Step2Success: Growth & Marketing for Children's Activity Providers

05 - Running Holiday Activities with Emma Sheriff of Europa Gym Centre

July 04, 2024 Abi Jacks and James Brooker Season 1 Episode 5
05 - Running Holiday Activities with Emma Sheriff of Europa Gym Centre
Step2Success: Growth & Marketing for Children's Activity Providers
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Step2Success: Growth & Marketing for Children's Activity Providers
05 - Running Holiday Activities with Emma Sheriff of Europa Gym Centre
Jul 04, 2024 Season 1 Episode 5
Abi Jacks and James Brooker

It's another Guide Growth Session with our strategic business manager, James Brooker and today, James is in conversation with Emma Sheriff from Europa Gym Centre discussing strategies for making the most of the summer holidays within a children's activity organisation. 

Discover key insights on overcoming seasonal challenges, optimising staff schedules, and enhancing holiday period offerings to boost revenue and engagement. 

Learn about the importance of early planning, innovative marketing techniques, and engaging both staff and participants to ensure a successful and profitable summer.
 
If you're preparing for summer camps or special events, this episode offers valuable tips and real actions to elevate your organisation during the crucial holiday seasons.


Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from Steps2Success, where we help you navigate the challenges of running a children's activity organisation with practical advice and expert insights.

Created with pride by LoveAdmin

Edited with finesse by Making Digital Real

Show Notes Transcript

It's another Guide Growth Session with our strategic business manager, James Brooker and today, James is in conversation with Emma Sheriff from Europa Gym Centre discussing strategies for making the most of the summer holidays within a children's activity organisation. 

Discover key insights on overcoming seasonal challenges, optimising staff schedules, and enhancing holiday period offerings to boost revenue and engagement. 

Learn about the importance of early planning, innovative marketing techniques, and engaging both staff and participants to ensure a successful and profitable summer.
 
If you're preparing for summer camps or special events, this episode offers valuable tips and real actions to elevate your organisation during the crucial holiday seasons.


Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from Steps2Success, where we help you navigate the challenges of running a children's activity organisation with practical advice and expert insights.

Created with pride by LoveAdmin

Edited with finesse by Making Digital Real

James Brooker:

Hey everybody, this is James strategic business manager at love admin. And you're listening to the guided growth podcast, where we'll be taking you through the basics of growing your children's activity organisation with real insights and real actions that you can apply to your organisation. This week, I'm with Emma from Europa gym centre, discussing how we can make the most of the summer holidays and holiday periods in general. Emma, welcome to our podcast. Thanks for joining us. Morning. Let's kick off by talking about Europa gym centre. Tell us how it all started and the journey you guys have been on. So

Emma Sheriff:

long story, I'll try and keep it sweet. My parents like drove back in 1992. Originally in a very small school hall, we flew back six months later moved into an old industrial building, which clearly was never designed to be a gymnastics facility. But actually, as time went on, we managed to develop the many, many rooms that you had for not just gymnastics, but additional sports as well. But of course, the place was never really ideal for what we were trying to do. So we were forever looking to try and get out of that venue and find another venue after five failed attempts over the 20 years that we were there. On the sixth attempt in the build up to the Olympics, we came across a site that was owned by Barratt homes. So my dad's been the talker that he was managed to go into Barratt homes and people from the council and people from the Olympic Committee, all to sort of get involved and get behind this, this site that was an old again, an old industrial site, but they not a whole lot down and built us a purpose built building for mainly gymnastics for our other sports that were with us, along with a housing estate beside us. So built in customers to start with, which was great. And we've been here since 2012, after the Olympics where we were used as a not gymnastics training venue, but a volleyball training venue. But because of that, it actually meant that we ended up with a bigger gym, at the end of it because of the two courts that we had. And then we've got a lot of ancillary fees as well, which cater for our many other sports that we do from boxing to dance into karate jujitsu, you name it, the sort of, we're sort of like the local sports centre, that all the sports aren't in a sports centre for what you're putting in it to be quite honest. And that's kind of really our story. The reason we kind of are known more than anything is back when we was at Fraser Road in our old venue was my parents sold their house, basically. And we moved in as a family into the venue. So it became this massive human interest story. And hence how my dad ended up running with the torch in 2012, or 2011. It would have been and they had over years awarded to them. So yeah, it's been a massively long journey that I've tried to condense very quickly into that little brief synopsis for you. But yes, we've gone through the middle to end up with what is essentially a really, really, really good building.

