Top 10 Sports Budget Tools & Tips

How to stay below business expenditure goals

It can be too easy for coaches to overlook the financial side of their business, until they are in a hole. Your bread & butter is working with athletes and running training programs. We’ve been working with sports academies and businesses for years, and have come to understand the pain points that occur in the sports budgeting process, be it needing to get an extra loan or simply keeping track of everything (with help from SoFi or other tools). To make it easier than ever to make use of our budget resources & top industry advice, check out the below list of top 10 budgeting tools tips (and don’t miss this free budget template).

Top 10 Sports Budgeting Tools & Tips

1. Build – and stick to – your sports business’ budget

A successful sports business budget should include revenue calculated from all your offerings (like classes, camps, and clinics), as well as any retail you sell. It should also include costs of operating expenses like payroll, rent, software tools, insurance, and more. Your budget should be thorough, and leave no room for miscellaneous expenses to remain unaccounted for. Doing so will allow you to plan for cash flow over a 12-month period. 

2. Try to plan both on an annual and seasonal basis

This is important for training businesses who may have large peaks and dips in cash flow depending on the season. Plan accordingly, while also still looking at the big picture of your academy sports financials.

3. Raise funds through community sponsorships

Another key for smaller sports camps, clubs or teams may be the ability to raise funds through the local community and business sponsorships. This sports sponsorship letter template will give you a good head start to raising funds and requesting sponsorship dollars.

4. Plan for the unexpected

You might plan on specific fees and dues coming in on a certain day or month, but plan for the unexpected (you could consider secured loans, for example, to get the funds you need). Even if a sponsorship or client payment is scheduled to come in before your next program, it might be late. Make sure to allow some room in your budget for late payments, cancellations or unexpected costs.

5. Eliminate luxury expenses

Eliminate luxury expenses such as staff luncheons so you have room to spend and management and operating costs.

6. Evaluate current costs

Examine current costs, and ensure your money isn’t being wasted. A great first step in this process is ensuring your current sports software is efficient and cost effective.

7. Eliminate liabilities that come with cash and paper registrations.

And ensure secure credit card processing.

8. Perform an energy audit

It’s important you and the staff have the energy to train, but here we are talking in terms of electricity! Using a prepaid light company is one way you can keep electricity bills low. Fundamentally, sports teams do not have the luxury of wasting their budget unnecessarily on overpriced energy. Being frugal is vitally important if you want to avoid your budget becoming heavily depleted. Small Business Chronicle suggests finding ways to reduce energy usage. This could include anything from powering down electronic training equipment while not in use to switch to energy efficient light bulbs!

9. Break down your budget

Break down your budget to evaluate revenue by event, trainer, payment type and more to make effective decisions.

10. Build your recurring revenue streams

Focus on generating recurring revenue, like memberships, for consistent income and quicker growth. This will give you a better understanding of how much money will come in from month-to-month. In comparison to one-time payments, recurring revenue is much easier to predict future revenues for your financial plan.

Get the Free Budget Template!