How to Create a Side Business in Sport
Today, I'm going to talk about how to set up a side business to provide multiple income streams.
In the world of performance sport, you are only ever a few bad results away from losing your job. Therefore, it's important to always have a plan B to supplement your income.
Unfortunately, most people rely on a single income stream and run the risk of unemployment at the drop of a hat.
Turning your Passion into Profit: Creating a Side Business
Every week, it seems like a head coach is getting fired.
Sometimes its a long time coming, but other times it can be completely out of the blue.
Next minute, you could be seeking employment in a saturated market.
Alternatively, you might be a practitioner who has worked in the industry for a long time.
Maybe you are looking to delve into the world of consultancy but don't want to go "all in" just yet.
In both scenarios, this is where a side business can be extremely useful.
The biggest challenges practitioners face setting up a side business are:
Time constraints
Work:life balance
Fear of competition
Marketing and branding
Here is how you can set up a successful side business to create multiple income streams:
Define Your Niche
Finding a specific niche within sports performance is crucial to starting a successful side business.
Try to avoid common services and instead specialize.
For example, how many online personal trainers do you see on Instagram? Too many!
You might specialize in a certain area of sports performance (e.g. S&C, nutrition) or even with a particular sport or aspect.
A good example of this is Carol Aguirre, who is not just a nutritionist but specializes in veganism/plant based eating.
Create a Business Plan
Once you have identified potential niche areas to set up your side business, you then need to determine whether it will be viable.
A well thought out business plan will enable you to determine your market, potential service provision, pricing and marketing strategy.
For example, there are a lot of people now creating online courses as they are easily accessible across the world, which opens up your potential market.
In addition, once you've done the hard work creating the content and setting up the webpage, online courses are a great source of passive income (i.e. requires minimal effort to maintain).
In the busy world of performance sport, this option would seem the most viable.
However, the question is then how much will people pay for a course? Should you go straight into a premium product offering (high price) or try and generate credibility through a lower priced product but wider client base?
This is where your market research will be crucial in order to develop a solid business plan.
Build a Strong Online Presence
You might have the best product/service in the world, but if nobody knows about you then you will remain in the shadows.
Marketing has never been easier with the explosion of social media in the past decade.
One way I like to look at online presence is the creation of 'noise'.
The best way to create noise is by posting content regularly. If you only post once per month, then you aren't creating enough noise.
Over time, if you are creating enough noise (both in terms of volume and quality) then you will get noticed.
Then its about converting noise into sales through a clear sales funnel.
This requires a dedicated platform (website, landing page) and payment platform (I use Stripe to power my own business).
My advice would be to choose a single social media platform to engage with. Think about which is most suitable for your audience.
For example, LinkedIn and Twitter are great for general posting (written and images). Instagram is more favorable for video-based content.
I personally started with LinkedIn, growing from 500 to nearly 10,000 followers in the space of 12 months.
You can use the exact methods I implemented for such accelerated growth through my LinkedIn for Sport Practitioners course here:
Overdeliver on Value
Once you have completed the previous steps and you have secured your first few clients, its crucial that you deliver high value on your service/product.
It's important to understand your clients needs and expectations.
This often means going above and beyond to ensure you both retain the clients but also secure positive feedback.
With this feedback, you can then create client testimonials which can be leveraged on social media sites and your own personal website to attract new clients.
For some, even getting the basic right is crucial to setting up a successful side business.
Do you get back to people promptly when you make enquires?
Is it easy to set up meetings with people? (I used Calendly to schedule my online meetings easily without the classic email back and forth)
If you promise something, do you always follow up and deliver?
By consistently getting the basics right and building trust, both your client base and side business income will continue to grow.
In Closing
Performance sport is volatile. Jobs are lost in an instant.
It's never been more important to safeguard yourself through several income streams.
The generation of side businesses, powered though social media, is here.
Don't let yourself get comfortable and miss out on this opportunity.
Develop a side business. Invest initial time in the product/service then work towards automation.
You never know, your side business might become your #1 income stream and lead to the life you've always wanted.
Good luck out there.
Thank you for reading, see you next week.
Whenever you're ready, check out how I can help you further:
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