Social Media Post of the Week:  This morning I woke up and saw that Snoopy was fired by Met Life.  I can't believe that they are going with something else but I guess it happens.  This article is on 8 Mascots that were fired by corporations.  Its a good read!
http://time.com/money/4538764/snoopy-metlife-peanuts-mascots-fired/?xid=frommoney_soc_socialflow_facebook_money

​It seems like yesterday Lauren started kindergarten and tomorrow I'm going to be taking her to the airport so she can fly to Vancouver, British Columbia to start her Freshman year at the University of British Columbia

Where did the time go?

Yep, I'm the  dad who is a little sad to see their 18 yr old move across the country to go to college to follow her dreams.

When I was headed off to college I was just heading down the road to Mt. Pleasant to attend Central Michigan and now my oldest daughter is headed to one of the most beautiful cities in the world to live.

And I'm also the guy that vividly recalls the bus picking Lauren up for kindergarten at the top of our driveway on her first day of school.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.

So I guess I just need to enjoy the moment.

On Friday Lauren and I did a great hike up to Humpback Rock at Sunrise and it was spectacular....I need to do this more often!

Our loved ones value out time. They value us being present.  I know I'm not the best at that but I'm trying.

So Lauren heads off to college today...where did the time go???

Music I'm Listening To: Norah Jones-Carry On.  I started listening to Norah Jones with my kids when they were younger because it was easy to listen to and we would always play it on our way home from skiing.  This is her first song off of her new album.  This past week on Spotify I've been listening to her Radio Station and its good music to listen to and still get work done.

Article I"m Reading: College Athletes Dominating the Olympics --With the Olympics going on right now its great seeing College Athletes participate in all of the different events.  The school with the most athletes is Stanford with 30 athletes.  Here at UVa we have 8 students participating in the events.  Even Katie Ledecky the 19-year-old swimmer will have another title when she returns from the Olympic Games this fall – Stanford University freshman.  How would you like to sit next to her in your Bio 101 class!!
http://fortune.com/2016/08/09/stanford-olympics-athletes-college/?xid=timehp-popular

Social Media Post of the Week-  My favorite social media post of the week is definitely the Michael Phelps.  This USA Today article has the best ones! ​http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/micheal-phelps-hilarious-tweets-memes-rio-olympics-swimming

Quote I'm Thinking About This Week-Don't Cry Because It Is Over, Smile Because It Happened--> Dr. Seuss  This is one of my daughter Lauren's favorite quotes and since she is headed off to college this weekend I thought I would add this for her!

So this is my second day of my 7 days of posting on the blog.

You and I both know that the secret to running a successful tennis business is to get more people happily playing more and staying longer at the club.

The best way to do that is to increase participation and loyalty.

The fact remains that now is the perfect time to start increasing loyalty, and one of the best ways I know to do that is through monthly workshops.

Like most facilities you run your weekly clinics and programs and they run continuously throughout the year and are run on overdrive without any changes.

So to try and change it up and start adding workshops that will add a new program element to your already existing programs.

These workshops should be run by your teaching staff. it gives them a chance to be seen by more of your members, their friends, and others in the community.

The Workshop Topics should be educational in nature from the mental component of tennis to nutrition to fitness and will give your staff another opportunity to reach out to your existing members.

The purpose of the workshops is to increase participation and loyalty. Teach people how to play more effectively, eat more nutritiously,  and anything that you can think of for a "workshop".

Running the workshop is easy. Simply ask each of your tennis professionals to list out 5 topics they feel would make for a good workshop; topics they know a lot about, and love to talk about.

If you have 5 tennis professionals, guess what? You now have over two years worth of monthly workshop topics!

The workshop itself needs to be organized in a way that makes your staff and your club stand out from the other clubs in town .  Don't let your staff just wing it.  It needs to be done professionally so that the members walk out of the workshop already talking about next month's topic.

No power point presentations are necessary but they will add that professional touch, no one has to dress up or be uncomfortable. The workshop can literally be one of your staff talking to a group about something they love talking about anyway.

If you have an extra conference room, the local library, pub, restaurant or even your house. The setting doesn't matter. What matters is that the members learn something and have a little fun.  Depending on your facility you can even add food and beverages.

Here are a few workshop topics:
How to be a Great Doubles Partner
Tennis Fitness for the Club Player
How to take your singles game to the next level
Mental Toughness for the Club Player
How the Pros practice

These are just a few ideas that you can use for the workshops but it will depend on your staff and what they want to talk about.  Don't assign topics to staff let them come up with the ideas so they feel like they have an investment in the program.

As for cost of the workshop will depend on what your cost is to put on the workshop.  It could be free or you could charge a nominal amount.  The workshop could be an add on to one of your other programs that you run.

