6 Essential Steps for Setting Up Your Tennis Network

By Rich Neher

Part 3 of the 6-part series

Drop-In Tennis – A proven model for a successful tennis business

1.      Top 5 Reasons Why Tennis is the Safest Sport Amid COVID-19

2.      Why You Need to Create a Tennis Network

3.      6 Essential Steps for Setting Up Your Tennis Network

4.      How to Successfully Prepare Your Drop-In Tennis Business

5.      Create a Part-Time Income Organizing Drop-In Tennis Events

6.      Drop-In Tennis – the Best Recruitment Tool for Tennis Clubs

6 Essential Steps for Setting Up Your Tennis Network

This series is all about creating a successful tennis business in your local area. This business is also designed to be replicated in other areas. It is possible to create a whole bunch of locations throughout your region, your state, or even in the entire country.

Starting a tennis business should not be a difficult decision. A lot of tennis players who like to organize and are searching for a part-time income are open to becoming entrepreneurs in the sport they love. At the same time, a lot of tennis professionals interested in a side business that could potentially make them extra money even when they’re sick or on vacation, need to know how small drop-in tennis events can be their roadmap to success.

I wrote Part 2 in my series about Drop-In Tennis to demonstrate that your new business endeavor needs players that you can work with and that pay you to organize tennis for them. The best way to create this large base of players is to establish a Tennis Network in your local area.

In Part 3 I will show you step-by-step how to set up your Tennis Network.

STEP 1 - Define what type of players you want in your Tennis Network

My definition of a good Tennis Network is one that has a very active membership of people who play at similar levels and like to be around each other for tennis and social activities.

While not every member will fall into this category, you should always strive to have as many players as possible involved in both. It helps to create a more homogeneous group with the following characteristics for players:

• ? Age: mature adult to senior
• ? Tennis level: intermediate to advanced
• ? Disposition: friendly, outgoing
• ? Loves: playing tennis (of course!), going out, parties, traveling

These players will become the core participants in your network, your tribe.

STEP 2 - Conceptualize your tribe

When the majority of members in your Tennis Network fall into the above category, you’ll have the best chance to create a homogeneous group, a tribe, which will respond well to

• ? regular drop-in mixers
• ? other tennis events, clinics, lessons
• ? traveling to tennis outings and big tournaments
• ? going out for drinks after tennis
• ? regular parties for Halloween, summer, New Year’s, etc.
• ? commercial offers that make sense and add value

Can you picture your tribe? A bunch of like-minded tennis players who'd enjoy to let you organize their matches. In fact, they can't wait to get off work and come to your courts and be great participants in your new Tennis Network.

STEP 3 - Evaluate your local market area

To start your tennis business, you probably need some kind of business plan. Right? To create a business plan, you need to know your market. This quick study is designed to provide some expert answers on which you can base your entire plan.

The information obtained through this study will be useful for all your future plans and provide data for the entire process of creating a successful business. It also lets you measure and evaluate marketing decisions.

Description of the Market

The market we are looking for consists of a local region with a good number of public and private tennis courts and is known to be home to a large number of mature adult and senior tennis players.

Ladies USTA League teams between sets

Target Market Questions

• Does the market have a large population of players age 35-65?
• Are those players currently playing USTA Adult Leagues, or have they previously participated in them?
• Would those players love to join a conventional tennis club but don’t have the means to afford it?
• Are your targeted players yearning for someone organizing social tennis for them on a regular basis and offering a social program they would love to join?
• Are the factors influencing their decision to join your tennis network: Clean tennis courts? Good lights in the evenings? Knowledgeable matching up of partners? Price? Confident leadership?
• Are many of those targeted players open to participating in activities beyond just doubles or mixed doubles tennis matches?
• You can also research how the USTA generally does in your area since the best locations for Tennis Network target markets are also the most successful locations for USTA’s adult league program.

Note: If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, please do yourself a favor and start a Tennis Network. Who knows, but you may well be on your way to make an extra $30K a year for some fun, evening work!

The next question is now: How do you define services or products that appeal to your target market? And remember, your target market is adult players of intermediate to advanced level who like to play leagues, appreciate the competitiveness of tennis matches, and enjoy an active social life.

Services and products that appeal to the target market

Currently, the following activities appeal to the target market: social doubles match play, social tennis mixers organized sporadically by conventional tennis clubs, fun social tournaments, tennis fundraisers for a good cause, tennis trips with clubs, companies, and organizations.

The following activities may appeal to this market in light of the fact there may be no one currently offering them. Like regularly organized social tennis at least once a week, fun tennis clinics, tournaments, fundraisers, tennis trips. Other social activities, like parties, bowling, dancing.

In other words: Fun tennis activities organized by the best clubs, but unattainable for non-members, appeal to the target market.

STEP 4 - Find the first Host Club for your Tennis Network

Before you go out and find players for your new Tennis Network, you better have a Host Club ready as a location for your drop-in events. Right? What are the criteria for being a good Host Club for your Tennis Network?

