Figure Skating Club advice

[Harleyboy]

I was recently elected to the Board of Director for the local figure skating club. I have no experience in club management, but was a small business owner for 31 years and have a little background in finances.

Basically, this club is broke. We need to come up with some money making projects.  Please tell me how you club makes money to buy ice time and  support the LTS program.

Thanks in advance for any advise you can offer.

[Skittl1321]

1. Membership fee
2. Ice show (completely no frills so we don't spend on lights, sound, or costumes. Skaters pay to skate. The money really comes.from LTS groups...the more skaters on the ice at a time the better profit...lasts about 1 hr, we use 1 hr of.club ice.for.finale.rehearsal. no other ice.time is purchased.
3. Gift wrapping.at the mall.for holidays.(barely worth it)
4. Host a competition. (but sometimes this.loses money)
5. Sell club jackets (but take preorders, we once got stuck with a huge pile of shirts)

Our club does.not.spend much money though. Just one hour of ice a week.  LTS is seperate from the club.

[Kim to the Max]

We really use our Skate School to off set the costs of our club ice. We also use our ice show as a large fund raiser. Other things we have done or do are: car wash, bottle/can return (we got over $500 last year for this one - NY is a state with a deposit), bake sales, family skate nights (these do two things - 1. boosts skate school enrollment, 2. raises money), etc.

[techskater]

Club competition usually covers our expenses for the year beyond membership and ice fees from those skating on it.

[Harleyboy]

Thanks for the replies. I have been able to meet with most of the other board members and get a better idea of where the money goes and the ways we have tried to raise money in the past.  We have an opportunity to operate a concession stand for junior league & high school hockey games. I think that will start help with the cash flow, especially if we use all volunteer labor to run the stand. The club owns a skate sharpening machine and I am learning how to sharpen skates. Seems like a sharpening service set up at the hockey games might be able to collect buck or two.

It's a start. We have another board meeting on the 19th, I'll pitch some of your idea and get some feed back from the whole board.

[hopskipjump]

See if parents will donate candy/snacks for the concession stand.  We always ran one for band and parents donated cases of candy so it was all profit.  Later when there was more of a cash flow we used some of the proceeds to buy candy.  You can also ask a party rental place to donate the use of a popcorn machine.  Mayby they can put a sign on it for "free advertising or if you do a show they get free ad space.

[Query]

I've never been on a club board, but have some ideas.

I assume new members would help.

Form a Synchro team! It's very popular. People will join your club to join your team. Plus, it encourages social group interaction, which might be a little helpful. Just make sure the club doesn't have to support the team.

One local club gets a lot of money from putting on a show, but like someone else said, there are risks.

Ask local coaches whether they want to give free 15 minute group lessons on club ice. Benefits skaters and coaches, and attracts skaters. Some clubs pay coaches a little for this, but you possibly can't at first - it's an opportunity for coaches to build up clientèle for the future paid group lesson that only costs them time. Hard to guess how various coaches will respond.

If you have a competition, ask local hotels if they will give you a kick back if you mention an official hotel in the competition ad. Charge a little for vendor tables - but be sure to get the rink pro shop's OK (they may want a percentage to offset loss of sales), and don't charge too much - many competitions have priced themselves out of the vendor market, which means your skaters don't get a chance to be fit by expert boot people, or buy stuff. Be sure to contact boot and blade companies, and the gypsies who sell at competitions.

Sell club club jackets, tee shirts, club jewelry, key rings, and other silly trinkets.

Advertise! Find cheap ways: Ask the rink to let you post fliers and put up a bulletin board. Exchange adverts with local social and ballroom dance places, community centers, gyms, health clubs, and pools.

Send members around to homes and hand out fliers and one-session $1 discount coupons.

Press releases and weekend activity announcements to local newspapers and broadcasters cost nothing.

If your kids are supposed to talk about what they did for summer vacation, find a way to bring the club into the presentation.

Invite broadcasters and reporters to watch your sessions and write an article.

Encourage club members to wear those club tee shirts and jackets while not skating!

Invite skating judges to provide comments at specific sessions. Some judges love to give advice, and many skaters and coaches love comments, and will come. I've seen it work with one club. But you may need to pay driving costs.

