Low cost way of adding a service

Sometimes we all have our hands too full to add another aspect to our business.  Thank goodness for outsourcing.  You might want to expand your business to include food, a proshop, or some other service, but don't have the capital, manpower, or know-how to pull it off.  One way of dealing with this would be to outsource.

Say you have the space available for another aspect of the business that you have not yet addressed.  You could think about monetizing this area by inviting in a third party vendor, someone who won't compete with your current operations.  A food service operation might be a good fit with your weekend crowd, and only come in to work parties and busy days.  You set up a contract with this service to either take a percentage, or charge a space fee.  With the space fee, you both understand what the bottom line is, while the percentage could be more lucrative but unknown.  You want to make sure that this vendor isn't funneling money away from other operations.  An ice cream vending machine operated by an outside vendor could take money away from your candy sales.  So make sure that you are offering relatively different products and you aren't adding competition to your own operations.

Similarly if you are not selling equipment, you could bring in a local shop to set up an operation in your park.  This could have good community relations, as well it could help promote your park outside.

Bringing in outside people to help put on events and other gatherings is another way to monetize non-productive times such as nights or certain days.  An event promoter who can add energy to your park and also some revenue is a win-win situation.

So if you need to try and expand, think about bringing in outside help if you can't manage it yourself.  You can start these off as initial events and move them on to more permanent situation if it works.

Using Email for Promotions

In the recent past, there have been some chatter in blogs and other posts regarding best practices on email.  Basically there are two feelings on this, that it works, or that it is a waste of time.  Basically we all have experience with email marketing.  Now it is a ubiquitous part of our email experience.  Many of us appreciate an email now and then from groups we wish to support.  But there comes times in everyone's life where we would sooner stop deleting these messages and stop getting them from certain businesses.  In some cases, frustration with receiving emails after unsubscribing can even create resentment towards a business.  To address the email issue the business owner should take a few things into consideration.
1. Email for ads should be professional in style and offerings.
2. Give an unsubscribe link that is easy to use.
3. Provide more than just an ad, provide info, photos, events, news, new in the shop, and specials.
4. Don't send these too often.
5. Send on a regular schedule. (Some say Tuesdays are the time when we are the most receptive)

In today's internet savvy market, a good email news/marketing email is needed for the park owner.  We all know that staying in touch with our members and our patrons is important, and email is a very useful way for us to reach them.  However, we often have only the parent's email for our many younger skaters, so be aware of this when creating emails, and make sure your mail is appropriate.

In the end, getting the word out will take some time and effort.  If you can produce an excellent and informative email newsletter, coupled with sales and the like, you will probably get the best response from your market.  You can also work with your suppliers to create a campaign with them and they can help with the costs of the marketing.

