Alternative Way For Club To Generate Money

[Iain McLeod]

I'm sure some people will want to tear off my head for this comment, but in the wake of hearing about the possible 50% increase in club membership fees I feel that this is an option that has merit. It is my opinion that the junior race fees should be the same amount as the seniors (not $20.00 less per race day, or $240 less throughout a 12 race season). I am well aware that kids get into movies, swimming pools, etc. for less than adults, but so do senior citizens and we don't offer them a discount. I do understand that it is expensive for parents to get their children into this sport, but that is also the case for adults especially with the extra tires, fuel, and other consumables that we go through more of. In a quick search of other clubs I have found that there is seldom a price break for juniors (most clubs offer a uniform race day fee), so I don't understand why we continue to offer it especially with the financial situation our club is in.

Thoughts?

Iain McLeod

[Fred]

Hum this takes me back to a conversation I had with Darryl Hayley 5 years ago. No such price break in Europe too The same track the same time on it (longer for some classes) and the same facilities. I would however advocate a price break for more than one child entered per family.

[Mariogim]

Ian, I understand your concern about the possible increase in yearly membership dues and the effect it may have on the membership. The concern that I have from your proposal is that hitting the junior driver with an increase will have an even more devastating effect than you think. first many junior drivers race in more than one class( many more than senior drivers) and secondly there are families who race that have 2 or more children, so you are then putting the burden of increased revenue on a small and fragile group of our membership. I believe that the way to increase revenue is to get the funds from people who can afford it and would be willing to pay for it. At the last meeting the executive brought up the possibility of renting pit space as a revenue generator. I believe that if the membership endorses this action the club could generate upwards of and extra $5000.00 a season thus negating the need for a membership dues increase. There is no doubt that the club needs to increase its revenue to afford what we believe is necessary. This proposal would go a long way to achieving this goal without hitting those who do not want, or can't afford the cost increases.


Mario Gimenez

[CKRCAdmin]

This is definately a can of worms....

Iain is at leat coming up with ideas on how we can move foreard and I think that we should consider any and all ideas.

Sure this is going to hurt if a junior is in more than 1 class or if there are multiple kids in a family but then if your kids play hockey, then there are multiple leagues and often more than 1 kid in a family playing. Every year there's new equipment to buy becuse the kids just keep on growing. Every sport/hobby/pastime has costs and karting is no different.

Mario does however make a good point that we do need to keep an eye on future generations of karters but it seems to me that lately, kids who start out young are leaving karting after a couple of years in senior classes and moving on to other forms of motor sport anyhow. As we make the race day fees higher and higher, we start to narrow the potential market for people coming into the sport and this is hurting us. Perhaps what we need to do is make it CHEAPER. How about introductory memberships for new members their first year ?

We need to put some time, MONEY and effort in to MARKETING. We never take more than a half-hearted stab at properly marketing the club or sport and this constantly hurts us. We just spent insane sums of money designing a track for which we didn't even own the land and yet no one wants to spend $1000 on getting some professional videos made to put up on the website. How about investing a few thousand on a marketing company to help us with a strategy and design some *professional* marketing materials ?

It takes money to make money. Are we not willing to make an investment in the future of our club and sport ?

[Tony]

Jill:

You make good points - no one spends the time and effort to needed to properly market the club - and we should be spending a great deal of effort there. I would support dedicating lots of money to that cause if a dedicated group of people came forward with a developed plan - including one that has researched the potential size of a club in this market.

In the past we have lots of people at meetings saying we should do this (and even committing to it) - and then when the work /season starts they all disappear or somehow the plan never comes together.

I have little interest in this kind of thing and probably even less skill - so I offer time in other areas. And the money that we just spent in one of those areas last year - a new facility - was not allowed to be spent on other areas such as marketing. Those monies came from a 2007 Casino and were only allowed to be spent on track upgrades and the purchase of a new track. Indeed we had a two year timeline to spend those monies - so in broad terms the choice came to repaving the current track for what was then widely accepted to be one to two year's usage or to try to purchase a new piece of land and build a future for the club at a new facility. (Sorry to harp on this but lots of people seem to forget - or did not know what that money had to be spent on or by when)

It now looks like we will be faced with that same decision in only two years time - subject to something largely outside our control - local politics. If Ric M. gets in as Mayor with a motorsports friendly council we are likely good - if someone else gets in - who knows.