I'm unsure of this, but if you invite politicians to speak, they may help fund organizations that listen to them, and they may mention your club to people who want more community activities.

Done cheaply, you hardly need budget for advertising.

It's extremely important that virtually all of the local certified coaches know of your sessions, so they will come and bring students. Don't be too selective on coaches.

Oh yes!!! Invite the hockey team to skate on club sessions.

[Sk8tmum]

Different here. The LTS program actually is the "cash cow" that covers the majority of the costs for the club; put 65 kids on the ice, 9 coaches ... 4 or 5 sessions a week ...

Silent auctions or raffles can raise funds.  Parents can donate stuff for it.

Stick a few skaters and a club banner in front of a local coffee shop asking for donations (clear it with the coffee shop first).  It works, plus, you can hand out brochures/flyers to promote the club.  Actually, doing it front of a liquor store is more profitable   but, I'm only familiar with Canadian laws on this sort of stuff, not sure if you can it in the US.

Again, not sure how the US works: can you get  sponsorships?  Sell ads in brochures or on a club website, or in carnival programs or on the club bulletin boards?  Real estate agents in particular seem to loooovvvee to buy 1/4 page ads for their business card

[Query]

Let me add a few more things, though some people might disagree with the first.

Keep everything modestly priced. If your club membership is only $15 or $20 or so above what USFSA charges the club, no one will bother to comparison shop clubs. If you charge $10 or less for a $1 tee shirt with the club logo added, or $25 or less for a $10 fleece jacket with same, it's quite possible most members and maybe their parents will buy one or more of both, and won't feel cheated - which might make up the same difference as charging $40 or $50 over USFSA price for club membership. Again if you charge $5 for a bumper sticker or window sticker, most of those people who are willing to apply those to their car will. Of course, you should ask how many people want them first, and not have many more made up. And if people in the club have the equipment to make things (it's not that hard to use computers and irons to apply logos), that will both save money and get people involved with the club.

Another way to get people involved in a club is outside activities. Hikes. Swims. Picnics. Dinners. I'm not talking about charging money for these things - just a way to keep people interested in the club and in skating and talking with the friends they form through these activities, so they don't drop away from your club.

Try to stay away from internal politics. I saw one wonderful (non-skating) club torn apart by politics, when someone wanted to control all the money.

Anyway, good luck. The very fact you are willing work on putting the club on a sounder footing makes you much more likely to succeed!

[Skittl1321]

Where are you finding t-shirt + screenprinting for $1?  The lowest I've ever found that, in bulk, is around $8.

And even more fleece + embroidery for $10?

Our fleece's were $50, because the cost was $40!  Fleece jackets aren't cheap- and embroidery is mega-expensive.

[Skate@Delaware]

Our club jackets are from Jammin' and are $65...which isn't too bad considering it has a large embroidery on the back, but it's a hideous red/black combo (our colors used to be navy/white but they thought that was too close to the UofDe's colors).  Jammin' does work with you, they do a lot of team stuff.

We raise a lot of money during our shows. We charge $75 to enter, you must sell 10 tickets at $10 each as well. We also sell baked goods during the show and some of the ladies sell those bags. Some of the ladies make beaded charms and other things as well.  Several times a year we have a consignment sale and the club gets 10% from whatever you put up. 

We also actively promote not just our club but the rink by taking our portable surface out places: schools, festivals, malls and doing mini-shows and "try skating-it's fun" which is a hit.  But just putting up a booth and showing a video of skating is popular (which we do when we can't set up our rink).  And, it helps to have the adult skaters participating because we snagged another 5 adults this year by going around and actively promoting skating as a healthy exercise. All of us have lost weight by skating-we put up a chart showing how many calories you can burn by skating vs. walking and that gets attention.

We don't do bake sales or car washes or anything like that-there are too many other organizations that do that, plus we are way to busy for that. Most of our revenue is from the ice show plus membership. Occasionally we do the Breakfast at Applebee's thing, but those are hard to get. That is a good way to get some donations though.

[Debbie S]

Yes, jackets and other warm-up gear are expensive. Our club has them, we take pre-orders (advance payment required) and do not make money off of them. They are around $100. Making money off of jackets (or other material items) you are 'selling' to members may get you into hot water with the IRS, b/c retail is not one of your club's functions. Bake sales and such where items are all donated are a different story, but generally those do not bring in a lot of money. But if there is a special event coming up (like a hockey tournament), you might make a decent amount of money operating concessions.

