The Change Process

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During the past week several cheerleading rules changes were handed down, including by the NFHS, AACCA, and USASF. All of these changes led to numerous comments on Facebook, Twitter, and the Fierce Board about why specific changes were made, but the USASF changes led to several questions about how the changes were made.

The USASF publicized a Rules Change Process earlier in the season, but the recent changes didn’t follow the published procedures. These changes came directly from the USASF Board of Directors. In their defense, the Board of Directors has always reserved the right to do just about anything they wanted to, but I don’t recall another time in which that right has been exercised and have bypassed the National Advisory Board, Rules Committee, and industry staples such as Les Stella and Debbie Love.

The reason I bring this up is because I want everyone to take a look at the way these types of changes are made. Are we better off with the AACCA or NFHS model of making changes, in which relatively few people get input, but changes can be made much more quickly or are we better off with the published USASF method in which changes are made every couple of years after getting input from everyone that is willing to provide feedback? Is having a Board that can make changes outside of the published process a good idea so things can get done in case of emergency or a bad idea because that authority can be misused?

This all leads to the final questions.If you were designing the perfect process for making rules changes what would it be? What elements of AACCA, NFHS, and USASF’s process would you keep and which would you change?

Should My Company Be On Facebook?

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Over the past couple of years I’ve had several people ask if their company should be on Facebook. If your company is in the Cheerleading and Dance industry the answer is a definite YES. Why? Because your customers, existing and potential, are using Facebook.

Facebook has over 500 million users, which is a great audience to share your business with. The question should be how to use Facebook, not whether or not to use it, and we’ll help address that question at a later date.

Should My Company Attend Worlds?

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Yes, your company should attend Worlds. Networking is an important part of the Cheerleading and Dance industry, making events such as Worlds “Must Attend” events. Worlds is the only event that will be attended by every major Event Producer, Gym, Dance Studio, Choreographer, Music Producer and Vendor in our industry, giving those attending to network with everyone in a single weekend. You’ll also get to see the best cheerleading and dance routines of the year.

As a Coach, would you like to see the top routines and meet the people that put them together? Would you like to schedule them for your teams or do you want a new sound for your teams? As a Choreographer, do you want to meet the Coaches and Gym Owners that could be your next client? Do you want to see the top teams in action to get your wheels turning? As a Gym Owner, do you want to meet the Event Producers that have events in your area? Do you want to meet other Gym Owners to see if there are any partnerships that can be formed? As an Event Producer, do you want to meet the Vendors that can that can help you improve your events?

The are other places where some of this can be done, such as JAM U or the Varsity Gym Owners Conference, but none will have as many people in one place as Worlds.

How Should My Company Use Facebook?

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With over 500 million users and being the website people spend the most time on, Facebook can be a great tool to reach your existing and potential clients. The question many businesses struggle to answer is how to use Facebook. We have a few suggestions to get you started:

  • Give recognition to clients. As a gym or studio you can highlight individuals that gain new skills and win awards. As an event producer you can congratulate individuals for showing exceptional skill and teams for how they place and awards they receive.
  • Games and Contests. Facebook can help facilitate contests such as the Hit a Ray contest or those involving taking pictures in your gym, studio, or event producer clothing.
  • Re-Distribute information posted on your website. Many of your clients check Facebook several times a day. They probably don’t check your website nearly that often so you may want to use Facebook to let them know when you’ve added something important to your website.

This is a follow up article to Should My Company Be On Facebook?

Gym & Studio Rentals

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A couple weeks ago I had a few conversations with gym owners about gym rentals and how the work at their gyms. I took a few different things away from those conversations:

  • Always charge for rentals, with the possible exception of teams that are already consistent clients of yours. Even then the consensus was still to charge, but charge less.
  • Things to consider when setting a price is what the space would be used for if not rented, if the rental will extend hours for any staff members, and if the rental is something that will improve your relationship with a customer or expose new customers to you.
  • Have them sign a Rental Agreement accepting responsibility for whatever happens during the rental time.
  • Make sure you are covered by insurance, whether it’s via your insurance policy or by being named as an Additional Insured on their policy, or both.

