Scaling Up: The Ultimate Guide to Taking Your Kids Activity Business to the Next Level
How can I scale my kids' activity business?
So, you already run a successful kids activity business, but you want to scale your club even further? Maybe you feel a bit stuck after that initial growth spurt and don’t know how to continue to grow? Then this blog is for you! Read on to find out how you can increase your revenue and see continuous growth in your kids activity club.
Increase your revenue streams
Increasing your revenue streams is a great way to expand your kids activity business, and there are several ways to do this! Consider if you can offer any new types of classes or activities. Perhaps you can offer more classes to a wider variety of ages, or start offering 1-1 sessions and hip hop classes along with your regular sessions and contemporary dance classes. Maybe you can begin to offer holiday camps alongside your regular terms too. Offering a bigger variety of activities and classes means that you’re also more likely to attract new customers. The opportunities for creating more streams of revenue are endless! You just have to look at what else you could bring to the table and go for it!
[.blue__text]Read our blog about setting up your camp with ClassForKids![.blue__text]
Expand to new locations
You can also consider expanding your business to new locations and venues. By doing this, you’ll have the space and opportunity to provide more people with the chance to be a part of your club. If you feel nervous about setting up shop in a new location, you can utilise waiting lists. Waiting lists are a great way of testing the waters and seeing if there is a need for your club in the new location. All you have to do is set up a waiting list, promote it and see if enough parents register for the waiting list to make it a good idea. And bam! Now you have proof that there is a genuine interest for your club in the new location and you can confidently find another venue.
Consider franchising
Another exciting possibility for growing your business is to franchise your club! This means expanding your kids activity business into more locations under separate owners. For example, McDonalds is a super well known franchise. Each restaurant is run by a different owner, a different group of team members and serves a different community. In exchange for running a branch, the franchisee gets to use the established business model, logo, menu names and so on! Similarly, your club can expand in this way too!
Utilise social media marketing
A great way of attracting and finding new customers is by investing in marketing. But, running ads and utilising marketing doesn’t have to cost you a fortune! A great, affordable option is to run ads on social media. This will allow you to generate awareness without spending crazy amounts, as you can set a daily or lifetime budget behind the campaign. You can easily run successful marketing campaigns for your club with a very small budget and social media platforms are a great way to start out!
[.pink__text]Not sure what to post on socials? Download our social media planner today![.pink__text]
Increase your prices to reflect the value you offer
A lot of the time, business owners will undersell themselves and their businesses, even if they are solving a very real problem for their customers. If this is the case, you might be able to grow your club simply by increasing the price of classes you are already providing. As long as you are transparent with the value you provide and increase prices little by little, parents will be understanding. Think about it like this: if your goal is to increase the price of a class from £6 to £10 it’s a good idea to increase the price a little bit, twice that year. The first time, you’ll increase the price from £6 to £8. Then, a few months later, you’ll increase the price again from £8 to £10. A £2 increase will not be something your customers are likely to dispute, and you will finally end up with the £10 charge per class, just as planned.
[.orange__text]Is it worth increasing your prices if it’s such a small increase? Let’s look at the calculations: Say you currently run 10 classes per week at £6 per child and your average class size is 15 kids. That means you make £90 per class and £900 per week. Even by increasing the price to £8 per child whilst running the same number of classes, you will now make £120 per class and £1200 per week. If you increase the price to £10 per child, you will receive £150 per class and £1500 per week! That means your club has the potential of earning a substantial amount of profit, even when the parents only see a small increase in price![.orange__text]
[.pink__text]Read our Guilt-Free Guide to Increasing Your prices![.pink__text]
Run a referral program
One way of growing your club is by increasing the number of customers. But how? Well, one tried-and-true method is by running a referral program. A referral program means that you encourage your existing customers to bring along or refer their friends to join your club. Your existing customers are often your greatest supporters since they have tried your club and know that they enjoy your classes. Just think about it: wouldn’t you be more likely to join a club if your friend said they were amazing compared to one you’ve only seen an ad for?
Usually, the existing customer referring their friends will get a discount or special referral offer in return for introducing your club to their friends. This offer doesn’t have to be anything crazy! You could simply offer a discount on classes they’re already taking or put the price down for a set amount of time.
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DownloadExpand your team and optimise your systems
Expand your team and optimise your systems
As a club owner, you often end up investing lots of time and effort into your club. But, your main focus should be on the growth of your club, not on admin tasks or teaching classes. In order for you to take a step back and refocus your energy in this way, you might need to hire more staff to take care of the day-to-day running of your club. Consider if hiring more staff might be a good solution for you and your club!
Optimising your systems and the way that you run your club will also allow for further growth. For example, if you are currently taking bookings manually and using spreadsheets for registers, you could optimise your processes by using an online system like ClassForKids! An online system should make sure that all the information you need is organised and help cut down hours of admin. That means that you’ll have more time to spend on the overall growth of your club, because the daily tasks are already taken care of!
[.blue__text]See how the ClassForKids system can help you optimise your club![.blue__text]
Growing a kid's activity business can be challenging, but with the right strategies and tactics, it can be done successfully. The tips mentioned in this blog are great ways to scale your kids activity business and see continuous growth. Whether your goal is to take 100 or even 500 bookings, these tips are sure to help you reach your club’s true potential!