My club makes a lot of money off our annual competition and that supports our club ice and other activities during the year. We do not run the LTS program, the rink does. Large comps require a lot of planning and a big volunteer base, but a Basic Skills comp is easier to run and could make a nice profit. Talk to the rink's skating director (or whoever runs the LTS program at your rink) and discuss the possibilities.

Someone else mentioned a used skate and apparel sale. People bring in items they no longer can use (outgrown), set their own prices, and the club takes 10 or 15%. If you do this, run it during LTS time.

One club near me used to have a bull roast/auction where they made a lot of money. Aside from ticket sales, they would seek donations from local businesses for the auction, plus the coaches at the rink would often donate a free lesson. It was great for a few years but when the economy went downhill, so did their donations and profit. So they stopped doing it.

Other clubs make money off of shows, but the show has to be good if you're going to charge $10 or more for it. If all your skaters are low-level, then in all fairness, that's not really an option. In my experience, clubs charge a fee to be in the show, but that often just covers ice time (show and rehearsal) and choreographer fees - make sure not to overpay those you hire. If you do have some high-level skaters and your goal is to make money, you'll need to reach out to the general community via media relations and (cheap) advertising. It helps if your show has a specific theme that will attract interest (ex: Nutcracker on Ice during the holiday season).

[Skittl1321]

We make money on our shows because it is totally no-frills.  Another club near by loses thousands every year (they budget to do that, it isn't a surprise), despite charging hefty fees and selling tickets  But it is important to them to have great production values and big name guest skaters.

[Query]

Skittl1321:

The tee shirt price was without screen printing, from a local store (Walmart?). Same for fleece jacket (from a discount clothing store at end of season). I had to look around to find those prices. That's part of what many people do when trying to do things for a club cheap - they look around a lot. Perhaps it helps that I live in a college town.

Perhaps your club has someone with a silk screen, or someone with just about any computer printer or photocopier that you can use with transfer sheets, and an iron. (Be sure to surround shirt with a towel, because some ink from transfer sheet would otherwise leak onto the ironing board and iron, so someone who ruined both says.)

If you want to use a business to do the printing, you need to bump up the price. Make sure you ask for quantity discounts.

You can also find somewhat higher prices, in the several dollar/printed shirt range, by looking at a search engine. For example (I didn't look hard for the cheapest places)

 thet-shirtland.com
 4imprint
 clothing4all

BTW, to some extant you get what you pay for. Cheap fleece works, but isn't as pretty and is heavier for the warmth. At the top end, I've a fleece jacket and pants from http://www.openairwear.com that has taken decades of hard use on ski slopes, and they also some of the sell the lightest weight fleece clothing on the market. But most of your skaters wouldn't pay what they charge. Besides, Meryl Davis showed that good skaters don't need that much warm clothing.

[PinkLaces]

One good money maker that our club has is a silent auction that runs during our ice show.  The first couple of years we had parents donate baskets.  Now we have a committee that gets donations from area business - there are even big businesses, pro sports teams, etc that you can send e-mail request to that will send you stuff.  The committee groups like things into baskets and organizes the auction.  We make a couple thousand dollars and all the proceeds go to our annual banquet. 

The needs of our club are quite small.  We only have to pay for 2 hours a week of ice time and those sessions are packed so they pay for themselves.  It wasn't always the case, but is now.  We buy ice time for National Skate month party, tests, and some exhibitions.  The ice show and home competition are run by the rink.  Our club gets a small percentage of the profit from the competition in ice credits for doing volunteer work at the competition. 

2 other fundraisers that have worked well are a Christmas wreath sale and a spring plant sale.

[twokidsskatemom]

Those are all great ideas. We have unique issues that make most of those ideas not doable right now. We dont have enough skaters to make things like coats,t shirts ect worth the cost.We dont have things like judges within the state at all, only two and they are 400 miles away.Right now we dont have enough for an ice show.We just got our  rink to take over LTS,since we lost a ton ie around 30,000 in ice costs alone two years ago.Our best bet right now is to take over the stand and hope  we make enough to cover the two days a week of ice we have to buy in order to obtain three days of rink FS ice. My goal is to have them offer 5 days, but right now we need to help grow their LTS.We also have limited coaching,, only two coaches.After a certain point kids/adults either move or stop.Or keep skating like my crazy kids!But not most of them.
and Op, see you at the rink!

