What Makes a Successful Tennis Academy? (Part 2)

Last month we looked at: What makes a successful Tennis Academy? Part 1 

“So, what does a successful coach look like? It all depends on how you look at life and what you value. Words like “a great coach,” “a much-loved coach,” or “a happy coach” come to mind. What is your definition of the above? And how would you measure if you have achieved it?

If you choose to be “a happy coach,” you could end up a “much-loved coach” with multiple students, making you a successful coach. Or you could be called “a great coach” due to your technical abilities, but without being loved by your players, which could or could not make you happy, although outwardly successful. Ultimately, I believe that your definition of what kind of tennis coach you want to be will significantly influence your vision and strategy for your Tennis Academy.

Remember your academy remains a business, and all companies need to be managed effectively with a vision, mission, strategy, and action plan to achieve your goals.”

It is essential to decide what you want and follow this as a guideline for your academy. As I have said before, the way you look at life and what you want out of life gives you direction. What is your purpose goal?

Purpose is about defining who you want to be, what difference you can make, and what your tennis academy stands for. The next step is to put your ideas onto paper. By clearly defining your Vision, Mission, Strategy, and Action Plan, you will help your team understand:

• What you are trying to achieve

• How you are going to achieve it

• How you will measure progress to track if you are meeting your objectives

Not only will this help to motivate your team, but it will also enable them to make decisions independently.

Purpose, mission, and vision statements often overlap, and everyone has their own ideas about what they mean. The way to success is not simply to “have” a written Mission and Vision statement, but actually to believe in it and live it, with the will to execute what you believe in. If you don’t believe in what you have constructed, don’t waste your time, because it will not work if you don’t consistently follow it yourself. I love the following as a simple guideline for a very confusing topic:

This is probably the most logical and practical summary on one page – Reference: https://www.aespire.com/

Remember the saying “be careful what you wish for”? Purpose is very much the same. Purpose is the WHY. Purpose is the reason you want to do something or make a difference. It guides you in your decision-making. Purpose is measured by the impact you have on others. Your purpose for having an academy could be to become wealthy, to live a happy and balanced life, to give back to others, to develop children, or to be the greatest coach no matter what. Whatever your reason, it will influence your business decisions.

Once you have decided on your purpose, you can ask, “WHAT?” I advise following a four-step approach to put your ideas to paper. This is probably the single most important step to start, re-evaluate, or improve your business or academy:

Step 1 – Mission Statement
Step 2 – Vision Statement
Step 3 – Revised Business Plan & Strategy (I’ve combined steps one and two in this blog, assuming that you already have an existing business)
Step 4 – Action Plan to make it happen, with continuous evaluation of achievements

Remember, keep it simple. I start with the Mission Statement because it is focused on the present and is actionable now.

Mission – A mission statement is a simple statement that explains your tennis academy’s goals and how you operate. It summarises what your business does for its clients, employees, and owners. As mentioned, it is focused on the present and immediately actionable.

Ask yourself:

• What do we do?

• Who are our customers?

• What service or benefit do we provide?

• How do we get there?

You should write a mission statement if you want to identify your business objectives and help employees, investors, and clients understand what your academy is all about.

Vision – A vision statement is more inspirational or motivational. It focuses on the future and is aspirational.

Ask yourself:

• What do we plan or hope to be?

• What are our goals for the academy?

• Where do we want to be in 5 to 10 years?

In short: The mission is the “what,” and the vision is the “where and what you want to be.” Your purpose, your “why,” should guide you. Many organisations even include their purpose in their Vision Statement.

The strategy and action plan represent the “detailed how.”

Here are some memorable and distinct Vision Statements that may inspire you:

• Amazon: "To be Earth's most customer-centric company where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

• Ben & Jerry's: "Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way."

• Google: "To provide access to the world's information in one click."

• Habitat for Humanity: "A world where everyone has a decent place to live."

• Hilton Hotels & Resorts: "To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality."

• IKEA: "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

• LinkedIn: "Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."

• Oxfam: "A world without poverty."

• Samsung: "Inspire the world, create the future."

Now that we have a mission and a vision, the next step is to generate a Business Plan and Strategy, followed by an Action Plan to ensure it happens. So many great mission and vision statements have never resulted in success due to a lack of strategy. Remember, achieving something you believe in and genuinely want is an end-to-end process. An essential ingredient to success is to get your team on board with believing in and behaving according to your academy’s mission and vision.

Business Plan – This part of the process is to:

• Check if you have a viable business idea when starting a new tennis academy

• If it’s an existing tennis academy, put a monetary value to your new ideas and plans

Taking your Vision and Mission into account, determine the total of your potential expenses. Points to consider include: how many students you need to enrol, the cost of new equipment, larger facilities, and better-trained coaches. Whatever your goals are, build them into your existing strategy. A business case should include a regular income vs expense sheet over a 3 to 5-year period, with a Net Present Value calculation. If you have an existing business, revise your current figures in a new Business Plan to reflect your goals.

