Friday 13th December 2013

Great news that the sport premium funding has been extended for a further 12 months, meaning that a typical Premier Sport franchised territory with 75 schools will receive over £2million for delivery for the duration of the 3 years.

This amazing opportunity won't pass you by if you have planned strategically to maximise it. If you do not currently have time to be revising your business plans, then you need to make the time.

What are your company targets? What are your personal goals? Both should be considered at this time. The country's economy seems to be improving and after surviving years of recession it's now time to make the most of this fantastic opportunity. If you don't, somebody else will!

I've been contacted by many franchisees over the past couple of months who have already far exceeded their original 3 year business plan targets, or will have surpassed them by the end of this academic year. This is fantastic news but certainly not a time to ‘coast’. In fact the Christmas downtime represents a great chance to really analyse performance and efficiency.

Contingency plan – how could your company and new infrastructure cope if you were to lose some big contracts to a competitor or at the end of the funding period?

Financial Performance – what are your profit % targets? Gross profit target %, Operating profit %, retained profit %? If you DONT KNOW what these should be, how do you know if you are operating efficiently?

Eggs in one basket? - Are you heavily reliant on certain products such as curricular or funded clubs? If so, how can you mitigate this risk?
Sales Strategy – With the announcement of a further of funding year there will be a lot of competition for your school’s signatures next year. How can you get school’s to sign a two or three year contract early in 2013 to allow you to focus attention on new sales and maintaining quality within existing schools?

Sustainability – What is in place in your business plan NOW, that will ensure you keep business post funding (if that time ever comes)?

The one thing that has struck me most regarding our new franchisees is their understanding and appreciation of Premier Sport's USPs.

Sometimes, especially if you have been in the business for a long time, it can be easy to lose focus on what they are - but it is interesting to see SALES STRATEGIES from SALES PEOPLE who are producing very aggressive targets for growth based on their research of PS and its competitors.

The Inspire programme and the school's portal are by far our biggest and best USPs, therefore it's vitally important that when you are selling these products you are selling a ‘solution’ to schools and that you are not competing on price but on quality.

One franchisee has already realised the potential of the variety within the suite of Inspire products and is targeting an efficient method to increase sales, profit, and retention of staff by only selling 3 clubs per school at a time (a bundle) – all on the same day, including to those schools who already have a sports provider delivering there!

How?

By offering the START Active, STAY Active and PLAY Active ‘physical activity’ products to engage target groups (offering a ‘solution’). He doesn't need to offer any sport specific clubs until he is working within the school.

Once he is working in the school, offering a high quality service he will implement his 2nd phase of growth, upselling products within the school such as curricular offering, sport active clubs and Golden Mile AROUND the unique products that have gained him entry in the first place. And, he will already have his staff member there!

A simple but highly effective strategy.

So far year to date we have seen a 22% rise in before school clubs, 155% rise in Lunch time clubs and a 26% increase in after school clubs. However, after school clubs remain by far the most popular session.

With the introduction of the ‘Inspire’ programme and ring fenced funding, there really is no better time to be selling ‘bundles’ or package deals to schools and clusters to ensure you have a more equal split of sessions. This would improve staff quality and retention plus save you time and cost in recruitment, CPD and problem solving.

A START Active, STAY Active and PLAY Active sport bundle priced at £120 would save £30 in total (£10 per club).

Having three sessions on the same day allows you to pay a coach for the full day. If you include the Golden Mile as part of this offer, (incentive and value for the customer), the coach could also manage the implementation of this as part of their working day as they are in school anyway!

Example:

Income = £120 + vat
Delivery cost = £50
Profit  = £70 per coach per day x 5 days = £350 per week

X 38 weeks of term time = £13300

Multiply this by 10 coaches and you have a healthy operating profit of £133k per 38 weeks!! Not to mention a happy and committed workforce.

Some encouraging statistics to consider as you tuck into your mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas Turkey!

So far this academic year the network has enjoyed huge growth:

• 60% increase in overall revenue
• 7% increase in penetration
• 94% increase in curriculum time delivery
• 25% increase in holiday courses delivered
• 32% increase in holiday club attendances
• 36% increase in children attending holiday courses
• 43% increase in extra curricular activities

Here’s to a prosperous 2014. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year