From 1993 through 2007, I failed at 3 businesses. Why? I tried to run those businesses alone, with very little to no support. I didn’t really understand business is a team sport, and (most of the time) lone rangers don’t win.
Here’s the truth, I came from an impoverished community, but was able to do well for myself. This is good and bad. It’s good because you have this feeling that you can do anything. It’s bad because you get this false belief that you don’t need anyone, even when running a business.
My desire is to help coaches run successful basketball camps. I don’t want them to fall into the same trap of being a lone ranger. Unfortunately, if coaches travel down this road, they’re likely to fall victim to what many business owners suffer from. Their businesses will fail within the first 3 years (or sooner).
Let’s face it, for many coaches, they don’t have tons of money, or are used to investing in themselves. I could create the greatest training resource, but if it’s priced too high, they won’t find a way to afford it. If it’s priced to low, then the training resource has very little perceived value, and won’t be respected. In other words, pricing is tricky.
To resolve the pricing issue, I asked myself, “What could I do to show coaches how to run successful basketball camps, while keeping the price point low?” Then, one day, it occurred to me that I could train coaches online.
The training would include online courses, eBooks, PDF downloads, webinars, podcasts, etc. This could all be done at a fraction of what it would cost to train a coach live, and in-person.
To do this, I could create a membership site, which is a website that walls off it’s content from the general public, and only allows access to its members. All of this could be provided in an affordable, and scalable way.
My plan was to launch a membership site called Youth Hoops Academy (YHA), which would provide all the necessary content needed for coaches to start, and run their own successful basketball camps.
When YHA was rolled out, the amount of content contained within was overwhelming. Although I thought it was an awesome resource, there was so much information that coaches didn’t know where to begin. As such, I knew this was a problem, and adjustments needed to be made.
Ultimately, I came to realize YHA’s content needed to be restructured. Doing so would make it look less intimidating, and more palatable. This was key for coaches to fully embrace the site. Once adjustments were made, I invited a handful of coaches to “beta” test the updated YHA. In return, coaches were to implement their own basketball camps.
The “beta” testers outperformed my expectations. Not only did they consume YHA’s updated and restructured content, they went on to successfully implement basketball camps in their respective cities.
In summary, YHA not only has given basketball coaches the option of engaging their passion to earn a living, it’s allowed them to make a profound impact on our youth on and off the court!