Look out for a complimentary Business Case Template in TopspinSA's next blog.

Strategy – Experts have many definitions for strategy, but it comes down to one thing: it is an action to achieve your objectives (vision and mission). If it does not work, you should change it.

Here are a few definitions I’ve found:

• “Business strategy can be understood as the course of action or set of decisions which assist the entrepreneurs in achieving specific business objectives.” – businessjargons.com

• “Business strategy is the firm's working plan for achieving its vision, prioritising objectives, competing successfully, and optimising financial performance with its business model.” – business-case-analysis.com

• "The direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations." – Johnson and Scholes

• “A business strategy can be defined as the combination of all the decisions taken and actions performed by the business to accomplish goals and secure a competitive position in the market.” – feedough.com

• “The definition of strategy is a long-term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or a set of objectives.” – onlinemasters.baylor.edu

So, what should be included in your business strategy? Keep it simple and break it down into these questions:

• How can we achieve our goals aligned with our mission and vision statements?

• How can we attract players to strengthen our market position?

• What can we do differently to improve competitiveness (coaches, training equipment, venue)?

• How do we react to unexpected and new market conditions?

• What are the values and expectations of our stakeholders?

A SWOT analysis is a simple way to brainstorm a strategy session and add real value. It breaks all ideas into Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. You can see how integrated your Business Strategy and Plan are, as every decision or objective usually has a cost to achieve or a reward when completed. If the numbers don’t work, rethink your goals. If your strategy doesn’t achieve your goals, change the strategy. Everything boils down to a numbers game.

Once you have written up your strategy, which is your plan to achieve your goals and objectives as set out in your purpose, mission, and vision, you need to activate this plan into action.

To recap, we now have clarity about the following:

• Where are we going, and why do we want to get there?

• What are we going to do along the way?

• What does the roadmap look like?

• What else are we going to use to get there?

• What if things do not go according to plan?

Your Action Plan – An Action Plan is your strategy broken down into tasks. It is a vital part of the strategic planning process.

An Action Plan is exactly what it says: a plan of actions to be completed by someone within a set timeframe according to agreed standards. It is a checklist of the tasks you need to complete to achieve your goals or objectives.

Steps for an Action Plan:

• Identify the task to achieve your goals

• Identify how long the task will take

• Identify what resources you require

• Assign the task to a responsible person

• Agree on start and completion dates

• Agree on how to measure progress and completion

• Monitor execution against set measures

There are sophisticated planning tools, but all you need is a piece of paper or a simple Excel sheet.

Remember, nothing in life happens without people driving it. People need managers to guide, help, and mentor them. These basic steps will help you find direction, set clear goals for yourself and your team, and hopefully take your tennis academy to new heights.

I hope this helps you to re-think or re-evaluate your academy, or to motivate yourself and your team to achieve more. Any comments are most welcome.

Watch out for Parts 3–5 of this blog series over the next four months, where I will cover:

• Part 1 – Principles of a successful business (May/June)

• Part 2 – Develop a vision, mission, and strategy for your academy (June/July)

• Part 3 – How to market your service by “being your brand” (July/August)

• Part 4 – Be innovative: equipment and training gear (August/September)

• Part 5 – The characteristics and profile of a successful coach (September/October)

About the Authors

Juan-Philip van Antwerpen has been playing tennis since he was seven and represented Gauteng for ten years. He received a tennis scholarship at Davenport University in Michigan, USA, where he played for four years. He was later appointed as assistant tennis coach at the University while completing his MBA, which he achieved in 2019. He is now the marketing manager for Beckwith & Associates and manages their Kalamazoo office. He is currently living in New Canaan, Connecticut, working as a tennis professional.

Philip van Antwerpen is an entrepreneur and business consultant. Philip is an internationally certified Project Manager (PMP) with over 29 years of experience. He has been a PRINCE2 Practitioner for the past 13 years and holds several Agile qualifications. He is an experienced Portfolio Manager and strategic implementer, having managed and set up several successful Project Management Offices. For the past 11 years, he has focused mainly on turning struggling projects into successful ones.

He obtained his BSc (QS) degree in 1990 and registered as a Professional Quantity Surveyor in 1993 after completing his board examinations. That same year, he received his Project Management Diploma from the School of Project Management.

He has been involved in numerous projects over the past 29 years and has gained valuable experience as Senior Project Co-ordinator, Group Project Planner, and Group Estimator for the Gold Fields Group. His experience as a Mining Investment Analyst, analysing and evaluating business opportunities, adds to his broad field of expertise. He worked at executive level for three years at OMInsure, assisting with their turnaround strategy.

He founded Ants in 1998 and co-founded Ants Training and Development in 2007 to provide specialised project management services. He also transformed Topspin Sports Gear into a successful online shop and well-recognised brand.