James Brooker:

Yeah, no, I think that's that's such an amazing journey to get get where you've gotten among I'm sure there's, there's been a lot of learnings along the way. And certainly we're keen to sort of help in that, that that that next chapter for you guys. So focusing now more in on that holiday period, we will know about how how important that that is, in terms of boosting your revenue and helping help them to grow. But talk to me a little bit first about the challenges that you face over the summer period in terms of organising activities and getting something going that there's going to be successful. Yeah,

Emma Sheriff:

I mean to some are notoriously, especially for gymnastic top is always harder. And people always say Oh, isn't that weird because the children are off holiday. So they should you know there should be more customers not less. But then most of them aren't here they are on holiday. So trying to keep things going. We don't close our regular regular classes, we do run throughout the year. So we do on holiday discount schemes and things but our actual additional stuff we do to make up that loss of income from our regular classes. We do anything from holiday, from clubs to gymnastic camps to actual camp counsellor sleepover for two or three nights. We've got put on multiple works to play sessions. It's It is a tough time the summer and you have to kind of be prepared, preparing I should say the rest of the year for that period that can potentially if you're not ready for it be a bit of a problem.

James Brooker:

And what what would you say out out of the bits you mentioned obviously coming really really busy having to try and organise all of those activities aren't your sort of standard classes. What's What's the biggest challenge in making sure that that periods successful? Part

Emma Sheriff:

partly the staff I mean, our staff are all employed. So they are contracted to ours. I mean, of course during the summer we might change them out a little bit to get them in but partly and partly the staff but actually the we found pre COVID It was actually a lot harder than it is now. Now people seem to do it. But I think the one big thing that we've changed that actually might be better was that we do it all by Pre booking only, I think back before when we were doing anything where it was, you know, turn up on the door, you didn't know one what was coming. And two, if anyone was coming, we're at least now if you can see that something selling really well, you can add on extra volume for those. Or if you can see something's not selling, you can switch it for somebody that you know is selling well, that, to me has been the biggest change since COVID. And COVID kind of forced our hand with that with the whole, you know, everything that we will have to do regulation wise, we COVID And how many people we could have in the building at the time. So I would say that it's probably the the outlining really good part of what happened during COVID. It forced us into that, that line of doing things. And we literally don't do anything now, unless it's pre booked. We don't do a single a single activity that's not pre booked session. So that is it. I would say single handedly that's the most important thing, because like I say, if you can see something really isn't selling, you can switch it up for something that you know, well, and vice versa.

James Brooker:

Yeah, I think certainly I'd agree in terms of taking that early approach to someone else, and not waiting until the first week of August to look to see whether something is successful. And you know, starting getting things live on, on whichever booking system you're using from sort of end of May, June time, I think is really, really important and giving you that that early, early oversight. In terms of the challenges that you you still have there Do Do you have any sort of bits that you think are kind of resulting in terms of staffing, do you do you find that that that's still an issue? Or do you think that now you've probably got under control,

Emma Sheriff:

