How to Successfully Prepare Your Drop-In Tennis Business

By Rich Neher

Part 4 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

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 4 I will show you what you need to do to prepare your new Drop-In Tennis business for success

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

So, you have done all the preliminary steps of creating your new Tennis Network. Great. You also signed up a Host Club and you already have venue and date for your first drop-in. For the past 4 weeks, you've done all you can to get the word out. Plastered flyers all over town, created a small email list, told all your friends to tell their friends. Some of them have already emailed you they're coming. Super. Let's look at the next steps to prepare yourself for the big first day.

Tennis Balls

Have you found a good source for tennis balls yet? Costco, Target, Big 5 Sporting Goods. Look for sales. Buy in quantities when you get a can for under $2.50. I always buy Penn balls because they are sturdy and four sets of tennis are nothing for them. As an FYI, Penn has a 64% market share in the U.S.A., and if you’re a PTR member, you’ll get a discount on ProPenn balls!

NOTE: Don’t go cheap on the balls. Penn is great, Wilson is good, too. Don’t bring crappy balls to the court. Your members pay good money for the drop-in, they can expect high-quality tennis balls!

You’ll carry a good supply in your car now. Right? It’s not very professional when you start your drop-in and have to ask players for cans of new balls. You’ll need one can per court.

Tip: Don’t leave balls in a hot car. Also, when you buy a case of balls, check each can for pressure. You don’t want to end up needing your last can of balls and that one has no pressure. Happens with all brands occasionally.

Also, what are you planning to do with those used balls after each drop-in? My suggestion: offer to give them to the Host Club for their pro carts. In case they don’t want them, give them to the nearest high school or to an academy for disadvantaged youths. Be resourceful. You'll find a way of getting rid of your used balls and feel good about it.

How to get paid

Have you decided on your method of getting paid yet? Here are the options I use: Cash, Check, Venmo. I’m sure there are more. Whatever works best for you in your local area.

Money bag

If you charge $10 p.p., you’ll need 10 dollar bills because most people will pay with a twenty. If you charge $15, you’ll need a whole bunch of 5’s for the same reason. My money bag holds not only cash but also pens, vibration dampeners, a whistle.

Check-in list

VERY important. Write down first and last name, cell phone, and email address so you can build your database. Also, seeing the names in writing will help you memorize them.

Liability Waiver

Waivers protect gyms, tennis clubs, and tennis professionals every day and are a shield against lawsuits related to risks that are inherent in fitness and tennis activities. Chances are you’ve seen stories of egregious lawsuits against fitness and tennis professionals and businesses, despite waivers signed, and wonder if investing in waivers is necessary. The thing is – You’ll always hear about successful lawsuits against gyms and fitness centers, but what news outlet is going to write about the many cases dismissed outright due to a waiver?

A waiver is a legal contract and needs to be given the same care you would give any legal document to ensure that your waiver is enforceable. Waiver laws and the wording required varies across countries, states, and provinces, and any vague language in your waiver creates loopholes that can be exploited by lawyers. Where waivers fall short is when a business or professional is found guilty of gross negligence: a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property, or both.

Examples of gross negligence on a tennis court include:

• Not having first aid-qualified staff on duty (Take a first-aid course or talk to Host Club staff about procedures in emergency situations.
• Not having first aid equipment or an AED readily available (Bring a first-aid kit and make sure you know where the Host Club’s AED box is located)
• Failure to block access to broken equipment (When court equipment is dangerously broken down, make the Host Club aware of it and refrain from using that court)
• Failure to repair hazards on site (Slipping/Tripping hazards, Fire risks, etc. If there is some sort of chemical spill or water on the court, be careful, report the hazard, use a different court)
• Pushing a player to perform an action that is beyond their current capability (When a player sprained an ankle, for instance, he needs to sit out, go home, let a medical professional look at it)

As a service provider, you are legally required to exercise a reasonable standard of care when working with your players. That involves proactively ensuring the items on the list above are managed, as well as managing any other potential risks involved in your business. Failure to do so means that your waiver becomes a much weaker defense in court. I have attached an example of a liability waiver in Addendum 3 (California Social Tennis Network – Assumption of Risk Waiver of Liability Form) that you can use as a basis for your own waiver. However, I highly recommend engaging the services of a lawyer to ensure that your waiver is fully compliant with local laws and provides air-tight wording to protect your business.

Water

Mandatory for everyone running a drop-in or any other tennis event.

Music

I often bring a small Bluetooth speaker and my iPod to the courts. I run my playlists while checking in and in between sets.

Tennis racquet, tennis shoes

Yep. More often than not, you’ll have to play with your group. Read how this works in Part 5 (Create a Part-Time Income Organizing Drop-In Tennis Events)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.