[Skittl1321]

twokidsskatemom-  your club sounds a lot like ours, although ours is getting bigger.  We only have a few judges in our state, but they aren't near us. All judges come from out of state when we host things.

For Halloween, the rink donated 30 minutes of ice time to us, to have an exhibition.  We did not do any professional lighting, music, or costumes.  Skaters just skated whatever program they wanted (I think this one was free, but if there is high interest, the club charges $10) and we put music into the CD player just like practice ice.

The reason the rink agreed to donate the time is that we provided an audience, most of whom then went and paid for ice + rental skates for the rink's special "costume skate".  By being able to advertise the event as an exhibition + public skate, it was a value add for the rink (plus made a lot of siblings of skaters come skate who probably wouldn't have if it wasn't an exhibition.)

Maybe you could work on something like that with your rink?  Perhaps the club could do an exhibition before a LTS trial session (if they ever do that- ours doesn't anymore, where they do 1 free lesson to get new people).  Having LTS skaters see "real" skaters, tends to result in a few extra sign ups.

[twokidsskatemom]

twokidsskatemom-  your club sounds a lot like ours, although ours is getting bigger.  We only have a few judges in our state, but they aren't near us. All judges come from out of state when we host things.

For Halloween, the rink donated 30 minutes of ice time to us, to have an exhibition.  We did not do any professional lighting, music, or costumes.  Skaters just skated whatever program they wanted (I think this one was free, but if there is high interest, the club charges $10) and we put music into the CD player just like practice ice.

The reason the rink agreed to donate the time is that we provided an audience, most of whom then went and paid for ice + rental skates for the rink's special "costume skate".  By being able to advertise the event as an exhibition + public skate, it was a value add for the rink (plus made a lot of siblings of skaters come skate who probably wouldn't have if it wasn't an exhibition.)

Maybe you could work on something like that with your rink?  Perhaps the club could do an exhibition before a LTS trial session (if they ever do that- ours doesn't anymore, where they do 1 free lesson to get new people).  Having LTS skaters see "real" skaters, tends to result in a few extra sign ups.

We are doing something like that for the Holiday. Our small club will host a exhibition, and the rinks LTS will be offered a chance to learn a group number and perform along with us. We will then have an open skate after.The rink is giving us  fee time and we are buying 1 1/2 hours.
To be honest the rink is great, they want us to grow.We get alot of freebies.We help them with posting of flyers,sending out mass emails,my skaters help teach two days a week, its a win win for everyone. Just takes time!!!In fact someone else has the stand now, but the rink would rather us have it.They know we NEED it lol.
Its hard  to explain to people that are from large places how it is in a small place!

[turnip]

have a used skate sale (also sell used other stuff: dresses, leggings, zuca bags etc), with a percentage of the money made going to club. It's great for your members who can get rid of stuff they've had hanging around for ages, and they can also pick up some new-old stuff cheap. My rink planned to do this and had the rule that anything that doesn't sell, the original owner takes back, so the club isn't stuck trying to store dozens of random skates!

Competitions and shows don't always make money, so I would look at them as something fun and beneficial for the club and skaters more than as a money making venture.

You could try a sponsered skate? You could see if the rink would give you free or discounted ice time. Skaters pay a small entry fee (like $5 or less), the main money comes from their friends and relatives sponsering them. You could have them skate laps, which everyone can do, and maybe as an extra, a competition/sponsered event for the most revolutions in a spin or the most waltz jumps in a row or something fairly quick and easy to organise. I would charge an extra couple of bucks for this, as not everyone will want to or will be able to take part.  Every one who participates should get a certificate 

Give skaters the chance to skate their program in front of the rest of club, like they would in a competition (full costume, hair, make up etc, the other skaters can throw on flowers and toys etc). Charge a small fee for this. I would do it at the end or beginning of a club session, and only have a couple of skaters do it at a time so it doesn't get boring for people watching.