provide perks and incentives to current members — increasing customer satisfaction.
Yard Signs
Yard signs are a simple advertising tactic. Along with the physical labor that comes with yard signs, the risk of people removing them is high. However, if you make the yard signs available to current members, the signs are more certain to stay up.
The more involvement you have, the more effective the signs will be. After the printing process, have your staff take the signs and stake them directly into the yards of your members who’ve agreed to help you advertise.
Sports Field Sponsorship
Take advantage of the influx of potential members at local parks, sports facilities, etc. Typically in a sponsorship, you will pay the park, field or facility to hang a banner advertisement for their clients to see. With so many young children playing sports, families are constantly attending events at these places.
This tactic is one of the most successful because it specifically targets active families — an ideal audience for swim club membership. It does require a modest-sized budget, but the return-on-investment can pay dividends.
Tracking & Analytics
No matter which tactics you use, you need to test the effectiveness of your advertisements. The best way to find out what works and what doesn’t is to add a “How did you hear about us?” section to your membership form. This gives you direct information on what advertisements reached and influenced the most people. Testing will save you time and money. As well as, allow you to invest in the most successful advertising tactics for your club.
eSoft Planner is designed to help you manage your memberships more smoothly, including attribution to referrals and to advertising sources. Contact us for a demo to see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration and more time supporting your swim club and its members.
The Relationship between Swim Club Members and Teams
Swim teams can be important stakeholders for a swim club, representing an important steady income stream and attracting new members and families. But the swim team’s activities, especially a swim meet, can sometimes result in scheduling conflicts between your swim team members and your more recreational members.
Harmony between your swim club and swim team can be achieved with three vital components:
Scheduling
Communication
Volunteer Management
Scheduling
When you have efficient scheduling to help you meet the needs of lessons, camps, and teams, you can balance the usage of your facility.
In addition, facility usage data can help you in your scheduling. For example, if you know that classes scheduled at 9 a.m. sell out, but ones scheduled at 8 a.m. only fill to 50%. Then you can maximize your facility usage by selecting the best times for lessons and arrange swim teams around those slots. If you’re using a check-in and check-out system, you can identify peak days and times.
Scheduling tools that allow you to see the big picture can help you maintain harmony. Especially between team and member usage of the club’s most popular spaces.
Communication
Great customer service is about expectations. Your members expect the club to be open and available to them during predictable hours. When you have swim team commitments that change your operating hours, you must clearly communicate and share these changes with your members.
Take swim meets for example. Typically, swim clubs will close for swim meets even if it means leaving their swim club members without a pool. They do this because swim teams can make up a large percentage of the club’s revenue.
Your scheduling tools should support your communication strategy. For example, you can post the pool availability on the club calendar. So that members can determine if it is available on a particular day. Or you can send an email announcement to all members or just members that would potentially be affected. Your swim club management tools should support multiple methods of communicating scheduling changes.
Volunteer Management
Swim meets are also big-time productions for most swim clubs. The list of necessary tasks run the gamut – from designating times to reserving pools to communicating schedules to the public. And even after all these things are complete, the swim team still needs to recruit people to officiate the races, keep scores and sell concessions.
All of this requires time and money. By allowing people to volunteer at swim meets, you can reduce the amount of hired workers and alleviate some of the Team or Activity Manager’s workload.
Because of the income benefit of a swim meet, many swim clubs offer incentives for volunteers who help support the event – regardless of their involvement directly with the team.
Members may feel less connected and interested in volunteering for a swim meet. But if you can reassure them that they receive credit or appreciation for their support, you can create harmony between swim team and non-swim team volunteers.
Some clubs have gone to a volunteerism requirement – which you’ll need to track. Or you might consider giving your volunteers discounts on the membership, guest passes, swim lessons or location rental. These items don’t have to cost much and can be offset by the value of work being completed by the volunteer.
Make it easy for your people to volunteer with the training and resources that they need to be successful. An online collaboration portal will allow volunteers to know when you need volunteers and what they’ll be doing.
Conclusion
With an organized operation that includes smooth scheduling, consistent communication, and a motivated group of volunteers, your swim team can become an indispensable part of the swim club’s operation. Ultimately, bringing in extra revenue that can potentially lower the cost of operations that will in turn benefit swim club members.
When all stakeholders see the benefit of cooperation, you can achieve harmony at your swim club.
eSoft Planner is an easy-to-use solution to help you manage your swim club more easily – with membership management, scheduling and communication tools built in. Schedule a demo today to see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration and more time supporting your swim club and swim team.