Cross Promoting Your Park

In a previous post I wrote about adding value to your membership through giving member rates to other park's members to gain special rates for your members.  In a similar manner you can work with other business and entities to promote and add value to your park's programs.  Working out relationships with the YMCA, Boys and Girls' Club, Rec Departments and similar businesses can help create needed hype, PR, and entrances.  In developing relationships and programs specifically targeting these types of teen and pre-teen groups you can get a good, monitored group of kids into the park for a session and hopefully generate the type of experience that will make these kids want to keep coming back.  Fostering relationships like these with religious groups, boy scouts, or whomever is another important way that you can promote you park, and help other groups provide activities for their kids.  In reality all they need are your waiver forms, pricing, a list of "good to have" items, and times of your sessions.  They will provide the van, a staff person, and the kids.  Producing a package to meet the needs of the administration of Parks departments and other groups can make many of these events happen for you.  Everyone wants an easy sell to the kids and by finding out what the group needs to be successful, you can establish these cross-promoting type of events.  I call these cross-promoting events because the parks departments and youth groups want to look good to parents and teens.  So they need to promote programs that are safe, organized, clean, and fun.  In doing this they get more business and you get more business.  For religious groups you can even schedule after hour events where they can listen to the music they want, without bothering your other customers.  By catering special rates for return groups like this, events can be a constant flow of money.  In many of these types of events, non-skaters come as well and they usually buy food and drinks and pay into the "group price" just like everyone else.  Put in the time to produce flyers and mailers to address these groups and you'll find that it pays off after just a few groups get going.
     In a similar way you can cross promote your park with other groups at outside venues.  Many times events are looking for entertainment.  By putting together a skate/bike team, some portable ramps, and an "event" program, you can promote your park and get paid to do so.  Events like trade shows, sports expos, concerts and the like are areas that would enjoy having the entertainment and often pay for your efforts.  At the event you promote your park, give away some cheap t shirts, stickers, raffle some old inventory (tax advantage-expense).  Your skate/demo team will love showing off for the crowd.  When we did events like this for RCSP we even had an old beater of a car that we destroyed then brought to the junk yard for recycling cash.  These sort of events are time consuming, but fun to put on and create a big buzz for your park.
     Lastly you can promote your park at area skateshops.  Put together good looking and easy to manage flyers and promotional material and go to area shops and see if they won't post them up for you.  Often these parks have a table where you can put stuff like this.  By developing relationships with local skateshops, you can cross-promote with them.  In the end, while you may compete with them for your shop sales, their clientele is often very loyal, and you don't really hurt their sales.  Develop cross-promotions with them.  Get them to sponsor an event like a best of the shop rider comp, or have them sponsor some pro tour at the park with an autograph signing at their shop after.  These events can benefit you both and in the end you are both serving the same market.  What these promotions do is make you look like you are "pro skating/biking/inline" rather than a money-grubbing isolationist. Good PR is worth the money!
     You are in a business with a fickle audience.  The appearance of "in-it-for-the-money" can really hurt your business with a large portion of the skating/biking crowd.  By working with groups to help them provide services at your park you win a double victory for your business.  Not only are you generating income, but you are also promoting your park.  This promotion is building good-will in the community.  Other shops send you business, you send them business.  This may sound very socialist, but I believe you need to be seen as a force for skating and biking in your community.  You only get to be perceived as that when you are promoting for the good of the sport, and in ways that make sense to everyone involved.  By making it easy for others to promote themselves, you score valuable PR and promote yourself.

Membership Checking System

If you don't have a system for checking members into your park, then you need one.  You could take a look out at the park any day of the week and see how many people are there, but could you tell were they are coming from, whether there are up to date addresses and emergency forms on file, when their birthday is?  There are many things that your membership program can do for you including most recent visits, how often patrons visit, and linked to point of sale (pos) programs can tell your their buying patterns.  Looking into this info every quarter could really help you understand where you need to improve your marketing, outreach, or services.  Using this data is what Google and Walmart do very well.  On a smaller scale you can personalize sales to match patterns you find in the data, you can add birthday notes, send renewal membership notices, or other customizable promotions.  In many of these membership tracking programs you can have debit accounts for the kids so parents can load money onto their account for food.  You can customize them to make reporting easier so your understanding of what your patrons do helps you serve them better and in turn, make better buying decisions and sales decisions.  If every person who came to your park had info entered into your program, you would have a large pool of information and potential to work off of for your business.  Setting up the system is a lot of work, but much of it can be done by the people working the front desk or other areas of the park that don't have busy daily routines or those that have down time.  By steadily increasing what you know about your patrons, you can better serve their needs and increase what you understand about their buying, and visiting the park habits.  This way when a non-member comes in and you get their name into the computer, you could then have a conversation about how many times they have come and how buying a membership is a good thing for them.  While all this might sound daunting, taking small steps will get you a long way quickly.

Are you fully retailed?

Have you ever asked yourself why the soda is at the back of the store when most people just want a soda to go? The same reason your skating area should be at the back of your building, or rather everything that you have to sell before the skating area. The general idea is that a store wants the customers who are there to see the products that the business has for sale. So if the common items that people go to a convenience store to buy are also next to things that they might buy if in front of them, the store tends to make a higher sale. Put the donuts near the coffee.

In the skate park world you have a place that the skaters want to skate just like in the supermarket world with people who want milk. Buy making them pass your concession stand on the way in and out you tend to make additional sales. Moms and dads dropping their kids off might also buy something for them to drink, eat, or wear. If you have your merchandise near where they enter and exit you are getting it in front of them and enabling them not only to remember you have stuff for sale, but entice them with what you have. If you put on sale merchandise out front too, you can move this stuff faster.

