It’s only a few weeks out until back-to-school.

And at this point you are likely already seeing those back-to-school inquiries.

So if you haven’t done so, these are some systems that should definitely be reviewed and updated:

1 – Sales. September can make or break your school for the next year. If you’re sales procedures aren’t doing their job and trials are walking out the door without a membership, this needs to be reviewed. The difference between signing up 25 out of 30 trials and 15 out of 30 trials is $1000’s of dollars.

2 – Lead follow up. Don’t rely on automations. Don’t rely on text messages alone. Call them. Not just once and leave a message, keep calling them until you connect. They filled in the form, they asked you to contact them. If it takes 2-weeks and a dozen calls to connect, then make it happen.

3 – Retention. There is nothing worse then signing up 30 people, then a month later realizing half of them haven’t attended more then 3 classes and are already on the way to cancelling.

4 – Pricing. If you haven’t raised your prices in years, it’s long over due. Inflation makes the cost of everything go up. Having the same fees now as 2 years ago means you are charging less, for what is hopefully a better product. Not just membership prices either, everything you offer.

5 – Inventory. Nothing creates a bad experience in a completely unnecessary way then not having something someone new needs. When everyone is in uniforms but the new kid because he’s waiting on a order to come in, that’s avoidable. Order now and be ready for the influx.

6 – Gym aesthetics audit. We’re in our gyms every day, all day. We don’t notice that the paint is chipped, the light bulb is burnt out, that one ceiling tile is discoloured, etc. Take a few minutes and have a really intentional look around. A can of paint and some plaster can make a big difference.

7 – Schedule out events. Are you doing a back-to-school BBQ? Upcoming parents Nights? Graduations? In-house tournaments? A halloween event? Get those dates set and blocked off.

8 – September means a influx of kids looking to celebrate their birthdays. If you have a birthday party program, review it and see if anything can be updated. If you don’t have one… book a call and lets fix that. Parties are people paying you to bring you leads and can be run by jr. coaches during off hours.

9 – Set goals. How many members do you want to sign up in September? How many can you actually take in without crashing all your systems. One year we missed that second part and went really hard. We signed up 130+ members on 6-week trials in September. At the time, we were not ready for that and while it sounds good, caused us a lot of problems.

10 – Inventory. Get orders in now for the gear you will need in a month. All the suppliers are about to get slammed as well. Get orders in so you are ready. When everyone is in uniform but that one new kid because his size is out of stock and backordered, her’s not having a great experience.

11 – Curriculum & delivery method review. Part of being a better coach is constantly trying to improve how we coach. Trying new things, reading new books on coaching. It also keeps things fresh. One common problem is curriculum bloat. When overtime we keep adding and never removing. Sometimes the best thing to do is simplify so that more time goes into the most important things.

12 – Class schedule. Any classes that should be split? Any that should be merged? Any classes that are just a couple people and need to either grow or go?

13 – Merch drop. Back-to-school means clothes shopping. Which can be a good time to drop some cool new branded apparel.

14 – Marketing. Successful marketing isn’t about doing 1 thing. It’s doing a whole bunch of things and those things work together. Yes, you can just dump money into paid ads. But it’s far more effective to be in many different places and have people seeing you everywhere they look, not just when scrolling on their phone.

And finally, and this is a big one… Don’t do everything in a bubble. Connect with others, talk to other successful schools. Go to events. Book a call with me. Don’t just book with me, their are lots of great coaches out their helping gyms. Book with a few, find one that fits your vibe.

Start here: https://app.calendarbridge.com/book/fQB4gaf if we aren’t a good fit, I can hopefully point you to someone that is 🙂