Youth Sport Needs To Be Run Like a Successful Business.
Youth sport is at a crossroads. Here is why a successful business template can help.
With the same reasoning justifying that young people should have mandatory classes in money management, business and entrepreneurship should also be part of the curriculum.
Business principles intersect and overlap with most aspects of life. Management, marketing, operations, communication and building culture, supply and demand, financial modelling, striving for improvement, performance and accountability are all part of our day to day.
When we look closer, many of these business principles overlap with the life skills we hope to instill in our youth through sport experiences.
A little background. Please indulge because it speaks to my perspective. 34 years in the workforce since graduation from university. 8 years as a PE teacher and coach, and 26 years in business (while coaching part time).
It has been a unique journey linked together by ongoing learning and evolution.
The business portion of the journey provided opportunities to build a customer base with various organizations across multiple industries. Essential to this was learning the gym, hospitality, property development, municipal, post-secondary education, physio clinic and sports team businesses. Seeking to understand the customer needs and opened a ton of doors.
It is from this perspective that I draw multiple comparisons between success and struggle in business with the challenges facing youth sport.
There is more in parallel between the 2 that you would think. Let’s explore:
For one, a business’ main challenge is to match a target market for their product or service in a profitable or sustainable way. Many are inclined to jump on a bandwagon of pre-existing demand, trying to take advantage of market timing with an offering that is similar or slightly different than other similar product offerings.
Pick a category of business and we can find examples. Gyms, apparel and footwear, sports drinks, fitness equipment, privatized youth sport coaching, even colleges and universities …we can find many.
When we look around, everything is a business and must justify their existence through the creation of revenue. Even non-profits must operate in revenue surplus to be sustainable.
Youth sport has taken advantage of the latter: pre-existing demand.
Very few organizations have taken the time to map out target customer avatar because they have not had to. The demand is there, the offering fills a need. We open registration and watch people sign up and off we go. Not a lot on product innovation, except now there must be.
In business and in youth sport, following the reactive approach of playing the timing game will result in struggle more often than success. Struggle is defined as being unsustainable, either because of a lack of customers, poor product offering, inadequate pricing model, lack of planning, accountability, certainty, leveraging of human resources, technology or some combination of all.
Second, a successful businesses have had to scale from startup to mid-size to large. The Under Armours, Gatorades, Apples, Mcdonald’s, Marriott hotels, Tim Hortons/Starbucks and so on, all started from humble beginnings. With determination, constant evolution in product development, systems and scale they have changed with the times over a long period.
This evolution requires vision and risk taking. It involves market analysis and firm grasp of the numbers and resources required to grow.
Some have achieved success via franchise or licensing out their proprietary recipes. Think of Tim Hortons, Subway, McDonald’s, and others.
The millions of businesses that never made it beyond a few years were missing 1 or more of the above.
Perhaps it was the lack of proven product and/or demand or operating systems?
Or the discipline or inability to empower others to join the journey? There are a lot of reasons for businesses not getting off the ground. Again, not always because of the product offering.
Youth sport faces many of the same challenge.
While we know the product offered is in high demand and the benefits very much needed, many organizations continue to stumble with poor strategy, execution, and delivery.
Youth sport’s real purpose and HOW to contribute to getting more traction in the marketplace seems to be getting fuzzier by the day.
In business, if you do not measure progress, you are toast.
Same in youth sport.
In business if you see a decline in revenue or retention of memberships (if that is your model) then you will also go the way of the dodo bird or Kodak in business circles.
Friend of The Physical Movement, Matt Young recently illustrated this phenomenon perfectly.
· Who is overseeing and developing leadership and management of all tasks in youth sport ?
· What are the actual responsibilities or tasks necessary for sustainable operations?
· What are the qualifications of those building this?
· How do we evolve?
· What will happen if we continue the current trend of participation decline?
· How do we improve what we offer ? Our product ?
· Who are our customers? and how do we get more of them, while retaining the ones we have?
· Who do we hire? What is the onboarding process?
· Are we part time volunteers who make things a up as we go? Or, do we map out a plan to scale with actionable metrics within a culture of accountability led by a paid professional?
· What experience do you need to map and lead such a plan?
· Is it done at the regional level or national ?
The answers lie within the analysis and understanding of the successful. Many in business move forward with an exciting idea without studying key success metrics. Having a great product that answers demand is only 1 small part of running and growing a business. Same can be said in youth sport.
Ron Joyce (Tim Hortons), Steve Jobs (Apple), Howard Shultz (Starbucks), Kevin Plank (Under Armour), Robert Cade (Gatorade), Ray Kroc (McDonald’s) all started with a vision.
They began with an idea and a lot of questions. They were problem solvers who pushed and pushed until they had a solution that the market would accept.
They all felt what was being offered in their space could be improved.
All of them were not overnight successes, in some cases years before their ideas were validated.
Youth sport is at a crossroads.
There has never been more of a need for the positive that the experience can provide, but there have never been more disappointed customers (as measured by participation rates).
Without significant counter measures, the trajectory is not good.
While we are seeing signs of some organizations evolving (as in Hockey USA documented last week), they seem to be the exception rather than the norm.
Where and how to begin the rebuild?
Discussions on topics like these highlight the shortcomings.
A consensus to change is the start.
Youth sport is a $28 billion dollar entity in North America. There is not a lack of revenue. There are approximately 40 million kids participating in youth sport. There is not a lack of customer demand.
Putting a qualified person with the appropriate credentials at the top of the organization is another step.
Hire them.
This person, the leader, must be passionate about the product (youth sport) and have the skills required to build the organization, also known as experience in building businesses.
That experience comes as the skillset to apply in your organization.
Make them responsible for implementing success metrics that work for the stakeholders involved.
Does this start at the national or provincial/ state level? That would be good but not necessary.
It starts where you are at and it is not all about only player development any more than Apple is only about a smartphone.
Too many times our society falls victim to waiting for someone else to do it.
Initiative is a big part of business success. The strongest businesses do not wait, they initiate.
The good news is: our youth sport organizations have very strong people volunteering. They are not sitting on the side doing nothing.
The need is to get these people on the right seat on the bus and contribute towards the success of the group. The success of the group comes from a clear identify and purpose and execution.
If this sounds familiar, perhaps this is because there is much overlap to what we are teaching our young athletes in the context of competition and personal improvement.
Very much the same variables monitored in business.
In the popular show Ted Lasso, one of the characters lives by the mantra Futbol is life.
The argument could be made that business is life.
Youth sport is a business and should be treated as such.