There are a few things to consider in terms of layout that need thought. Controlling flow and overflow is always an issue in skateparks, and cluttering this space with merchandise invites trouble and hassle. Controlling theft is another issue that needs to be dealt with in a manner that is cost effective. To balance these, you need to make sure that you have created a good pattern for foot traffic that allows for monitoring of inventory and promotion of experience of the visit. At the same time you want to make visible the stuff you sell. Work with your arrangements to create enough space for both the has security and attractiveness.

Value Added Membership

As we look for ways to get more business, one way that can work is adding value to the membership. When a patron asks why get a membership, the most obvious reason is for cheaper entrance rates. Usually skateparks charge $13 for non-members and $8 for members for a 2 hour session. This sort of pricing would leave money in their pockets for food or drinks. The $5 difference in price would then pay for itself in 10 visits or sessions. So once the 100 or so local kids have bought a membership, how do you get the ones further outside your range to buy a membership? One idea is to add value.

There are many ways to add value that don't really cost you anything. Discounts on gear is a traditional way of adding additional benefits. This gives the added bonus of enticing a sale for the skate shop. Fee differences for camps and comps is another way of helping the cause. Free or discounted friend passes, party rentals or special nights are other ways of adding value to those that might not see themselves coming around for 10 times over the year. I would consider adding in some times or days that you don't do good business as a perfect way of adding value to your membership. If a park is empty most Monday or Tuesday evenings this could be a great opportunity to add value to membership. Give them 1/2 off or even free sessions once or more a month and advertise the heck out of this. Sell the idea that in a month they could get the value of their membership back with these "Member only" sessions. While they don't have to bring money to the park and some won't, I bet sales of soda and drinks during these times will more than make such a freebee worth it. Add in a special friend of the park dj (read as free dj) and you now have an event. Cost: lights and staff. Sure when budgets are tight this might seem like a large expense but in the end will it help you sell memberships?

The deal is it can start this off as a trial to see if works. Plan it as a campaign with the staff. Offer prizes to the person who is able to sell the most. Make up posters and flyers, cards to put in with your sales receipts etc. to let everyone know that this is worth it to be a member of the park because of all the benefits they get. In the end it is about generating a feeling that this business cares about its people, and those who show their support are rewarded.

Another idea that needs immediate adoption by park owners is offering reduced rates to other skatepark members. If you have a park in Oakland and your prices are similar to all those other parks around you, it makes sense to let members come to your park and skate at the reduced price. If you work out a similar deal with the other parks you have added value to your membership for the price of a phone call. This is a win-win slam dunk. The more you all can add to your park without incurring costs the better. You will attract members from another park to stop by on their way through town generating income with little effort. Start making friends with the other park owners and start making connections that keep you adding to what you offer your patrons.

Good luck

Public park cuts business?

I was reading a blog posting and threads on a BMX site recently that was complaining about a local skatepark trying to convince the parks and rec department to charge user fees at the local public park. Much of the argument described how the skatepark was trying to protect its turf, that was said to be encroached on by a public park. As I read down I was struck by the PR problem this situation presents, as well as how this park owner isn't going to "win" by getting the park to charge admission.

The quandary presented to many business owners, not to mention indoor skateparks, is competition for market. If you look at the corner of a busy intersection you might find 4 fast food restaurants, gas stations, or whatever. Why? Wouldn't just one do? What if the owner complained publicly about unfair zoning, permit granting, or other such issues to try and hold on to their monopoly of the area? Would there be some gain and some loss? Sure. The issue isn't that far removed from public versus private skateparks. What is to be gained by trying to keep your market share as it is through monopolization of the market?

The issue of public skateparks is one of equality. If the public pays to provide free fields to play on, free basketball courts and tennis courts, shouldn't it also be required to provide free places to skate or ride? They should. So fighting these places is not a good idea. Many people will get the wrong impression of the business that fights public parks. They will develop a negative attitude about that establishment, spread the word to their friends and brothers, and this will be a costly blow to a fragile establishment.

