First off, no. 

That blog was easy. Come back tomorrow for more business advice. 👍

Just kidding. 

I’ve had this question posed by a few clients in the past few months. The price of everything is going up dramatically – from food to gas. We want to help kids build confidence through cheerleading, and it’s pretty tough to do that when their parents can’t afford to bring them to practice or to enroll them in classes. However, the situation when considered – is actually less worrisome than it may seem. Have you lost a dramatic number of athletes due to inflation? I bet you’ve lost a few, but factually – are you losing dozens? 

Most gyms just aren’t. People are learning to adapt to the new normal. The cost of minimum wage has increased quite a bit in the past few years in most states driving up the cost of all wages. Paired with last year’s tax benefits for parents, many are still able to afford after-school activities. But, if you’re seeing parents struggling in your area (and I’m sure there are), here are a few do’s and don’ts to continue supporting your “just cause” while also helping with the bottom dollar.

Don’t lower your prices. The reality is – all those things that cost money are also costing you money! Your payroll is going up. Your gas is going up. The cost of food at your snack bar is skyrocketing. You have expenses as well, and you can’t cut prices because your expenses aren’t getting any cheaper. In fact, for those of us in states where the minimum wage is increasing dramatically every year, we’re usually preparing the budget at this time of year for that influx – giving staff raises so they stay above minimum wage all while ensuring those well above minimum wage also stay “well above.” 

Do offer more affordable options. Maybe you can do a 30-minute skills class that is more focused on fun than on tumbling. I have offered this successfully over the years. I called it FUNdamentals (because we don’t currently use the USASF FUNdamental program and it made sense otherwise.) They did a week of tumbling, a week of gymnastics, a week of ninja and a week of P.E.-style strength and conditioning. It was a 30-minute class. There were 10 kids per class and one coach. The class wasn’t skill-based, meaning if you were trying to attain new skills, you’d need to be in a more focused class. However, if you were trying to just do something fun and get out some energy each week, it was the perfect program for you. It was a bit cheaper than our other classes and because we adjusted the time and ratios, it was also equally as profitable for us. Look for situations that can be a win-win.

Don’t cut quality. If you’re looking to save money, obviously payroll is one place to do it. At the same time, if you’re looking to lower the quality of any single thing in your gym – cut your payroll. For me, there are a lot of reasons this is my last-choice when trying to save a few bucks. People matter most. Take care of your staff. Give them good pay and adequate hours. Less staff will compromise the quality of your programs, so find other places to cut.

Do consider your competition schedule. The cost of travel is pretty outrageous right now. If you’re not near a major airport, it’s even worse. Consider making this a semi-travel year. Maybe 2-3 hours away is OK because it allows families to go in one day without a required hotel, but you’ll skip NCA or Cheersport this year because it requires flights and hotels. We are doing a bit of travel this year, but we also have been talking about what to expect in this year’s competition schedule for quite a few years. We’re also in an area where inflation tends to be a bit less painful because the military can grocery shop on base and can avoid “driving into town” for a lot of items if they need to. Nevertheless, if I were in a town more impacted by inflation (or I were paying $7.50/gallon for gas), I’d probably stay more local.

Don’t cut expenses that will cut your top line. During COVID we were looking for every item we could cut that wouldn’t prevent us from saving time or making money. There were a few things that were non-negotiables to us. In fact, we would have only cut them immediately before closing our doors. Those included: Eliminating our class management software, our email marketing software, our website, and our own business development programs. I wasn’t willing to cut those things because they saved us a significant amount of time or made us a significant amount of money (even during COVID.) Consider what you’re cutting before you actually make those cuts. 

So remember, no where in there did I say you should gauge people on your prices. I also didn’t say you should give discounts due to inflation. If you’re young, you may not remember when inflation hit America in the past. It did. People survived. Coincidentally ABC News recently reported that during the 2008 recession, after-school activities actually grew. People weren’t able to afford vacations and theme parks, so they looked for more affordable avenues of entertainment. There you go. You may actually see growth during this period!