I think it's it will always be an issue because actually what we can offer I don't have enough staff for so we're forever trying to find stuff and what the problem is, again, is doing COVID, we obviously had to let staff go. And the majority of the staff that we did let go were those younger coaches at the time that were just about to do their first or second qualification. So unfortunately, because we took the sort of, we'll look after the ones that are high qualified, and that do have bills or mortgages to pay, we did make redundant the youngsters, we've actually never lost that group of kids that would be now our, you know, our run of mind coaches for your summer things. And the other thing that comes with the younger coaches is because they don't necessarily have kids themselves. They're not restricted to having their holidays in the summer. So you're forever done juggling, not not making the youngsters do too much, because they're very keen to obviously get overtime or do anything extra. But in the same breath, you want to make sure you've got your better coaches as well. So you're constantly trying to pay that juggling act between enough staff, the right staff, and not not not putting them through the meal too much in those five to six weeks of the summer, when we do still have our regular programmes in the evening. And obviously we'd have other stuff on holiday that they potentially could be covering then as well. So it is a real juggling act with the staff during the summer. I think, you know, obviously every year from its challenges, I think the year of 2022 was horrendous because we had everyone that had lost their holidays in 2020, and 2021, all taking that holiday in 2022. And that resulted in us having to sort of as a family intervene and get some loans out and do to cover the summer period because it was horrible. But actually now we're we're pretty much on top of it. And our summer was actually already planned. So we're already on top of it.

James Brooker:

Yeah, I think that that plumbing pieces, we've said is is really, really important. And one, one suggestion or potentially give around the staffing piece. And we'll see that there is this massive sort of labour gap where development of good quality instructors or coaches or teachers was sort of stalled during COVID. But now we're sort out the other side of that, I would say building a development pathway as it as a inherent part of your business. I think it's really, really important, because not only does it give somebody a next step, so if they're in your standard domestic sessions, and they're getting to the end of that path pathway, they're getting to the end of the sort of stereotypical children's gymnastics, they're looking for their next thing, they're going to college or whatever. Actually, they could fall off the end of the treadmill in terms of their involvement with you guys. But actually, they're the ones that are completely ingratiated into the culture and into the way of running things that you've got. So I think building a really effective development pathway and saying to these people, actually, there's hours here for you to coach will train you give you extra qualifications, extra skills, transferable skills as well in terms of being able to control a group of rowdy kids and that type of thing. And really develop them into the people that can then run those those summer activities. It can also be on the flip side and extra bit of revenue generation for you because you can charge for that because you're going to give people qualification you're gonna give people skills to do as well? Yeah, I

Emma Sheriff:

mean, what we did even pre COVID, we used to follow the British genetics young leaders scheme, which is a bit like the Duke of Edinburgh sort of scheme, which worked really well. But again, we had that gap. So funnily enough, literally yesterday, we had a meeting about three that are just coming to the end of their young leadership. And it's sort of a ones that we actually want to coach and to be honest with you. They're really good. And I've been through the whole system from a very young age. What the way through though, and what some of our very first early young leaders, they were already at every single event we do, they were at the gym most nights. So yeah, there's there's three that we're just about to send off for their first qualification. And we've actually got another three next year, that are genuinely three of the best coaches I've ever seen. And this one, though, only 16 at the minute, but they are outstanding. And you kind of think, Oh, actually, yeah, we have had a rocky time in this bit in the middle from COVID. To now. But when we can see that what the kids that are coming up behind that, you know, whichever way you look at it, to have been involved in the sport definitely helps coach the sport, whatever level they've been at. But yeah, the young leadership programme is, is kind of going to be our Saviour, I think. I think we were very, very, very conscious of not just putting job adverts out after COVID and accepting anyone that walked through the door, we kind of really wanted to make sure it's someone that still fitted in with our family philosophy and the way that our businesses run. And yeah, we could have employed higher level coaches and things but actually, to be perfectly honest with you the way that the venue is now and the way that the businesses now since COVID. We thought that actually it was more important to put our emphasis into these youngsters, and do really what you've just said, like we've kind of pulling them through my my thoughts are in the future that we possibly may switch it to doing it in our own way of doing it and not through the young leadership programmes which domestics because we've actually got some quite good ideas and the man about one of our staff that's been running it the longest programme been, he's his ideas were amazing. So I think that we might even find our own way of doing it, as opposed to following the British gymnastics one, because it can be a little bit reflective with regards to at the end when they need to find those final things to pass. We're what happened to rely on them to do it. Whereas if we did it our own way we would, I think that the kids might get a bit more success quicker.

