Setting your year's goals and benchmarks

Now that the new year has turned, and the holiday vacation rush has come to an end you should set goals and benchmarks for the year.  With another (or just one) year behind you, it is possible to now look at the year, it's ups and downs and take that information to make plans for this year.  Make sure that you make time for yourself to do this especially if you are manning some part of the park.  If there are slow days or closed days, use these times to gather your information together, look at your receipts, and plan your year accordingly.  Here are some of the typical things you should be looking at:

Busy Times versus Slow Times - more than anecdotal information, you want to really see where your slowdowns are and where you were busy.  What patterns arise?  If the start of September is slow,  figure out why.  If summer was slow here and there, try to look for other things going on like July 4th, or lots of people going on vacation at the start of August.  If things were busy, like June or 2 weeks in March, try to see why.  Then, when you have an understanding of the year, figure out what you can do to increase slow times and monetize busy times better.

Membership, Entrance Data and Promotions- Since you have data from your computer entrance program (hopefully), you can mine this data to help you either resell memberships, or get members to come back for a visit.  If you haven't been doing this, try to set it up so you can get this data.  You can get data on members and non-members if you have a check in your system for waivers.  If you don't have this set up, do so. It could be the way to get more money out of each and every visitor to your park.  What is a membership worth?  What if you tracked it versus a non-member?  Create a non-member card (make it cheap with either a number to be keyed in or a barcode to be scanned.  This way when they come in you can quickly check that the person has a waiver on file.  It will also allow you to track their visits and if you see they are coming often, or that they have a birthday, or that they haven't been back in months (through data analysis from your membership software) you can send a note to these people whether they are members or not.  A discount entrance ticket, a "come in raffle", a note on a pro demo or what not is good advertising and cost effective.  You can even track how often these promos work so that this time next year you can stop sending stuff to skaters who have moved on.  Using member data and tracking can help you better see how often members come in and how much they spend.  You can offer discounts with a membership that allows you to see how much and how effective these programs are.  So go to your data to figure out ways to get people back in, ways to upsell them more stuff, or and create promotions that work.

Review How Your Workers Work - If you hire staff, you need to ensure you are getting the most out of them as possible.  Perform a review of expectation and areas of needs for the park that might be addressed by your hired staff.  If you have someone who is really tech savvy then they could be tapped to update your Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and website.  If you have others who are sitting around reading Thrasher while on duty, maybe a cleaning or mending project could be completed.  Filing and data entry is always needed.

Review Areas of Park - Does no one ever go on one of the ramps?  Is it used enough to warrant the space used.  Space in the skatepark is like money.  If skaters aren't using it, it is wasting money.  It may be a great thing to have a 12' tall vert ramp, but if only 5 people use it a year, that space is losing money.  Survey skaters about their favorite parts of the park, study where they skate the most and see if you can't create more spaces that help sell entrances.  Similarly if you have shop that people don't use enough it might be time to pull the plug.  The costs of keeping it open should be paid for by sales, if not, it needs to go.  Skaters are loyal to their shops so if you aren't getting market share for your shop, either you need to change what you are doing there or get out of the business.  Review of areas where money goes can help you create a lean and profitable park.  You can't afford to have a shop or a ramp that doesn't support itself.  The things need to be an attraction that draws people to your park to spend money, that is why you are in "business".

Make New Things- What is going to be your fresh addition this year?  A new type of contest?  A new ramp? A new Free day?  A new connection with the community?  Figure out new things and see how they can be rolled out and promoted.  Being new, relevant, or cutting edge can help keep people interested in your park.  One idea - DJ night - try it for a few weeks, then stop and see if it works so you either pull the plug or keep it going.

Take time to Recharge - Schedule a vacation for yourself now.  Have something to look forward to that rewards all your hard work.