So of our remaining $250,000 or so there is about $75,000 from the 2009 Casino the majority of which is dedicated to certain things like a building /track fund land purchase. Plus the remainder of the 2007 purchase that we will likely get to keep for that building fund. Under current projections we have about $150,000 of unallocated money. Some of all of which could be spent on marketing if someone comes forward with a suitable plan - or we might choose to save the vast majority of it to deal with an uncertain future as it unfolds. Personally would be reluctant to commit significant sums to anything until after the Civic election in the fall of 2010. That however leaves lots of time for people to do the groundwork and test out a marketing campaign for the future.

Personally I think that the single most effective piece of marketing would be to put up a large sign on the side of Brian Grants C Can that simply says GO-KARTS .
Make sure that it is placed in such a way that it is visible to all the people lined up at the gates of the dump. Then put up some smaller signs saying how to get to the track.
Then we need a small fleet of karts to rent out to the public –please see other long winded post because for some reason the plan presented at the last club meeting left out at least $20,000 of cost sharing/ and revenues. (Other post to follow )

Tony

[retroracer]

I think there are definitely some good ideas expressed above, the most (unfortunately) glaring one being Tony's observation that we seem to be all gung-ho during the off-season to do a bunch of marketing then, somehow, the season starts and marketing becomes a distant thought.

For the last 10-20 years, the club's membership has always hovered between 80-120 members (give or take). Some years are better than others but generally, we seem to have plateau'd. I believe this is due to two main reasons: 1) not enough marketing/advertising (we've all said it over and over for years: we are STILL one of Calgary's best-kept secrets!) 2) high turnover (we calculated a couple of years ago that the average member lasts between 3-5 years in our club. Tony, correct me if I'm wrong.)

Both of these factors are related in that they point to a common denominator: they do not expand our member pool. (In fact, they erode it.)

This is where we need to spend time, money and whatever other resources are available. In the past, we've thrown a few hundred dollars at it, some brochures, t-shirts, jackets and other trinkets, or formed half-hearted committees to examine it but we've never made a solid and concerted effort to really market our club.

I think we need a dedicated marketing person, specialized in business growth, to come up with some solid ideas which we can then get a budget for and make happen. (Now, before all of you start pointing to me, I better tell you that I'm not a marketing guy - no imagination! I will however pledge to help with the execution of the ideas that the marketing person comes up with.) He/she would assemble a small team of people to help carry tasks out but he/she would remain as the main 'idea' person.

One thing's for sure, and I say this knowing that membership/race fees will be talked about at the next meeting: we can't continue to nickle-and-dime the same group of members year after year. Increasing fees here and there for raceday, gate keys (my favourite!), 'prime' pit spots, etc. is getting cheezy and it will eventually start turning those members off. Karting is a grass-roots form of motorsport, with a family flavour to it - and it should stay that way. We have to stop justifying these increases by comparing our costs to those of other sports or activities - it's a cop-out and a poor excuse. Does that mean that we'll all feel 'justified' when we end up paying $1,000+ per year for memberships? I doubt it.

Vito

[Fred]