James Brooker:

Yeah. And I think as these things develop, creating something bespoke in house will better serve the needs that the that you have. So I certainly recommend that as a future development from there. So sort of carrying on a little bit from talking about staff, particularly again, though, over that summer holiday period, how do you engage staff and parents to commit to booking running attending the sessions over that summer period?

Emma Sheriff:

It's a good question. I mean, with regards to the staff. So really, like I said earlier, the most of them are committed to their hours, so we can reduce their hours a bit. And there there there, we do obviously offer overtime for anyone that's covering anything extra. And we also do for our senior coaches and our better coaches. They can do one to one classes with the one to one classes, we do charge 50 pounds for a one to one classes for the hour, and we split the money between the coach and the venue. So that's, that's a good way of getting involved. But I would only do that with a bit of coaches, because it's such an intensive hour for them to do with the trial. And but to be honest with you is from the staffing point of view, the summer is tough, this is hard to engage them. So I'm kind of you know, I do hear a lot from other clubs who don't have their staff fully employed, or self employed do quite often they don't have stopped during the summer, hence why a lot of clubs are closed during the summer, because they can't get this stuff to commit. So even though, like in every business, we have our staffing issues, actually, I think we're pretty lucky because the majority of them are pretty committed to the venue in the business and are behind us. With regard to the parents. Again, I think it's hard to it's hard to say I think, again, I think going back to that pre booking that early pre booking, you know, parents are, I feel now even more worried to let their child down and not have them do, you know, be missing missing out on something because the space is already full. So we do tend to find that as soon as we put something out. It does sell out pretty quickly. We're in the middle of of preparing our club competition, which happens at the beginning of July. And that closes on Monday. And I guarantee doesn't matter how much off we send out on Tuesday, there'll be the person who has ever done it, can you get me in. But everything to do that pre booking, I think is what's important now. And I think the fact that they're actually parting with their cash before the event means that they do turn up. You know, like I said before, when they were just turning up on the day, if the sun shining, they're not gonna call me. So yeah, I think that prebooking has has actually made the difference. To be honest. I think that's that's where the commitment comes from.

James Brooker:

Yeah, I certainly don't, don't disagree with that at all, in terms of getting people committed and a button that I think actually just to sort of expand on what you said and perhaps give you some sort of additional ideas for things that can help you In the future, you can actually engage staff and parents in one fell swoop through incentivizing your staff. So if you've got staff that are running regular sessions that are also going to be taken on a particular summer session, then incentivize them to fill up their, their summer classes through referrals. And speaking to parents who are in their normal classes, your your coaches and instructors are often like the people that are right on the front line, and build the best relationships with your customers. So if you can get them having some skin in the game, to really go out and drive those sessions, rather than just your email marketing, or social media marketing, and that could be something like performance related pay. And that's, that's a very grand term. But it can mean something as simple as if your class is full, we'll pay you 20 pounds for the session, if your classes only three quarters for will pay you 17 pound 50 for the session, and if only half full will pay top out for the session, and really encourage them to drive those bookings through. So you get your staff and your parents at the same time because your staff are going to go out and get the parents in and get them. Get them. But yeah,

Emma Sheriff:

no, it's really good. I think, I think because especially before our sole power, it would have been our elite gymnasts. And the summer period was, you know, the gym was an empty gym, so they could all train and have that time for, you know, it was brilliant for our league kids, because they had that time, and we would kind of do everything we could just take over paying the bills. But since COVID, on the whole changing our venue and our business, I think we've just not really been in a financial position to do that before. But actually, it's a perfect, you know, we can see from our one to one lessons, like I said earlier, where we you know, we're paying them quite a bit of money to do that lesson. It's it, it clearly works. And you know, it really, you kind of sometimes you have to take a step outside the box on your to look back anything, actually. Yeah. And I wonder if that didn't sell because of that. So it's a really good idea. And I'll take that one on both. Thank you for that. Yeah,