Dealing with Late Accounts

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One of the things that seems to be consistent across gyms is accounts being behind, especially this time of year. As an owner you have to keep overdue accounts under control in order to avoid paying for things your athletes are paying for and driving yourself out of business. Control starts with having a policy regarding overdue accounts. It could range from having a policy that prevents anyone that is behind or a certain dollar amount behind from participating to requiring a card on file, but regardless of the option you go with you must apply it consistently. The final part is applying it consistently to everyone. Firmly enforcing the option you choose will let your parents know you are serious about the business side of things and give them faith you’ll be around for the long run.

Letting an athlete get behind puts you in a bad position. If the athlete quits or you throw them off with an overdue account it will pretty much ensure you won’t be collecting what’s due. To mitigate this, the sooner the decision is made for the overdue account to no longer participate the better it is financially. On one hand you are no longer increasing how much you are owed and on the other hand you are no longer helping a family rack up debt they can’t handle. If you let the athlete continue with an overdue account, you are not just giving your service away, you are actually paying someone to take it. If you are paying fees, but haven’t collected the money from the athlete, you are paying everyone else in the industry, uniform companies, event producers, choreographers, music producers, but you haven’t paid yourself. You cannot stay in business this way.

I heard several reasons explaining why some athletes don’t pay. If you choose to allow this please understand the impact of doing so. On the positive side you usually get better athletes and can compete with closer to the maximum number of people allowed, increasing your chances of placing well. On the negative side you can offend the families that are paying, causing them to leave your program. Of course what is done is your choice, just make sure the decisions you are making are helping you accomplish the goals you have set.

Monitoring the Private Lives of Your Employees

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I read an article in the New York Times titled Monitoring the Private Lives of Your Employees which made me wonder how much monitoring is appropriate and how it should be done. Many employers have policy’s regarding the image an employee portrays on social networks, but how far should those policies go? As a gym owner should you monitor your employees’ social interactions with your gym families or ban interaction altogether? Should you allow your employees to be “friends” with athletes at the gym or should you require your staff to keep their social media lives separate. Should you take the opposite approach and require everyone that works for you to be you friend on sites like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter? These are questions you’ll have to think about and answer to make sure your business is represented in the manner you desire.

Test of Genius

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Earlier this week I re-stumbled upon this quote:

The real test of genius is not knowing best from worst, but knowing best from second best.

For some reason it really made me think about business owners this time. This is the real test of genius for a business owner, knowing best from everything else. Knowing where to put your resources so you get the most in return, not just a positive return. Knowing which qualified applicant will turn out to be a great hire, not just a good hire. Knowing which of the “good enough” options to choose is one of the keys to running a great business.

Tough v. Unpleasant

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Many people confuse a Tough decision with an Unpleasant action. Tough decisions arise when you don’t know which option to choose because the options appear to be equal. You could be looking at several good options, like choosing between court-side seats or a luxury box at the game, or between bad options such as going through the rock or the hard place. Tough decisions related to our industry could be choosing an event schedule, who to hire among several great applicants, which music producer or choreographer to choose, when to move into a larger building, or which good employee to get rid of because employment is down.

There’s only one Unpleasant action I want to focus on and that’s firing an employee that needs to go. Typically by the time you are consciously thinking about firing someone the decision has already been made clear. The problem is it requires an Unpleasant action so you hide behind saying it’s a Tough decision. It’s not! As a business owner you have to be able to determine the difference between Tough decisions and Unpleasant actions and you have to be able to deal with both. Making Tough decisions and taking Unpleasant actions is an essential part of having a chance at being successful.

Should I Get Involved with the Industry

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Absolutely! Being involved with the industry gives you a chance to help shape the future of cheerleading and dance. Whether its participating in meetings, such as the NACCC Meeting in Doral or the USASF Regional Meetings, serving on a board or committee, or submitting proposals for the next rules cycle, you should get involved to make sure your voice is heard and your vote is counted.

In addition, sharing your ideas about the industry helps people get to know you. People within the industry feeling like they know you and feeling like you are approachable is good for your business. At a minimum it get’s your name out there so people are already familiar with you when they are searching for someone who offers the services you offer. As a maximum it can lead to new business and job offers, something I can attest to personally.

Two things are coming up you can start with. First is the USASF National Advisory Board elections (NAB Nominees), which should open voting in January. The second is submitting proposals for the next rules cycle. Proposals are due May 1st and the process is outlined on Spirit Post. Either of these is a great way to start making your voice heard and getting involved in shaping the direction of our industry.

