Window of Opportunity

There is a little break in the action now.

This assumes that you have your holiday programs and New Year’s Eve programs up and ready to go J.  

Don’t forget to post your holiday hours. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day.

You can take a deep breath and get ready for the holiday rush, but what if a lot of people come to open play bowl and you have: a) no incentives to get them to come back for a return visit, b) not put a system in place to get their email, c) no programs or leagues available for them to start in January?

Having none of them would be a wasted opportunity wouldn't it? 

No it wouldn't be a wasted opportunity, it would be a fatality!

By offering them an incentive (first game free on next visit, $5 off $20 of bowling, free pizza when you bring 4 people to cosmic bowling, etc) you increase the odds that they will return which will give you another opportunity to get their email address and be able to speak to them about joining a league in January

To get more emails, set up 2 sweepstakes box. One at the desk and one in the snack bar/bar area.  Get them at Staples; they are made out of Lucite and put a sign in the sign holder that says “Enter here to win $100 of free open play bowling” (5 winners chosen each month.”  Use a data base card (3’x 5”) that has the following information: name__________ email ____________ birthday month________ birthday year_________  gender  M_______  F__________  phone # ________.  Don’t forget the pencils.

As far as leagues and programs go, review last year’s league floorings in January and February. What did you put on the floor?  What leagues?  How many bowlers? How many weeks did they bowl?  How many games?  What did you charge?  What was your revenue from these programs?

Now that you have all that information, add 10% to last year's lineage and revenue.  You now have your NEW goal.

Note: now is the time to raise prices on these NEW leagues and set your pricing up for next September.

Here is an example of mandatory offerings that you have to put in place:

·         Adult child league; could be $8 for 8 weeks, Saturdays

·         Pizza and Beer league (2^nd shift)     

·         Retail workers league (2^nd shift)

·         Every other week or once a month couples league (1^st shift

·         League of your own for companies (every other week 1^st shift)           

Now you may not have availabilities during these times and therefore, you will have to develop new programs to meet your goals. 

You have between now and December 16^th (the day kids are out of school for the holiday break) to get this together and plan your January and February.  

Otherwise, you’ll be calling me and saying, “%$#@#%, I missed an opportunity, what do I do now?”