Marketing is important and costly I know I looked into it for the last 2 years. $10,000 for Bus advertising for 6 months and correct me if I am wrong Iain but the big signs that Shakers have up are $20,000 for 6 months even bench advertising is over $3000 for 3 months. Advertising is all too well as long as you have a means to fulfill and follow through. I would like to have a go at driving a Bob sleigh now there is a way of achieving this as the COP offers it with their sleigh I don't want to buy my own in case it scares the c#*p out of me. Karting is the same. You would only effectively promote through advertising from May to September but if you have nothing for the people to try they are not going to come. The proposition of purchasing a fleet of Karts has been brought up 3 or 4 times now and has been talked down every time. I understand the time was not right last year and we are limited (maybe) in time now, but to catch the fish you have to invest in the equipment and bait the hook with prime bait. You are not going to get a great growth in members until you can get them hooked. Spend $20 -$30 K on advertising and maybe reap the rewards or invest the money into prime bait and take the risk and buy the Karts. One of the function of the Karts was going to be an arrive and endure program where a club member can bring down his friends to race the club karts and act either as a driver for the team or as I see it the coach/instructor with a little rivalry against the other coaches and thus hopefully hooking some of these people that try it into racing properly. The corporate business if marketed can be huge, stag do,s Birthdays etc are all the ways that you set out your bait. When My buddy and I started our business in the UK we did all this we had Saturday Junior race schools Senior Thursday night race schools as well as the arrive and drive drop ins parties and corporate gigs. I had started my own ASN recognized racing club and we used the fleet of Karts we had to generate the new members. It got so big we renamed the racing club from St Athan Kart Racing Club to Llandow Kart club and I turned it over to a new board of directors , the club is still thriving today 16 years later. We had some thing for the punters to try and get them self hooked on. On the back of this advertising got more frequent TV radio etc and more revenue came in.
If successful it could well get to the point that club membership is $1 and race fees low enough to just cover costs plus 10% who knows One thing I do know and this will be backed up by anyone who does the trade shows is there is a great interest out there to drive a Kart without having to spend $9500 for the pleasure. I know that membership fees have been talked about but that is up to you guys, as an ex military man all I would say is Old Generals often suddenly retire and leave the new officers to pick up the pieces of an antiquated system and try and form a new battle plan, be aware!!

As for why people maybe dont come into the sport ...well I had a meeting last week with a potential new member who had been following these forums and spewed out some of the names asking me what they are like and if the club was like this all the time. He said he very nearly did not bother to keep the appointment with me because of what he had read and felt it may be an unfriendly atmosphere, I had to allay his trepidations.
(Re edited by Fred)

We have gained potential around 8-10 new members this year from 2 shows and a great deal of interest in the advertised rental Kart program .

[retroracer]

Fred,

I was going to reply in such a manner as to address your last post above before it was edited but I want to respect the edit and so will change my reply accordingly.

I think you and Tony hit it on the nose: there is no better way to entice potential new members than to actually get them into a kart somehow so they can touch it/smell it/drive it. That's been proven and it is an idea that should be pursued via rental karts or whatever other means. As I mentioned at the last club meeting, there are some people in the club (me included) who would be willing to share a wealth of information on the topic of rental karts and I hope they are at least consulted.

As for the costs associated with marketing, yes, some initiatives are more expensive than others. As with everything else we do, all ideas we come up with would have to be evaluated for cost-effectiveness and then pursued or scrapped based on, ultimately, what we can afford. The main point I was trying to make however is that, in my opinion, we do need more marketing or advertising - period.

As for offensiveness in the forums, there is no question that it should be avoided, not just for the potential negative effect on prospective new members but also on existing ones. Having said that, I don't think I've ever read anything in these forums that I found outright offensive. Usually, if something starts to border on the offensive, it gets edited out by a moderator As long as everyone exercises some common courtesy (and there is a moderator to ensure that no one steps out of line), we should be fine. One of the challenges we've always faced in the club is to get more people to speak up; some do it at meetings, some in front of a private audience, some, unfortunately, not at all even though they might have some really good ideas.

We've finally found a tool (i.e. the forums) that encourages discussion and enables those who can't always attend meetings to speak up about club issues. It's not ideal but if we use it properly it can be a source of some really good ideas and help in proper decision-making (the discussion on the race schedule is the perfect example). Let's be careful however to distinguish between negativity and strong conviction.

Everybody expresses themselves in their own way and we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions when we read something... For example, maybe some of the more 'vocal' members on these forums are some of the traditional '5% of the group that do (or in the past have done) 95% of the work' and they're pressing the point a little more strongly because they've seen these issues come and go repeatedly over the years, yet no one is bothering to draw on their knowledge before adopting or scrapping an idea. These are people who maybe have done the car shows, motorcycle shows, mall displays, movie premieres, etc. and can shed some light on previous findings. Maybe sometimes these people can provide some valuable insight on potential pitfalls associated with a (seemingly) new idea before a mistake is made, or at least help modify it so that the same mistakes aren't repeated.