Use The Holidays to Celebrate

Often times we come to the end of the year and things heat up in the skatepark.  Lots of kids coming in with the bad weather, lots of vacation times, sales and park rentals.  But make sure that with all the things going on you take the time to celebrate your people.  A holiday party is a great way of letting your workers and your people whom you feel add so much value to your park know you appreciate them, their commitment, and their efforts.  It's ok to close early one day during the holidays, many stores do.  Celebrations can be at the park if you all like to skate, they can be at a restaurant, your home,  the bowling alley, or a bar.  Depending on who your workers are, you can set the event to be the type of celebration they'd enjoy.  Make sure you get some unique gifts to give out, and something for everyone like a hoodie, special order hat, or something.  There are many ways to celebrate the season and your people so take the time to show you care.  It is ok to do your celebrations after the holidays especially if people you ask can't make it.

The holidays can also be a good time to celebrate your members.  I have written often about how to make your memberships "value added".  Having a member celebration day with lots of extras, a DJ, a raffle, some special food or other offering goes a long way to making those members feel a part of something special.  While you could be monetizing the time, spending some money to make people feel like a part of something special can go a long way to making your park work financially.  If you think about what it could mean to you, each member that talks you park up positively, whether they come down regularly or not is free advertising.  Word of mouth is a "viral" loop you need to create to get people in the door and excited about springing for the extra membership cost.  So a special holiday member party is a good way of helping create and keep the positive buzz about your park.

Happy Holidays.  I hope you can make 2015 the best one yet!

The Key Activities of Skatepark Owners

Owning a skatepark can be as complicated as you make it.  I've seen some barn based parks that simply float a key system around for friends and the like.  Making a living owning and operating a skatepark however requires a lot of work to get paying customers in the door.  The complexity of a skatepark then makes for a lot of activities for the owner and managers.  Here are a list of some of the main activities a skatepark owner should be completing on a monthly basis.

Promotions
schedules - park and staff - calendar year tweaks and plans
advertisements - monthly and target market specific
Events planning-
stocking, buying goods
inspecting ramps
manning the desk
talking with suppliers and key partners
meeting with finance people both investors and accountant
inventory
financial review (reconciling the cash register, imputing into quickbooks, reviewing costs -v- income
cleaning
replacing broken supplies, fixing, painting, refining
Community outreach, public relations
Outreach to area organizations for cross promotion and group visits
Managing skate team
upgrading systems and controls.
meeting with staff, training staff
calling and corresponding when appropriate
Updating web, social media, other media
Skating a little too!

Lots to do every month undoubtedly.  Try to get some of these things handled by delegating.  Paying for services is a good way to increase staff's feeling of importance as well so maybe promotions, or staffing, or updates can be handled by savvy hourly staff or salaried managers.  Taking the time to be the leader of the business is necessary so don't just man the front desk but also don't be totally absent from the front desk either.  Good luck!

Identifying Market Segment for Skateparks

Often times I hear of people who say things like, there are a ton of skaters in my town so I want to start a skatepark.  I think this is a great start but are there really a ton of skaters who will use your park is a question that needs to be asked.  In traditional business plan startups, people often look at an idea, figure out how much it will cost and look at the population as a whole and go from there.  But when your money and your sanity are on the line you want to make sure that there is a sustainable market for your business before you spend money.  Ok, so going from the premise of a "ton", who are they?  Teenagers? Little Kids? At a crappy free park?  What these people show are Market Potential, it doesn't mean that these kids will come to your park.  Sitting out and counting these people, noting their age and demographics can help to give you a better idea of the dedicated skaters.  Interview the skaters/bikers you find and see who they are, what they want, and what they are will to pay for.  Similarly making friends with the local skateshop can help you better understand the market potential by providing you with stats on patrons.  This is vital information.  You have a theory, and until you go out and test your theory you'll never know for certain what is reality.  After you have gathered some data, go back to your idea and see if the market potential fits the reality.  You are trying to create a better understanding of the market by understanding your clients better. To do this you need to get out and talk with the end users.  If you have a drawing of your park, share this with your potential clients, if you have a cost structure, share this with your clients as well.  Their feedback will help you understand what you have in terms of a product, and what your market will bare in terms of price.  At some point soon you can start looking for the archetype of a typical patron.  These conversations with parents and kids can help you understand who will come to your park, how often, and at what cost.  If you have a website you can also use that to gather information.  Put a survey on the front page and try promoting it.  Another way of gathering this info would be to do a Facebook ad campaign targeting a very select group of users in a small demographic area.  You need data to make a good decision, and it won't just come to you in a dream.  So you need to go get it.  When you have a market archetype you can then figure out how to cater your park to meet their needs.  Lets just say that Junior High aged skaters and bikers were the best respondents to your survey and interviews.  These kids have a desire to come to the park 2x a month at 12$ a pop.  They expressed they skate all the time and their parents said they have very few options for entertainment.  So these end up being the core market archetype, with other groups like teens, young adults, little kids fill in your market.  Spending your time to cater your business to meet the basic needs of these skaters first is the best idea to ensure your success.

