Summer Plans

Location?

Call baseball teaching facilities in your area. Many if not all of them run summer camps and hire players to run drills with the young kids.

I'm out on the peninsula Joe.

And Midlo, I didn't realize they did that. I'll check into that around here

definitely the local facilities is a good idea-

Also think about volunteering to coach/assist with a team...that can generate contacts and potential cusomers that may want individual help with their skills.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Keep them coming.

Another question for those who have taken their children to get individual lessons are something along those lines. What worked when you went there? What made you continue to see that instructor and seek their help? What got you to go there in the first place? Also, if there was something you disliked about the instructor mention that too. I'm trying to get a good idea and plan of how to run things. From my experience of attending personal lessons, I was referred to them by someone else. I think most customers come from word of mouth and that seems like a tough way to attract people.

Also, I was thinking this morning about pricing and all and thought what if I worked with the individual for the first time free of charge. They come to me and I work with them on basic drills for the first amount of time and work with the parent and see what they want to work on or what they hope to gain and do that for free. Then we can get a feel for each other and they can decide on their own if they want to come back to learn more. It's kind of like a trial run. I'm confident enough in my teaching abilities and knowledge to get repeat customers so I thought this could be an effective way to build trust with the customer. Thoughts? I'm just a kid with very little business knowledge so I'm looking for all the help I can get. Thank you

To get started you would need a resume that would give you credibility. After that, as you say it tends to be referrals from satisfied customers.

It's a highly competitive field and I don't know that going that route on your own is something I would encourage. Potentially very frustrating.

From a business standpoint - do not offer anything for free. You want people who are really interested in ultimately paying for lessons - not every parent who is looking for a one time "freebie". Charge a very low price for a first lesson - maybe 5 or 10 dollars - this will keep you from seeing folks who really have no long term interest.

Also - you might set your rate below other instructors in the area and focus on the younger players.

Good Luck!

I would not offer any free lessons.

I would develop a check list based on 5 tools a baseball player needs.

Then woul provide a "free evaluation" complete with recommendations of the areas they need to work on. From there I woul offer a specific plan they coul work wth me on. Set some sharred goals then work toward them. Goals that could be measured once achieved.

I hink if you fos on kids 13 and under as college baseball player you have enough of a resume to attract some cusomers. All of us who have sons we have successfully raised playing ball or are kids who have been raised playing baseball that went to the next level have ALOT to share with younger kids.

I was waching my 10 year old neighbor throwing and fielding this weekend with his friend... I thought if someone dosnt do a baseball fundemental intrvention QUICK he will be don by the time he is 12!!

Lots of youngsters to help and am sure you have alot you can give back.... if all you want to do is make some spending money its wide open.

Thanks guys!

hsbasballfan, you are right on. I was looking to work with younger kids to help them really get a solid foundation to work with and excell with. I've always worked well with younger kids and definitely think I can help. I'm not looking to start a business or anything crazy, I'm jsut looking to make enough spending money over the summer and work with kids doing something I am passionate about. I had incredible teachers throughout my younger years and so now I feel like it's my turn to give back and help out. I like the idea of the evaluation at start up and then developing a specific plan for them. I'm still a little lost on how to attract would be customers. Keep the advice coming, it's helping out a ton. Thanks

One thing you need to be aware of is that if you start working with kids in groups, many localities will require you to pass a background check, esp. if you plan to use local parks for your group sessions.

i think you should take the initiave and get a background check...make a brochure with a short bio- include your philophsy of developing a sound foundation and offer a free evaluation with recommendations. put on the brochure something like "approved by local governments background check process" ...a great marketing point. tell them no matter what they do they should make sure people have been through the process.

best place to start is volunteering with a local team and offeringthe free eval through that league ...market through the concession stand and get a supply of brochures for each coach to distribute to their team.