Role Power

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Role Power is the power you, as the owner, have over your staff because you have the title of Owner. Have you ever told an employee to do something they didn’t want to do or tell them to do it a certain way with the only explanation being “because I said so” or something along those lines. That is a version of expressing your Role Power. The use and misuse of Role Power can have a long standing impact on a relationship, and if that relationship is a business one, a long standing impact on your business.

The use of Role Power needs to be as limited as possible. Some would say limit using it to when you are in crisis mode only and once the crisis is over you should go back and explain why you had people doing the things you had them do. If you have to resort to using Role Power, something broke down along the way. Employees that believe in their company’s leadership, mission, and direction don’t have to be “forced” to do much. Getting them to believe in the company involves having excellent direction and communication coming from the top, hiring the correct personnel, and getting rid of employees that don’t buy in.

With You or Against You

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Owners, Bosses, Managers, and Everyone Else,

Please remember the people that work for you have the best interest of the company in mind. They are working to improve the company and leave it in a better spot than it was yesterday, a week ago, and a year ago. If at any point you don’t think this is the case you should get rid of them.

Please realize they are going to make mistakes and do things different than you would have. This is going to happen everyday, probably several times each day. If when it happens you approach them as if they had your best interests in mind and coach them on how to do better, you’ll see the best results imaginable. If you approach with the idea they have poor intentions you are going to push them away.

Please keep this in mind each and every day, as people make mistakes and reveal insights you never could find on your own.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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You’re the Boss published Should I Stay or Should I Go?. This article talks about making the decision to stay at work or to leave for the day and what needs to be done in order to make it easier to make this decision.

If you own your own business and you have made commitments, it is sometimes necessary to take care of business.

How to Fire an Employee

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The Intuit Small Business Blog published How to Fire an Employee. The article outlines the steps necessary to terminate an employee’s job while covering yourself. Firing the employee starts with having a “solid legal basis” for taking action then taking the following steps:

  • If the employee reports to you, do it yourself
  • Don’t improvise
  • Know what you’re going to say
  • Include a witness to the discussion
  • Escort the employee from the building
  • Ask the employee to sign a release

A Plan for Working on (Not in) the Business

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You’re the Boss published A Plan for Working on (Not in) the Business. The author, Jay Goltz, goes through the parts of the business that need to be examined to enable the business to get to the next level. The top 10 things to look at are:

  1. You
  2. Hiring
  3. Standards
  4. Training
  5. Systems, Procedure, Planning and Tools
  6. The Wrong People
  7. Delegation
  8. Compensation
  9. Feedback
  10. You, Again

It’s Never the Employee

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You’re the Boss published It’s Never the Employee. “Before You Blame Your Employee, Ask Yourself Some Question” is appropriately the tagline for this article. The article talks about looking in the mirror before pointing the finger.

The bottom line? It’s never the employees who are the problem. It is the training they didn’t get. It’s the oversight that wasn’t given. It’s the lack of structure. It’s the boss who can’t let go. It’s that the wrong employee was left in the job too long. It is the boss’s responsibility. In a privately held business, it is always the boss’s fault. The boss has control.

4 Small-Business Skills Worth Sharpening

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The Intuit Small Business Blog published 4 Small-Business Skills Worth Sharpening. This article talks about skills small business owners should be familiar with in order save time and money in the future. The 4 skills mentioned are:

  1. Business Accounting
  2. Website Design
  3. Public Relations and Public Speaking
  4. Human Resources

The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand

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Forbes published The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand. This is as important for the coach at a gym trying to get more private lessons as it is for the choreographer or music producer trying to get more clients. Forbes’ suggestions:

  • Determine Your Emotional Appeal
  • Determine Your Description
  • Determine Your Function
  • Put it All Together

Why It’s Bad Idea to Check a Job Applicant’s Facebook Profile

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The Intuit Small Business Blog published Why It’s Bad Idea to Check a Job Applicant’s Facebook Profile. Although I think it’s a good idea to check out the information job applicant’s post online, this article brings up some good points to be aware of if you decide to check social networking sites and what to look for.

7 Ways to Make Your Business Blog More Readable

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The Intuit Small Business Blog published 7 Ways to Make Your Business Blog More Readable. This article offers clear, easy to follow advice for company bloggers:

  1. Find Your Niche
  2. Choose and Use Keywords
  3. Go Easy on the Eyes
  4. Don’t Overuse Ads
  5. Use Captions with Images
  6. Include a Call to Action
  7. Make Your Content Easy to Share