James Brooker:

it's it's all about looking at different different ways and applying things from different walks of life to see whether they can make a difference. And I think really get getting out early with a really simple, compelling summer plan that parents can easily understand and being the first to the party as such, because kids only have a limited amount of time and energy during the summer with which to do activities. And if a, if a swimming score, or football academy or something else gets in there first and gets their attention gets their impulse, they're going to tug on mom or dad sleeve. And say I want to do this and they will be there and then they'll book it and then it's done. And then it doesn't matter how good your sessions are. If you're not there in time, they'll totally agree. Yeah, then you're gone. And you won't be able to get all of that all of that opportunity. The early you do as well, the more chance you've got all those referrals that that we spoke about. So I really think tying, tying the two together and getting everything up and running nice and early, is really the two most important things to definitely take advantage of because it really is a matter of opportunity out there. And I always and I know we've had this discussion already, I'm gonna say that whether you take on an average month should become your target for your summer holidays, you shouldn't see any dip in cash flow. And that doesn't mean that you. And I've seen this happen in a lot of organisations where they say, Okay, well, in order to do that, then I will build people monthly for 12 months of the year. Even though our regular sessions only run for 39 or 36 weeks. That's actually not the right mentality to have. If you want to grow your business and really make the most of summer holidays, charge people for the lessons in there after having them for your regular classes in terms of time, then outside of that, get that extra 20% from your your summer activities, and then effectively get an extra month worth of revenue coming in. And if you start with that goal and work back from there, then then planning your summer activities become much easier as you go okay, well, on a typical month, we make X 1000 pounds. Therefore during August, we need to make X 1000 pounds, or what do we need to do at what price does that need to be and then what staff do we need from from then I think that that helps to keep things really, really simple as well. So moving on, now it's more of a sort of marketing element of it or how do you find marketing or summer activities compared to your regular sessions? You find it more difficult, easier

Emma Sheriff:

to remember it's a really funny question because we literally were talking the other day and it was like, You know what, we are actually so bad at doing this. Because because we've always had a waiting list for our regular classes. We kind of got rested a little bit on our mall so we kind of wasn't like pushing out because what we're going to do who advertise the genetics you just make In the whitelist, bigger, more people moaning they can't get in. So we kind of stepped back over the last few years a bit. And when it comes to the summer or any holiday, and we're doing stuff, yeah is or what email, a bit of social media, obviously, but we're actually really bad at it. So it's something that over the last sort of six months or so we want to look at and work out exactly what we're going to do. But yeah, I mean, from the point of view of our regular marketing, our regular marketing, I will be honest, is rubbish. Like, we need to do a better job with that. But in the summer, we have got a lot better, I think, over the last year or so, like every holiday coming up getting so silly. Like I say, we're already pre done for the summer, the summer stuff ready to launch, it'll actually go out next week. And the only reason it's taken us a little bit longer this time to what we did last year was because we are doing a complete change of classes in August. So it we've not kind of need to make sure that we can actually feel what our regular programme was before we could work out who we had for the summer. But actually, the second we go in approaching a holiday now we're already saying what we're doing next holiday and monitoring that holiday to see what we're going to do. But from from the marketing point of view, I have to be really honest, we are rubbish, we really don't, we really don't do the greatest job at marketing, we're on it from the point of view of you know, sending the stuff out and leaflets, etcetera, etcetera. But that's to the people that hear we're really rubbish at sending a promoting ourselves outwards, which we wish to need to do a better job of. So I'm hoping you'll be able to help us with that in the future. But yeah, it's it's it's not our forte, let's put it that way, we have not been the greatest at it, but we're getting there. But we'll get we'll do it. When you help us.

