8 Ways to Make it Easier to Manage Your Sports Club
Running a sports club is not easy. There’s a lot of tasks to keep track of, from keeping track of your member’s dues and keeping your books in order to making sure your match schedule is up to date, maintaining an active presence on social media, and reaching out to potential sponsors and donors.
However, there are a number of different ways to make managing your sports club easier and we’ll share them in this blog post.
Eight Ways To Make It Easier To Manage Your Sports Club
Here are eight ways to help you manage your sports club more efficiently.
1. Use Online Accounting Software
Whether you collect membership dues, sell team merchandise, or have to keep track of donations, one thing is certain — using spreadsheets and keeping track of everything manually is time-consuming.
By using online accounting software, you never have to worry about remembering which spreadsheet has your team’s financial information or who owns the spreadsheet. You can quickly and easily access everything in one place and even invite your team’s accountant to make sure everything matches up.
Plus, the most popular accounting software integrates with many other online platforms so you can easily pull your donations, sales numbers and more to keep everything synchronized.
2. Use A Project Management Software
Another way you can facilitate managing your sports club is to use project management software so you can keep track of all the tasks you need to take care of. There are numerous tools to choose from but a few popular ones include Trello, Asana, ClickUp, and others.
Most of these tools also offer the ability to collaborate with others so you can easily add other members of your team like your accountant, coaches, and other staff members. You can then assign tasks and due dates to make sure everyone is on the same page and nothing slips through the cracks.
3. Engage Parents And Partners
It’s not unusual for many successful sports clubs to actively engage parents and partners at the beginning of each season. This has a couple of benefits. For starters, it fosters a deeper connection and relationship. Secondly, it makes it easier to find volunteers when the season heats up.
In fact, many parents and partners actively volunteer for sports clubs their children and spouses are a part of. On top of that, they can also attend various social and fundraising functions and help recruit new members as well as promote your club in the community.
4. Have A Website
One of the ways you can make managing your sports club easier is to have a website. When done right, your website can handle a lot of different tasks for you. For example, your website is the prime real estate for your fans to stay in touch with your club and all your upcoming matches.
It’s also the place for potential sponsors and donors to find out more about you and either sign up for your sponsorship packages or make a donation.
Your website can also make it easier for potential new members to find you online when searching for a sports club in their local area.
Luckily, it’s easy to launch a website thanks to tools like WordPress and SportsPress. You can quickly get your website up and running without any coding knowledge since both WordPress and SportsPress are easy to use and you can download and use them for free.
5. Batch And Schedule Your Social Media Content
Social media is a great way to connect with your fans and share team news and behind-the-scenes content. But if you want to stay top of mind with your fans, you have to post consistently.
If you’re posting manually and without a proper plan, it’s all too easy to miss a few days and before you know it, you haven’t posted on your Facebook page in a month or more.
An easy fix is to create your social media content in batches and schedule it all at once. Remember, that doesn’t mean that you can’t post in-the-moment, especially if you have time-sensitive content that needs to be shared exactly when it happens.
6. Collect Membership Dues Online
One of the most time-consuming tasks, when it comes to running a sports club, is collecting your membership dues. Not only do you have to keep track of who needs to pay when but reminding everyone individually to pay is a lot of time wasted.
Consider collecting your membership dues online. This is yet another area where a website comes in handy. You can, for example, install a membership plugin and ask your team members to create an account.
The plugin can then send them reminders about upcoming payments and your members can easily submit their payment online. A few popular membership plugins include MemberPress, Paid Member Subscriptions, and S2 Members.
7. Assign Roles To Everyone
Remember that you don’t have to do everything yourself. Don’t be afraid to assign roles to other members on your team and delegate some of the tasks and responsibilities.
For example, if you have a team member who is good with numbers, you could ask them to be the team treasurer. Have a team member that loves social media? Ask them to be in charge of managing your social media accounts.
By sharing responsibilities, your team members will feel more involved and as a result, your club will feel more inclusive.
8. Set Goals For Your Club At The Beginning Of Each Season
Finally, set goals for your club at the beginning of each season. This will give your team direction and you’ll know what you’re trying to achieve and what you’re working towards.
Your goals can include anything from winning the championship to recruiting a specific number of new members into your club or securing a certain number of sponsorships.
Once you know your goals, it becomes much easier to plan the entire season and assign milestones to make sure you’re on the right track to meet your goals.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are a few ways to make it easier to manage your sports club, especially when you opt for the right tools. If you want to manage your sports club more efficiently, download our cheat sheet that lists all the ways so you can keep it handy.