You may be staring at snow and cloudy fall and winter skies, but this doesn’t need to spell the end of profitability for your swim club.
Here are just a few ways that you can set your swim club up for success during the off-season months.
Minimize Spending while Maximizing Cash Inflow
During the off-season it is important that you limit your expenses. Clubs do this easily by creating an off-season budget. Luckily, most club expenses involve pool maintenance, which is not as necessary during the off-season.
Along with reduced spending, swim clubs should maximize their off-season cash inflow. Swim clubs have the opportunity to sell memberships, spirit wear and guest passes when the club is not open for the season. By taking advantage of these opportunities, the swim club can have cash on hand and be financially prepared for the upcoming season.
Start Advertising Early
To help maximize cash inflow, swim clubs should create marketing and advertising campaigns as soon as the off-season begins (or maybe even before). Advertising has become one of the most defining off-season strategies. With strong advertising tactics, your swim club can grow its membership base for the upcoming year. Family memberships can make a great holiday present or recommend smaller items and guest passes as stocking stuffers.
Diversify Your Business
With competition looming, swim clubs should always be on the lookout for more ways to attract new members. Use the off-season to brainstorm new products and services that you can offer your members. This could include:
Adding more tennis courts (or basketball, volleyball or racquet sport courts)
Adding new attractions to the pool (slides, diving decks, concessions, etc.)
Renovating the pool’s amenities (pool deck, bathrooms/locker rooms, etc.)
Plan and Prepare
The off-season is the most important time to plan and prepare for the upcoming season. It is also the best time for the staff to increase efficiencies and improve the overall swim club environment.
One of the best improvements is to find efficient membership management and scheduling software. The off-season allows swim clubs to implement the new software with their members and staff when there is less pressure. Your club could be prime to streamline operations and improve efficiencies with a new software solution.
eSoft Planner makes it easy to manage your swim club’s operations, whether you are in or off-season. The comprehensive software delivers back office and member-facing solutions – manage family memberships, guest passes, and packages; schedule teams, camps, classes, lessons and party rentals; sign in at the front gate; sell concessions through guest accounts and manage your spirit shop.
Swim club management doesn’t have to be hard, when you can organize everything you do with a few simple clicks and invite your members to manage themselves. The increased cash flow and improved organization starts in the off-season.
eSoft Planner for Swim Clubs offers functionality that can support your swim club in the activities you manage every season. Schedule a demo today to see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration and more time supporting your club and its members.
How Your Swim Club can Develop a Mutually Beneficial Relationship with Your Volunteers
The tasks involved in managing a swim club are endless – from tracking customer payments and managing customer service to cleaning up the grounds. Performing the day to day activities of a swim club can be a juggling act, even if you have fantastic staff members on hand to help members and a board managing behind the scenes. But the solution to mounting pressure on these resources doesn’t have to be adding more staff but rather can focus on swim club volunteers.
Volunteers can become the lifeblood of your organization. Allowing volunteers to perform tasks not only helps your club to run more efficiently, but it can also encourage community spirit. But how do you attract and retain great volunteers?
Make It Easy to Volunteer
A hurdle many people face when starting to volunteer is the fear of the unknown. You can make the process easier and encourage them to volunteer in the future by developing a process.
Here are few things that will make it easier:
Have a defined sign up process that clearly explains what they will be doing
Hold a volunteer group meeting at the beginning of each season to announce goals
Delegate tasks between volunteer roles and staff responsibilities
Be transparent about the dates you need help and the expectations of time required
Thank them for volunteering
Provide Transparency When Volunteerism is a Requirement of Swim Club Membership
You may come to a point when financially you cannot keep your swim club running without the help of volunteers. At this point, many swim clubs make volunteering a requirement of membership. Transparency is key to minimizing volunteer confusion and making sure relationships remain strong when volunteer hours are missed.
Include volunteer requirements in your membership packet
Create an online method for members to track hours
Offer flexibility for life events
Host regular club meetings for volunteers to ask questions and address issues
Offer Incentives to your Swim Club Volunteers
Everyone loves freebies. Incentives may include a discounted seasonal membership, free guest passes or a free swimming lesson or location rental. These items don’t have to cost much in a price difference and can be offset by value of work being completed by the volunteer.
By making the volunteering process easier, providing transparency and even offering incentives, you can keep your swim club organized season after season.
eSoft Planner for Swim Clubs offers functionality that can support your volunteer organizing efforts. Schedule a demo today to see how you can spend less time and hassle on administration and more time supporting your club and its members.