James Brooker:

I do think it's a really common thing, particularly with busy gymnastics clubs where, where you have waiting lists where there isn't that pressure for your regular sessions, to mark it intensively. But I think with your summer sessions, where it's such a short Shockblast, that intensity definitely, definitely exists. And you can kind of use that display one with the rest of your activity as well. I always believe strongly in the human element of marketing, I don't believe massively in the impact of emails. I mean, if if I were to look on my personal Gmail account, now I know I've got 5000 unread emails, because I've ended up subscribed to everything I've ever bought. What that means is I now read none of them. And I'm sure busy busy parents have exactly the same, if not worse. So how you engage people in that needs to be needs to be different. Obviously, there is the power of social media as well, which which can be an excellent, organic way of marketing things and can really build a community. But I think people don't make the most of their existing customers and using those tools to go out and get new ones. I really like the approach of using your brand to get out into your local community. So a really simple thing that I would encourage a lot of children's activity organisations to do. And I think I think it can work really, really nicely for the summer is branded merchandise. So if someone books for full week of whatever summer activities you're running, and they book at the end of May, nice and early, instead of giving them an early bird discount, which is what so many organisations do. And it's just throwing money down the drain. Give them a branded t shirt, or a branded drawstring bag, or a branded pencil case or something that's got your logo or something to do with your organisation plastered all over it, because it's got to look good and got to be something that someone's actually gonna use. But then they can go into school the next day with that bag on their back, or they'll get that pencil case out or water bottle or whatever. And you can have it tailored towards a solar activity. And then naturally, that will perk up other kids attention. Yeah, that's a really good one, because there's a fear of fear of missing out amongst children is absolutely massive. And if they see that their mate has got a really cool new thing that's got your logo on it, they're going to want it

Emma Sheriff:

that's really good idea. We've literally I mean, funnily enough, we have always done our own stuff, but we've got our own heat press and cutting machine. So we do all of our own kit, all of all of the kit that we sell to the our staff kit, and the stuff that we sell is all done in house. And we've literally just done a brand new catalogue. So thinking about it, that's some ideas. Amazing. That's a really good one to do. Like, especially like you say don't offer them early bird discount, which Yeah, you do fall into that trap of doing. Yeah, the Birch is a really good one that I'll definitely take on bowls. Yeah, I

James Brooker:

think the pitfalls of an early bird discount is that from day one, you're telling people that the standard price isn't actually the price, because you're already willing to do it at a cheaper price. So it just degrades the value that you're on that activity. And then when it goes back to the standard price, you'll often find there's more of a drop off that point of people wanting to buy it because they know it's been cheaper before to watch whatever they want. pay more or because clearly, you can charge less for it. So therefore that must be the actual value. So I much prefer giving more value, rather than reducing price and value has got a stereotype of only being related to price. Like if you look at what used to be the Tesco Value range, that used to always be the cheapest food but but value doesn't, doesn't necessarily need to mean that something can have a healthy price point. But still we value for money because of what you provide. So I would always say if you could provide more, but keep your price the same, it's a much, much stronger position to be in because cutting prices is just a race to the bottom.

Emma Sheriff:

Yes, definitely, I took that test, that is definitely something that will take off all those really, really good idea. And it's so stupid, since we've done it for sunlight had our own stuff and way to do it for so long that we haven't thought that ourselves. But yeah, that's brilliant idea.

James Brooker:

I think, particularly over the summer, you can do some really nice stuff. And it plays into everything else that we've said around timing, getting it up early, because you want the kids to go back into school, you want to create that almost guerilla marketing campaign of almost sort of like a flash mob of sent in, in a sense, where you're going to get all of your current customers signed up, if they joined by the end of May, they're going to get this bag with a water bottle and a T shirt in it, it's going to cost you about three quid per child to do, then they're going to go into school and all that stuff. It's going to be the Sports Day, and they're going to have all of that stuff. And they're going to see all of their friends all that stuff as well. And if there are people without their they are well, once you get that what you guys are going to do, oh, we're all going to go down to Europa, because they've got this summer, summer activity for whatever it is. I want to be a part of that. And then they'll go and talk on mum or dad sleeping in the day. And oh, can you put me onto that? Can you put me onto that? I really can't miss it. And there's there's nothing more compelling than a moaning child.

