How To Start Your Basketball Training Business From Scratch

If you're reading this blog I'm assuming you're a basketball trainer and you want to learn how to start and grow your own basketball training business from scratch? 

If that's you, I want you to keep reading..

I'm going to dive into the nitty-gritty details so it might be a good idea if you get a pen and a piece of paper to make notes.

If you have any questions for me about starting up a basketball training business you can schedule a 15-min consultation call with me here. 

If you're brand new and you haven't started training any players yet then this blog is for you and again it's very important that you do this step by step.

Let's say right now that you are a high school basketball coach and you want to branch off and do your own thing.

If that's you, I want you to focus on getting customers and this is where a lot of basketball coaches get this backwards.

Most basketball coaches will try to create this big brand and spend hours and hours on building a crazy website.

These types of coaches will spend thousands and thousands of dollars before they ever get any clients!

The way I work with coaches on how to build a real profitable successful basketball training business is to get customers first and that's what you have to focus on and when you focus on that then you will then have immediate revenue that can later pay for a website among other marketing tools. 

STEP#1 FOCUS ON GETTING YOUR FIRST CUSTOMER

The first thing that you have to focus on is getting your first customer.

I've seen a lot of basketball coaches who struggle with this at the start and quit straight away.

Most coaches will quit before they ever get any traction with their business.

When you work at getting your first paid customer it might take you a couple of weeks or a month or maybe even two months, but the way I want you to get your first customer is by marketing yourself to parents. 

If you go back to previous blogs I've written you will read me say that when I first started my sports training business I was really introverted.

I hated talking to parents over the phone and I didn't know how to market myself.

Once I broke out of that and learned how to write emails, create videos and truly market myself, that's when I started getting way more clients and it's gonna be the same for you and whether you like marketing or not it's all about focusing on sales.

Once you get your first customer you'll have the self belief that you can get as many customers as you want, but it's all about getting the first one and only focusing on that.

STEP#2 CREATING A CUSTOMER OFFER

So, I've talked about getting the first customer by marketing yourself to people.

Now, we have to figure out your actual offer to your customers.

The offer means what is included in your program.

Are you just showing up to the basketball courts and putting on a one-hour session and then that's it? 

If you are, welcome to the 99% club!

Most basketball coaches in the United States are operating this way, and that's all right, but you need to be the opposite of what everyone else is doing, which means you need to add way more value to your clients.

Simply showing up to the session and delivering a great session is not good enough to parents anymore.

When you operate your business this way your parents are not going to stay in your program for long, even if you're a good trainer.

I want you to become a mentor to your athletes!

The way you do that is by offering value outside of the session to show parents that you are keeping their kids accountable.

You need to be able to show parents that even when they're not training with you they are still respecting you by staying accountable to you. 

A few things I want you to think about:

• What's the kids level of respect for you?
• Are they able to talk to you on a daily basis?
• Are they doing homework away from the court that you set them?
• What is happening off the court when they aren't with you?

STEP#3 BUILDING A SYSTEM IN YOUR BUSINESS 

Once you figure out the offer you will then need to create a system that will allow you to get clients month after month who stay in your program for years.

I want you to avoid selling blocks of sessions because this type of business model doesn't work anymore and if you're reading this blog and you've experienced that then you already know what I'm talking about.

You have to be able to run the business in a way where parents are paying you monthly or they're paying you annually to be a part of your program and they're fully committed to you and you're not working with uncommitted clients.

RUNNING YOUR SPORTS BIZ LIKE A GYM

I'm gonna leave you on this note - I want you to run your business the exact same way like a gym franchise.

I want you to charge your clients every 30 days and you're not going to be able to pause the payment or stop the payment unless there's a 60 day or 30 day cancellation notice.

This is how I want you to run your business and you do that by having contract agreements in place with each client when they enroll.

If you don't have contracts with your clients yet, I would highly recommend you create one. 

I can help you with this by scheduling a 15-minute phone call with me.

Speak soon, 

- Ben