You can allow members to bring a friend, family member, or colleague. Visit local businesses and let them know about the upcoming workshop and allow multiple employees to attend together. Contact past members and invite them to participate. Have all of your tennis professionals invite their clients.

Whether it is current members and clients, or prospects you would like to become members or clients, everyone can participate in the workshops. Those who are already loyal and paying, will become more loyal and will continue paying. Those who are new to your services will have fun and see that you offer more than your competition to help them become healthy.

Have fun with it, come up with some great workshop topics, and start providing these once a month to increase loyalty among your members and awareness among potential members.

​It's been a while since I made a blog post so I'm planning on posting one blog post per day for the next 7 days before I go on vacation and then when I come back my goal is to post a new blog post 3 times per week.  It might be a little ambitious but my goal is to improve my writing so I'm going to try and write every day.

Right now I'm getting ready to go on vacation next week and my daughter is getting ready to head to college next week so I've been pretty busy getting things done in all of my businesses so when I'm gone everything will be done so right now I am a productivity machine.

I've gotten more done in the last two days then I got done in the last week.

So what’s my secret to getting everything done?

I have two things that help me.

#1 I create a deadline as to when it needs to be done.  This isn't rocket science but by creating a deadline it makes it more likely to get done.

#2 What is my MIT.  An MIT is pretty simple--> My Most Important Task (MIT) of the day.

So let’s start with Secret #1. When we are getting ready to go on a vacation, we have a date that we are leaving and we have a specific time that we are leaving.

That’s our deadline for when everything has to be done.

So for me right now my daughter Lauren  is leaving for college on Sunday with my wife and I'm leaving with my other daughter on Tuesday to meet them in Vancouver, British Columbia.

So right now I have two deadlines.  One for Saturday for everything that has to do with Lauren's move to college at the University of British Columbia and the other deadline is Tuesday when I fly out with Hannah

And for me, during vacations I have mini-deadlines are in effect. If I want to work, I know that I’m going to wrap up by 8:00 every morning. I know that if I work after 8:00 then Patti and the girls will not be happy with me!

And that leads us to #2. The Most Important Task of the Day also known as my MIT.

When I get into work every day I set up my schedule of everything that I have to get done and then I create my MIT for the day.

My MIT is what I am going to get done first and then I have my other tasks that I have to get done based on the deadline that I have created for that task.

By creating a deadline, our our most important priorities move to the front.

Here’s my suggestion for you to help you get your stuff done on time and on task..

First, identify your Most Important Task that is going to help you move forward with your business goals.  You should try to do this the night before.  Right now my most important task is our 2017 Academic programs for next year.

Second, you need to schedule a time to do it.  My schedule is kind of all over the place so I try to get my MIT done before 10:00. So I try to get my MIT for the day done by 10:00 everyday.

I know this sounds pretty simple but it works for me.

Like most people when it comes time for vacation you put everything into overload and you get stuff done because you know that you have to get it done before you leave.

So why not put those same ideas into your everyday work life or take more vacations!!

Music I am Listening To This Week-This week Lockn Fest announced their line up and one of my favorite bands My Morning Jacket is one of the headline bands.  The main headliner is Phish which I'm not a big fan of.  Now I just have to decide if I want to attend the festival!

Article I am reading this week-I am a big Spotify User and this article is a great article if you listen to Spotify. This article gives http://www.wired.com/2016/02/youre-probably-listening-to-spotify-wrong-be-a-power-user/

Video I Watched This week-This is a video of Monte Williams giving a eulogy for his wife who died last week.  Just watch the video.

Quote of the week-If you watched the video above about Monte Willams then you will understand the quote.

Article That I am reading-This past week in Blacksburg, Virginia a 13 year old girl was murdered by two college students.  The college students were 19 years old and one was on the cross country team and the other was their studying Engineering.  It's a pretty sad story that these two kids would murder another person.  When you look at the pictures of the girl who was killed and the two kids who killed her it makes you wonder how their lives could have taken them where they are now.  Very sad.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/va-tech-student-charged-in-blacksburg-teens-killing-to-appear-in-court/2016/02/04/7f37673c-cb4d-11e5-88ff-e2d1b4289c2f_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Quote of the Week-With the Super Bowl coming up I thought it would be a great time to do a Vince Lombardi quote!

​Social Media Post Of The Week-This past week the Virginia Men's Basketball team beat Wake Forest and scored 18 points in the final 1:20.  Yes, 18 points...it was crazy watching it unfold and with no time left one of the players hit a three pointer.  It was his only shot of the night and he banked it in!  Crazy!  Needless to say Social Media went crazy after he made the shot!

​Most of a tennis professional’s day is pre-scheduled with lessons.

But tennis professionals do a lot more than simply teach lessons.

Tennis Professionals need to keep track of all of their lessons, meetings, extra help, and other time commitments.

