How many is too many? Well, if you budgeted for none – then ONE is too many. In my program, we used to allow coaches to schedule extra practices as needed. The goal is for these kids to be successful, right?
Right. But you also need to be successful as a business, and when you can’t appropriately budget for things like labor cost, that can’t happen.
I recently spoke with a gym owner who is dealing with staff who are setting their own extra practices. These staff members are paid hourly at a very fair rate (I’d venture to say, it’s actually a generous rate.) However, she’s seeing them abuse power by scheduling extra practices without permission from the owner. Yes! That’s an abuse of power.
Let’s put this in terms of any other industry. You can’t just come into work for an hourly position on hours you’re not scheduled and get paid! If a boss says, “Hey, we’ve been really busy on Mondays. Would you mind picking up some extra hours?” then the boss has given permission and has hopefully budgeted for that extra labor cost.
In our other businesses though, if I walked in and a staff member was randomly clocked in and working, we’d have big problems. Part of making my gym successful is being able to budget for necessary expenses to include payroll.
As an all star gym, you probably also realize that extra practices HAVE TO HAPPEN from time to time. I once had a girl break her finger at recess on a Thursday. We competed on Saturday. I had a very small program at the time, and had zero fill-ins. We called an extra practice on Friday.
The week of Spring Break, I have several kids who go on vacation and head to dad’s for the week. One of our favorite competitions is notorious for scheduling their competition the Saturday after Spring Break, so each year I schedule an extra practice the Friday night before. I can’t reasonably mandate practices that week (parent plans are legal documents in the state of Missouri, and cheer is NOT more important than visiting a parent you don’t live with). Parents are always helpful and understanding with a Friday extra practice though.
So, how do you do these without breaking the bank?
- We bank practices. I can’t take credit for this. Shelley taught me this a long time ago. If your kids have to miss a practice for Christmas or you have too many sick kids to have an effective practice, take the night off. Bank that time to use in the future. It was already budgeted for in terms of labor, and while it’s not always easy to move that budget to a future pay period, if you’re using Profit First, it works beautifully. We moved to this a few years ago. Parents love it, coaches love it and they can now book extra (banked) practices as long as floor space is available.
- Budget for it. If banking isn’t an option, consider how many extra practices you did this year. Budget the labor fees for it into your next season and add it as a line item to your all star budget. Easy!
If this is happening in your gym right now, you’ll need to make some changes. Sit down and chat with your coaches about your budget and how you need to account for expenses accurately. Sometimes your coaches just don’t understand WHY it’s so important, but a simple conversation will work wonders!
