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The Four-Question Framework for What to Add to Your Season
In this solo episode, host Dan Cotton cautions cheer gym owners against chasing every clinic, choreographer, and add-on they see online, and shares a simple decision framework for deciding what truly belongs in a competitive season.
Be Careful What You Add
Welcome to another episode of the Cheer Biz Podcast. Host Dan Cotton takes the mic solo this week with a warning for every gym owner heading into competition season: be careful what you add. With paid bids, banners, and bragging rights on the line, it is tempting to pull out all the stops, but every addition carries a cost, and not every one is worth it.
Dan opens by encouraging listeners to join the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners groups on Facebook, where great conversations are happening daily. He also invites gym owners to visit nextgenowners.com and sign up for a Cheer Biz Accelerator event, where he, Danielle, and the rest of the NextGen team do a deep dive into your business, identify what is holding you back, and explain exactly what they would do if they were running your gym.
Competition Season and the Pressure to Add
Dan is right there with listeners as teams gear up. His Level 4 team is throwing full-outs and preparing for showcase, with a goal of hitting zero deductions before the end of October. His Level 6 team is reworking significant portions of its routine after adding athletes and dealing with injuries. Every coach is trying to build the most competitively successful team possible, and that often leads straight to a longer agenda.
On top of that, Dan says cheer has developed a “keeping up with the Kardashians” mentality. A gym sees something on Instagram, whether it is a specific choreographer, a cleanup camp, new apparel for parents, or a specialty clinician, and immediately concludes that it needs the same thing. Gym owners are also marketed to constantly by companies hoping to capture their dollars.
Know the Provider’s Goals
Dan speaks from both sides of that equation because he runs two companies that market to gym owners. The goal of NextGen’s product is to make owners far more money than it costs them. The goal of DreamCamps, by contrast, is to help athletes develop skills, create memories, increase retention, and deliver the best possible routine to help a team succeed. Providers have their own objectives and their own businesses to grow, which is exactly why owners need a clear framework before saying yes to anything.
Start With the Problem to Solve
The first question in Dan’s framework is: what problem am I trying to solve? If a gym is considering a tumbling clinician, the reason might be revenue, since a clinician with a big following could sell a lot of registrations. It might also be a genuine need, such as a gym owner Dan recently spoke with who wanted to level up her coaches’ spotting training. Both are valid reasons. “Another gym did it, and now I am behind” is not a real problem.
The baseline problem also shapes the solution. Placing second instead of first calls for a different approach than being unable to hit the routine at all, or having a choreographer leave before finishing it, or a music producer who has not delivered your mix. Until the problem is defined, none of the other questions make sense.
Will It Actually Solve It?
The second question sounds redundant but matters enormously: will this solution solve the problem, not might it? If a team consistently places below third and scores under a 92 on the United score sheet, a week with an outstanding outside clinician may not fix it, especially if the real cause is choreography that sat outside the team’s skill level.
Dan shares a cautionary tale from his own gym. He once contracted an exceptionally talented clinician to work with his teams throughout the season. It was no reflection on her ability, but it did not solve the problem. What his gym really needed was better choreography at the start of the season to display skills correctly, and a stronger current coaching staff. A clinician can only do so much in a week, and teams that are not coached well in the months between visits stagnate or even regress. The clinician also brought many opinions, which sent the staff chasing a long list of changes instead of cleaning what was already there. Dan points to recent content from John Davenport on whether changing choreography is really the answer, and invites him to join the podcast. Sometimes it is the answer. Dan is reworking much of his Worlds team’s choreography right now. The point is to confirm it before you commit.
He also warns against a common belief: that bringing in a famous tumbling coach will fill your gym with new athletes who will see the building and join. In reality, those athletes associate their results with the clinician, not with your gym, which is just the building. Dan notes he has one of the nicest lobbies in the country, and parents appreciate it, but kids rarely join a program because of the lobby. A clinic can make sense if you want a unique annual experience or instruction your staff cannot provide, but it is not a reliable enrollment strategy.
Count the Cost and the Source
Only after the first two questions does Dan bring up cost: what will it take to solve the problem with this solution? A solution that works but costs too much is no longer viable. If you decide it is worth the cost, the next question is where the money comes from. Many gyms have no discretionary budget, or do not know what theirs is. Some owners send parents an additional bill for reworked routines, new music, or added events. Others find a way to sell something on top, such as having a clinician lead free staff training that is funded by marking up the tumbling clinics they also run.
Dan adds that not every clinician leaves room for that. A three-hour clinic priced at $180 per athlete, for example, leaves too little margin to mark up further. In that case the cost may simply be too high, unless you have a discretionary budget and decide it is worth it.
Is It Worth It, or Can You Do It?
The final questions are whether the cost is worth it, and if you could do it yourself, whether buying back your time is worth the price. Dan admits he is guilty of saying, “I could just do it myself.” Ask whether someone else would do it faster, better, or more efficiently, and whether that frees you to focus on more important work.
He applies the framework to something as simple as adding a weekly hour of tumbling programming. The problem is tumbling execution, and classes can solve it. But if that adds $2,000 per team in payroll that was never budgeted, the answer may be not this season. A good idea does not have to be abandoned, though. Dan suggests saving it for next year, building it into your cost sheet, and making expectations clear to parents so they are prepared to pay.
Protect a Financially Healthy Gym
Dan closes with a reminder that competitive teams matter, but a financially healthy business matters more. When the business is unhealthy, the effects trickle down: staff are less happy, teams win less, owners are stressed, and eventually there may not be a building left to train in. Running a profitable gym is something owners owe to their customers.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Cheer Biz Podcast. Dan hopes the framework helps with your next decision about what belongs in your season and on your cost sheet. Be sure to join the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups, and tune in to the next episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like “5 hard truths I have learned as a business owner”