All of this can be hard to manage but you can save time with Google Calendar.

All of us can be better teaching professionals when we can focus just on teaching and not managing.

There is so much for us to think about during the day. Keeping our schedules right should be the least of our concerns. Yet, there is nothing worse than when you think your day is done. Only to realize that you have another meeting or lesson that did not get put on the calendar.

Do you find yourself going out of your mind with too many things to do and your daily schedule is completely unorganized?

I would recommend you get organized and save time and headaches by consistently using an online calendar.

Everyone has a slightly different system of keeping track of meetings and appointments. Many still use paper calendars on desks and some use their phones.

Personally, I stay organized and save time with my Google Calendar.

Google Calendar is a free online calendar, and it’s easy to use to keep track of life’s important events. If you don’t just use Google, it also syncs with Outlook and Apple Calendar.

Here Are 5 Ways Tennis Professionals Can Save Time With Google Calendar

1. Schedule Sharing
You can share your schedule. Schedule your day and lesson plans. Share your calendar with family, friends and colleagues so they know what is going on. Take advantage of keyboard shortcuts to save time and get around the calendar quickly. Add events and even schedule your agenda to be emailed to you every day.

2. Always Access
You can access your calendar when you are away from your desk. Use two-way syncing to add your schedule to your smartphone or tablet. This way you will always know what is going on, and you will never forget another event. Set your calendar to be notified by email or text message when you need to be reminded about something. Use Google Calendar to list your events by participants, location or type. You will be able to see in an instant what you have planned for the day. Like I said earlier, this also works with Apple Calendar and Outlook.

3. Lesson Planning
Use Google calendar for lesson planning. Events are easy to repeat. Once you have set a schedule for one week, you can put in each subject or meeting on repeat. This way you do not have to continually add curriculum to a day. It’s already there. Just fill in the details. You can also change your date range view. Customize the date and style of the calendar to fit your needs. I personally setup my calendar using Appointment slots and just add my classes at the beginning of the week. I also add in what lessons I am teaching; setting them as “All Day” events. This makes it easy to move things around in case of a change of schedule.

4. Different Calendars
Google Calendar allows for a user to make different calendars. Most start with the default calendar but then you can add more as you go. All are color coded and easy to see what I am teaching on which day. I don’t have to keep on reminding myself of the upcoming topics and that saves me time. 

An example would be to have a Junior Program and Adult Program calendar that you share with your staff.  You would go in and edit each day as to what lesson plans you want taught each day and what needs to be accomplished.  You would then share the calendar with your staff and they could log in each day and see the lesson plans.

5. Personal and Professional
Keep calendars straight by adding a separate calendar for personal needs as well. As I mentioned earlier, you can share Google Calendars. So I have my professional and my personal calendar, both being displayed at once.

I can easily schedule an event for either because both calendars are shared between accounts. My wife also has a Google Calendar account and we share our work calendars with each other. This makes the logistics of all of our kids events a little easier in our busy lives.

Anything you can do to make life a little easier is awesome. Google calendar will give structure and schedule to your classes, projects, meetings, and personal life. With Google Calendar and a Chrome app, you can have access to a read-only version of your calendar. This is awesome when you don’t have internet access and need to see your schedule in a hurry. You can also sync your calendar with a phone or tablet. Create or edit a calendar. Develop and add an event or share a calendar. Time is at a premium so take advantage of the tools out there.

I've been using Google Calendar every day for the last 3 years and it has evolved over time and I'm sure most of these things can be done with other online calendars so don't be afraid of going to an online calendar.

​This past week I had a friend of mine call me and asked me what I thought about Non- Compete Clauses and if he should start using them at his club.

First of all, I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know all of the legal aspects of non-compete clauses but I understand why clubs want to use them.

It might seem like the right thing to do having your staff sign a non-compete agreement.

After all, the last thing you want them to do is build up their clientele, then take all of them to another club in your area or down the street.

My question to my friend was…Is it worth trying to enforce?

Non-compete agreements have been around the tennis industry forever. I’ve heard of some standing up in court, and I’ve heard of some not holding up in court.

Every one of them ends up draining your time, energy, and often times your bank account trying to enforce. 

What I want to discuss in this blog isn’t whether or not the non-compete clause will hold up in court; I’m going to discuss whether or not you should have a non-compete agreement for your tennis staff in the first place.

If you have a branded or trademarked product or system that provides you a competitive edge in your community, then some type of nondisclosure or non-compete clause is reasonable and likely important for you to have with your staff. 

The problem I see is that a club will try to force all of their staff including the tennis and fitness staff into signing very aggressive non-competes, restricting them from training or teaching in the community again. To me this is a really bad idea for the club and the best pros won’t sign it unless they are forced to and if they do sign it then they are not going to be happy about it.  So now you have this great non-compete clause with a bunch of unhappy staff…great idea.