Emma Sheriff:

Yeah, tell me about it. I've got two!

James Brooker:

it's your absolute best marketing tool is the power of the child, basically, yes, they're not the people that put their hand and they're willing to pay. But they're pretty darn convincing. When it comes to making sure that mom and dad or grandma or granddad make make that buying decision for you. So I think for for some are particularly you want to make it seem really, really compelling. It's, it's all about fun. Yeah, it shouldn't feel and this is where I try and steer organisations away from doing a week or a two week long camp in some cases, because unless you're really committed to an activity, because now you Yeah, you don't want to commit to that period of time. And it starts to feel like school a little bit, it becomes an extension of school. And to my mind, summer holiday activities really shouldn't be I remember back to when, when I was a child, and they should feel fun, it should be like, we've got a lot of school and I'm doing all of this stuff. And I wouldn't normally be allowed to do all this stuff at 11 o'clock on a Tuesday. And this is all really exciting. I really want to come back and do do more stuff. You want to coming back for more rather than going, Oh, thank god that's over. Because then when next summer comes around, that they're not going to want to engage again. Yeah, and also, from a price point perspective, is a really big barrier to entry. If you say, Oh, well, a week is 200 quid. Well, if they're paying for other childcare through the summer, as well, you've got to remember that all of those activities have got to come out of one month's paycheck really, or maybe two months paycheck. And if you're saying a week is 20 pounds, but then they've got for other weeks, they've got a fill with activities for their child, they may only be able to get a week off of work during the summer or something like that, then I think you've got to price it appropriately so that you can say, okay, we're 30 pounds for a day or 20 pounds for a day. You can put multiple days. And maybe that's where you can then give us or volume based discount. If you booked for five days, we'll give you some money off to encourage coming in. But that initial entry point getting someone booked it is a quite a low price point. Because you can actually fill a week of sessions easier by having five different groups of 10 people than agree a 10 people are willing to pay the same thing.

Emma Sheriff:

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we did, we spent many years especially back at the old venue where we would do like the nine to five holiday camping. And you know, back in the back in the day, it'd be me and my brother, for instance, and others that would have done it. And yeah, by the end of that six weeks, not only were you exhausted, but the kids that were there the whole time were bored of what you were doing. So yeah, totally, totally appreciate what you're saying. And that's why we've tried to really change up what the camps that we do we kind of offer in a different type of camp every day of the week or something. So they can be a for instance, if it's a free running one, they can sign up to that but the next day, it might be a tough one. All the free ones might actually want to do that as well because the tumbling is a big part of it. So it's trying to work out what sort of The right wording as well with the kids can quite often be quite cold, quite a big concern as to what you're doing. And again, it's especially with the boys what they've got, where we've kind of blocked much more much less restrictive as to the normal classes and much, much more free and what they can come in on come along in and like you say, it's just got to be fun in the summer. The summer is all about them having fun, isn't it and not being in that classroom like they normally would be? So, yes, the merch idea is really good idea. We're definitely gonna take that on board. Cool.

James Brooker:

Sounds great. And I'm really excited to see what what impact hopefully that that makes you guys. So that's, that's all we've got time for. In in this episode of guided growth. Thank you very much for giving us some fantastic insights and just how easy it can be to make make a real difference, particularly around that that summer holiday period and, and how you can really look to grow your business and not have that as a real scary period. financially.

Emma Sheriff:

Thank you, James. Well, thank you for your ideas. It's been just as justice if not more helpful for me than it has been given to you. So I've really enjoyed doing it. Thank you so much. No

James Brooker:

problem at all. So please, please make sure you subscribe to our step to success podcast to get more guided growth tips each and every month. And check out loveadmin.com/step2success. For more information about how our one to one growth consultation service can help you to grow your organisation. Thanks for listening. See you next time.