Private club vs. public courts

A private tennis club with a regular membership is your best bet. I’m not saying to forget Country Clubs or Equity Clubs. However, unless they are hurting for members, they will probably not listen to you.

As far as public courts are concerned, it depends on what rules your local Parks & Rec department have put in place. Like, in the Los Angeles area, it’s almost impossible for a group to book courts regularly. You’d have to ask, e.g., six of your players, to book six courts for you.

Number of tennis courts

When I run my drop-ins, I always try to create an environment where nobody ever sits out. This may not always be possible if you have a limited number of courts. And if your group grows, you may have to be creative in your approach, like play short sets, etc.

To calculate your court needs is easy, of course. For eight players, you need two courts. For 16 players, you need four courts. My Friday night group has up to 50 players when it’s warm outside. That means I need at least 12 courts and maybe even a singles court. (See Chapter 16 on how to deal with singles). Fortunately, this is a semi-private, 16-court facility that is usually almost empty on a Friday night.

Good court lights are a must-have for nightly drop-ins

It seems obvious, but I’m still going to tell you about the importance of good court lights for night play. Not just because the majority of your players will be of mature age and their eyesight often can’t handle bad lights. But you also want to avoid getting barraged with complaints about the lights. You don’t need that headache in your business.

Drop-in time slots favored by clubs

Even the busiest tennis clubs experience certain times during the week where not a lot of their members are playing tennis. This may be on a Sunday afternoon, or maybe on a Friday night. You want to find out what that ‘non-prime-time space on their court is that you could utilize. Every owner of a tennis club hates to see a bunch of empty courts where no one’s playing. When that owner (or Tennis Director) also learns what a great new member recruiting tool drop-in tennis could be for their facility, you’ll have an easy time getting an agreement for your time slot.

STEP 5 - Go out and find your Tennis Network members

Now you need to get the word out. Since word-of-mouth is an excellent way of finding players for your Tennis Network, have you explored the area within 5-10 miles around your Host Club? Are there public tennis courts with lots of players? Chances are, these players would be happy to have someone professionally arrange their matches, find them a great selection of partners and opponents. They need to be targeted.

Create an 8? x11 color flyer for that purpose. Go and hand out those flyers to everyone playing at public courts. The leaflet goes everywhere we know tennis players are gathering.

• ? Public parks
• ? Libraries
• ? Grocery stores with community boards
• ? Other tennis clubs (if they allow it)
• ? Fitness clubs
• ? Doctors offices
• ? Golf courts, driving ranges

I’m sure you’ll find more opportunities for distributing flyers in your area.

STEP 6 - Website, E-mail, Social Media

WEBSITE

I’ve been making my own websites since the late 1990s and made one for the California Social Tennis Network, of course. However, the importance of websites became sort of diminished when social media sites became popular. With increased activity on Facebook and Twitter, I made fewer and fewer updates to the website. Today, the only value I’m seeing is to display where we’re playing and when.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Start posting on your Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. I made the decision not to put up a dedicated Facebook page because I have a commanding presence on that platform already, similar to my Twitter and LinkedIn presence. If you don’t have that, I recommend going all out with your Tennis Network on social media.

EMAIL LIST

You probably already have a list of tennis playing friends. This needs to be the beginning of a large list you are about to create. Email and direct messaging will be the most important methods of communicating with your Network. Start emailing to your tennis friends and ask them to forward/share with their friends.

DIGITAL NEWSLETTER

From very early on, I started emailing weekly newsletters* to members of my Tennis Network. I’m still doing this every Friday morning. The content varies from tennis articles of interest, the announcement of monthly parties, birthday list for the month, funny stuff, and the weekly tennis calendar. The newsletter gives your members a sense of belonging to a club. Most of them will love it.

PRINT MEDIA

If you have the money to pay for print ads, all the power to you, I did not. But I was able to find a list of local newspapers and the people running their community interest departments. So, I wrote articles for them announcing the start of great tennis in the area, and many carried the message. Do you like writing? Why not offering those local papers to write a weekly tennis column for them?

More suggestions, including simple business plan, sample flyer + liability waiver and other guidelines can be found in my book "Drop-In Tennis Secrets" which is available on Amazon.

In Part 4 of this series, I'll show you how to prepare your new tennis business for success.

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Rich Neher celebrates the publication of his new tennis book “Drop-In Tennis Secrets,” which is now available on Amazon as a paperback and in a Kindle version. He set out to find an answer to the question, “Can you make money in tennis when your name is not Roger or Rafa?” The answer is, yes! Drop-In Tennis Secrets is a handy guide for those seeking to organize tennis matches for local players and make some money in the process.

German immigrant Rich Neher is a tennis writer and publisher of a monthly newsletter titled TENNIS CLUB BUSINESS. Rich has organized and personally conducted thousands of drop-in tennis events in Southern California since 1998.