Vacation Time is GO Time

If you ever wondered why some kids only come down once a month or once a year to your park, maybe you need to wow them every time they are there.  This sounds like a lot of work, but really what I am talking about is the little things, the things that matter to a customer.  How do your people interact with the skaters and the parents?  Can they improve?  How clean is the park?  Can it be cleaner?  Fresh paint, new trash can lids, and new posters can really make a difference.  Could you spend a few hours patching things a little before the vacation holidays to make the park shine for the guests that haven't been able to come since their last school break?  Could you get your screw gun out and make a new little fun box, pull out an old rail, put in a little vert extension on the mini-ramp?  These little tweaks aren't going to put your business over the edge cost wise but they could very well be the difference in getting repeat customers.  So part of your go-plan should include tidying up for the crowds, and re-emphasizing customer service and friendliness to you staff.

As long as we are on plans for retraining your staff, a holiday membership drive could be another needed emphasis this xmas.  Every entrance should have membership details in their hands.  What sort of cheap advertising can you get them to take home?  How about a calendar of events, or a calendar of park photos, friends and associates of theirs ripping it up at your park.  Bulk orders of these bring your cost per person down, and what a great add on to that membership.  While you're at it, why not blow up some kid photos to poster size and decorate your park with them?  If you have someone on staff with a great camera, pay them to take some photos and throw the stuff together.  It is well worth the effort and the employee will really enjoy the "promotion".  With all the new people coming down with their friends from out of town, make the most of their visit to encourage them to be members, talk the park up, and come back again!  Happy Holidays.

Check out the progress of a new park!

Greetings all, thought I would key you into a park that is in the making.  All Together Skatepark is being built in Seattle Washington and is going through many of the things that you all might be interested in.  Starting up a park in a city is expensive, starting one indoors even more so.  Check out their progress here: http://www.alltogetherskatepark.com .  Many of the people that helped me get going when I owned a park are working on this new iteration.  One thing that hopefully you all are learning is that it takes a lot of help and a lot of information to get all your services and setup together.  Chris is making it happen in Seattle now.  Do you have another project to help us all look at the process of making a park or advancing a park?  Let me know (contact info on right) and I will help you promote and plan.  Don't forget that I have a good book on opening a park and obviously this blog is a good resource too.   Good luck ATS.

Expand Your Brand

As you are able to separate yourself out from operations, expansion is always an option.  Unfortunately if you are cash strapped, expansion is going to have to be done by bringing in more investors.  While many of you are probably wary of this, there are many people out there who are looking for good investments, and having a solid product with solid sales and a solid growth plan are keys to attracting investors.  If you want to go big, you have to think big.  If you think that you want to simply run a park that is open from this hour to that, then you can expect to remain at that level.  If you have a vision whereby you want your brand to expand and grow, then this has to be your vision and you have to plan for this.  As a skatepark, how can you grow your brand?  One way is like Woodward, where your specialty is camps, and your expansion becomes events.  There are many companies out there looking for venues that are flexible enough to help them market their own events, and your place could become that venue.  Lots of work would then be focused on achieving this goal.  Similarly if you have a product and a retail presence, you can become a larger presence with that product.  Look at an area that is underserved in your market and exploit that.  Lastly you can expand like DC Shoes, Vans shoes has as well, creating more parks in more cities.  The key to what they do is to look at what their brand is, and use that as the center of the expansion.  Reinventing your brand, or creating a logical offshoot of your brand (extreme events, camps etc) can help you move into a new level of business where you are not only more successful, but also more profitable.  A good exercise would be to sit down with your management team and see if they can envision this change with you.  Bringing in people who share your vision and have a quality skill set is also a good idea.  Good luck.