Activators® - A Successful Business Model

Smart Space started life as a computer program which managed the Activators® Service System, but grew up to become a totally flexible and fully fledged web application. Although the Activators® system has been left behind at this stage, the lessons I learnt in its development will not be wasted.

My original goal was to develop a business model which investors could not ignore, thus guaranteeing a future for venue based sports such as Squash and Tennis. Look at the statistics below and make up your own mind as to its success or otherwise.

Statistics from Activators® Development
The two periods that I have chosen to display are the months September to December in the years 1999 and 2000. (a total of 17 full weeks each year). We operated a Squash venue with the following facilities from January 1999 until January 2001:

• 6 squash courts
• Pool
• 6 Tennis Courts (operated by others)
• Club facilities

General Comments
We achieved a strong increase in overall performance during the period due to the refinement of our recruitment strategies, better organisation and improved service. we made some small improvements to the venue in that time which also would have had some positive effect.

During the second period there were generally tougher business conditions which reduced walk in business considerably (the GST had been just introduced). Despite this, we managed significant improvements in income.

We retained the same staff (2 full time young people with me working about 12 hours per week) during the periods in question.

The biggest change was the number of extra regular bookings which we achieved which brought the base of the business up considerably (see Fig 3 below). This also improved the atmosphere of the venue - in 2000, you could feel the energy that it was generating at many times each week. This was a big factor in gaining regular customers

Total Court Hire Return

• We achieved an improvement of Squash Court hours hired of 19.3%.
• The increase in hire takings was 27.3%. (GST has been taken into account)
• The improvement in the rate of return per hour was 6.9%.
• Although hire rates remained the same over both periods, the rate of return improved because of
  • Better allocation of resources
  • Better performing programs and competitions and
  • Better attendance of those programs

Participation Statistics
At the time, we did not have a way to easily and accurately measure our casual and regular participation numbers, but we did measure resultant hire hours.

• We had a 65.4% increase in regular hire hours
• Regular hours as a percentage of total hours increased from 56.5% in 1999 to 78.3% in 2000 (this cut down the wild fluctuations of week to week takings in a venue that did not have a strong interclub competition base)
• There was a 6.3% decrease in Interclub competition hours (we had the same number of competition teams ) These hours are included in the regular partcipation figures.
• There was a decrease of 40.6% in casual Squash hire (walk in and occasional hire)
• The success in increasing regular hire hours was as a result of:
  • Better conversion of our walk in traffic into regular weekly hire
  • Development of a number of in house programs and competitions
  • Overall better atmosphere as a result of increased vitality of the venue.
• Decreases in our walk in hire was mainly due to
  • Tougher operating conditions as a result of the GST (our promotional efforts to this market did not change in the period)
  • Better conversion of walkins to regulars (walk in will often last a few weeks on a casual basis then disappear - we were able to turn them into regulars earlier.)

The above results indicate that the system has a future. If you are interested in how I achieved these results, please contact me on 0411 757732. Just by following the simple steps using the Activators® Service System in conjunction with Smart Space will improve your Squash centre business.

I will be conducting training workshops in the Squash industry in late 2007, throughout the country.