We would want to hear from those people wouldn't we?

Vito

[Iain McLeod]

Gentlemen,

Like Fred has pointed out marketing can be extremely expensive, especially if it doesn’t bare results. I think that the trade show marketing we have right now is good to a point, but it lacks the visual punch that we could have. I worked at the new car show on Wednesday and people were coming up asking what we were, which tells me that we need to come up with better signage to attract people to the booth. Once we have them at the booth we need to engage them more into the Calgary karting world and make them want to come out to the track. The video footage idea is great to have at these booths, but it would be beneficial to have more of a Calgary focus on this footage. Perhaps another idea is having a kart people could actually sit in at these shows or some kind of simulator to keep the kid busy while we talk to the parents. What I found people were most interested in was the karting experience days. We should have more of these dates available and possibly even take bookings for them at the show. Now I will have both Joey and Brent ready to smack me because it would be too much use on their equipment, but we do have another option for equipment. The club could try and get some old equipment from past members for these days, who cares if it is an old Yamaha, or Honda it is still a potential customer in the seat of a Kart which could turn into a member. I’m sure there are some members that have a 10yr old chassis rotting in their backyard and an engine sitting on a basement shelf that they would donate.

Another thing that could prove valuable to the club is talking to past members who are no longer with the club. Lots of these people still have their equipment, and given the right circumstances might come back. This may mean another race series that doesn’t cost as much where people could race their retro karts on a Wednesday night for fun or something like that. I know two people with Yamaha’s that are ready to go, but don’t want to come out for a race day because the level of competition is too high, the cost is too high, etc. etc. I guess my point here is lets try to engage past members because they still may be able to contribute to the club.

We need to find a way to grow this club and it won’t come from staying silent, or as one of Calgary’s hidden gems. To grow this club we need to make our presence known in a cost effective manner.

Iain

[John Kwong]

With reference to what Iain was saying about the experience days. I can offer my Honda Clone Kart to be available for those days.

I think spending money on advertising and a marketing guru is beyond what our club can afford and just a little money can be spent effectively on simpler items. I think we could use Facebook, Twitter and mass emailings to alert people to our site or upcoming events. If we are taking names at the trade shows, I hope we are getting their email addresses.
We have a great logo to use with club T-shirts, club jackets and club stickers so that we can show our club pride. We could even share the cost with potential sponsors who would want to be on these items.

This past fall when I was at the SuperNationals in Vegas, I was wearing my Paul Tracy Kart black hoodie with the "Your kart sucks" on the front. During the event I must have had half a dozen people say they thought it was "cool or funny or great". All I am saying is if you have an interesting, eye catching graphic or slogan on the club apparel and club members want to wear it places other than the track, people will take notice. This T-shirt/bumper sticker is an old one but I haven't seen it in a while: "Kart Racers do it an inch off the ground!"

Advertising at the track:
Greg Moore Raceway sells advertising space at the track. It is $350/year for a 4'X8' fence sign plus production costs.

Club Advertising
Advertising is all about the number of exposures. TV and newspaper have giant numbers for potential exposures and they also charge large numbers. I think our message in either medium would get lost in the mix. The internet is where it is at. For instance, almost every Youtube video or google page, you will see an ad for Allen Berg's race school. I don't know what Allen paid for this advertising but it is everywhere on the net. The point is there are affordable ways to promote our club without breaking the bank and still seeing results. If every member of the club that is on Facebook right now posted on their front page that there would be a "try a kart experience day," and followed it up with a regular update of xx days until the experience day, we would probably be over-run with potential kart racers. There are lots of people that want to try a real race kart, they just have no idea we exist. Getting an interested party in the kart seat and doing a few laps is the easiest way to get someone who is undecided about racing karts to become involved. We need to have at least one try a kart experience day each month for April, May, June and maybe July.

All right I will stop ranting here.