So the question becomes, does a free tennis court or a free ice skating area cut into the business of indoor rinks and pavilions? The answer is no. In both these cases a rink offers more than just skating, as do tennis pavilions. Private skateparks offer more too. While the fee and service model is well accepted for the ice and tennis businesses it is not so much for the indoor or private skatepark. In order to address these issues the indoor park owner needs to think about ways their service is worth paying for.

Here are a few things to consider when confronting what to do about a loss of business from a free park. 1. If you are losing business to a free park just because it is free you have more things to worry about in your market. If the kids and adults can't afford to come to your park, then you have priced yourself out of business or the economy doesn't allow for the luxury spending needed to keep a place of your size working. But don't start fluctuating your price, find where you need to be priced to make your budget and meet the needs of the public. 2. A free park is an opportunity for more business not less. What is better, to buy an ad in the newspaper, or distribute flyers and 1/2 off pass coupons at the local skatepark? Where do you want to hype up your new ramp you just built? Where do you want to talk to some parents who you don't recognize at your park about your summer camps? Where do you send your sponsored skaters to skate when they aren't at your park with a pocket full of your stickers and some other cheap schwag?

How about a few ways to make a public park a win-win? Skate comp at the public park sponsored by you and other skate shops in the area; A multi-location skate comp with the finals held at your park! Working with the parks department to put on skate camps over the summer can also help you especially with a pricing scheme that is win-win and good PR for you. When you see that the kids like the outdoor park more than indoor, go find out why. Interview some kids (give them something for the interview like grip tape or food) about what they like about the outdoor park, then use the input to redesign your layout.

In the end you have to remember that you are a dynamic service business, and the parks department is not. People come to your park because of the security, the ramps, the atmosphere, and the events. If you have the best service, people will buy into this. Provide better service, be dynamic, change! A public skatepark is not going to rebuild their park anytime soon. You should. What do people want to skate or ride? New stuff. Make your park the best, then redo it. Make great competitions, provide lessons, rent your place for parties. Start a dj night with local kids spinning disks on a night that is usually slow. Have an adult league where they don't have to worry about kids! Have a BMX night or three. They are an underserved market that really want a place to ride. They are good money so don't forget about getting them a spot in your calendar. All the things I wrote here are things that you can do almost overnight and make an impact on your business. Don't forget about what service it is you provide and market yourself to regain anything you have lost.

Make the most of what you have and change things up!

About This Blog

A little while ago I was asked to start collecting articles about a book that I am publishing on the business of skateparks. I decided that in order to best share and collaborate with others, a blog would need to be created. I don't profess to know more than anyone else, however I hope that those tech-savvy enough to find these postings will benefit from ideas that I gather here.

Many people have asked why build a skatepark? There is a bumper sticker that states, "if your town doesn't have a skatepark it is one". Other reasons are a love of the sport, some have family into the sport, have a skate shop and want to expand, or have a lot of money and time and think it could be fun. I found that all of these are fair reasons for getting a park going. The excitement of opening a business of your own is unparalleled. But there comes a time after you have opened and things are tough, you are working all the time, and stress is mounting that having a fresh look at the business, injecting new energy into the business is needed. Maybe some of the ideas I post here will help. If not, hire someone to give you added time and new energy, it is well worth the cost.

Of all the things that I did, the best I can recommend to you is to look at the numbers of your park on a monthly basis. Spend the time to watch where your money is going, where it is coming from, and where you can make it work better for you. If you don't have an idea how you keep making rent, payroll, taxes, and the lights on you need to start. Make a simple break even point excel document (or use a free online one from Google or openoffice.org). Write down all your expenses per month (taxes, payroll, garbage, water, electricity, gas, rent) and see what you need to do for business to break even. This is your magic number. When you meet this number, on day 15 of the month, you can bank the rest of the money into savings for the times and expenses you don't foresee. In the end, for no mater what reason you got into this business, you need to keep it going, and keeping your eye on the break-even point is how you can achieve this.

It is always nice to be able to know you have the next six month's operations in the bank. Make this your new goal for the year. Keep checking back for some ideas I post here.