So, let’s say you hire Roger the tennis pro to teach tennis at your club.  Twelve months later, something happens and Roger is offered a great opportunity at another club, or maybe your club is struggling and Roger isn’t getting enough hours.  What if Roger moves and his commute is now 30 minutes instead of the 10 minutes.  Maybe you just don’t like Roger, or he doesn’t like you.  Things happen.

Do you, the club owner, want to try to keep Roger from supporting his family?  Do you really want to be seen as the bad guy in town?

I totally understand that you don’t want your teaching pros to leave and compete against you.  You certainly don’t want them taking their clients with them to the other club. 

In my opinion, if you feel the need for a non-compete agreement, keep the agreement specific and non-restrictive but don’t make it so strict that they can’t make a living.

For example, have your contract prohibit the pro from pursuing or recruiting their clients or members of your facility.  Instead of forbidding them to work with any club in town, prohibit them from working with one specific direct competitor.  You can prohibit them from recruiting any of your pros and other staff so you don’t have two or three pros leaving at the same time.  You can also prohibit them from revealing or using any information they learned during their time with your business, information that would not be otherwise publicly accessible.

If you insist on putting some geographical or timeline limits in your agreement, try to keep them reasonable.  Maybe they can’t work for another club within one to five miles of your facility for three months.  Making your staff agree to never teach in the city again is definitely not reasonable.  The shorter the duration and the less restrictive the language the more likely the staff will enter into a contract or employed position with your club. 

Oftentimes, your part time instructors will work at your location as well as other locations in town.  If you don’t want this to happen, you should be ready to get them plenty of students, or provide a working base until they build up their client base.

Here is the thing, if you really don’t want to worry about your staff, make everyone an employee instead of sub-contractors. A full time employee can be prohibited from teaching at other facilities or at clients’ homes, etc.  They also cannot refuse lessons, and can be instructed to use specific methods and programs specific to your club.  I would rather see full time employees over contract pros at a facility because the club is able to control what is being delivered.  I understand that because of what it costs to hire full time pros this isn’t always the case.

With the competition to hire great staff in our industry at its highest it’s ever been, you want to be seen as a great employer so that you can attract the most talented instructors.  You don’t want to be known as the club that has the non-compete clause.  If you do, then you are never going to attract good staff with that approach.

Like most industries the younger employees will plan to use your club as a stepping stone, and that is expected.  For those of you that know me know that is why I liked hiring young pros so they could use our club as a launching point. I always wanted my young staff to have that entrepreneurial spirit.  I always wanted my staff to enjoy the time they spent with our club, make it a great experience for them, and I never wanted to burn a bridge and when they decided to leave I was ok with it.  In our business attrition and turnover is just a part of what we do.

If you are going to be tough about controlling your staff, you won’t be able attract the best pros, and it won’t take long for the club to get a bad reputation.  You need to realize that the industry is too small and word will get out pretty quick. Once the word gets out no one will want to work for you because the non- compete agreement will give you the right to treat them poorly and pay them poorly.  Most good pros won’t be willing to take that chance on you or the club.  The only pros that you will be able to hire are the ones who can’t work anywhere else.

Instead of worrying about your staff leaving you or hurting your business, you should be focusing on providing the absolute best working environment in the area so they have no reason to leave.
By focusing on keeping them happy it will allow them to focus on their jobs which hopefully will bring in more revenue for the club, it will keep the members happy, and it will provide a better experience for everyone.

If your teaching staff likes and respects you, even if they decide to go somewhere else, they’re likely to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt you or them, and they’ll communicate with you along the way so that you can make the necessary adjustments after they leave.  A staff member who respects you is less likely to burn a bridge with you after they have left.

So, my opinion is that it is okay to have a non-compete clause, or at least a non-disclosure agreement in the contract with your pros as long as it is reasonable and doesn’t restrict the staff member.  I believe that it is reasonable to have them agree not to recruit their clients or other members at the club to go to with them when they leave.  I do believe it is not okay to heavily restrict their opportunities if they decide they want to leave the club.

As I said in the beginning I’m not a lawyer but I am a business owner who understands the business and it’s important that the club and the employee are on the same page when it comes to the hiring of the pro and when the pro decides they want to leave. 

​That is why every club and teaching pro should have some type of contract which lays out the contract and what is expected of them.  The main reason I believe in having a contract is for when they decide they want to leave so everyone understands what is expected of them when they do leave.  It just needs to be clear on both sides.

Music I'm Listening To This Week-With the death of Glenn Frey this week I've been listening to a lot of the Eagles.  Growing up I was never a big Eagles fan but I remember listening to them and liking some of their music and especially Hotel California.  This is a video of them doing the song unplugged on MTV in 1994 and it is awesome.

Article That I Am Reading-This past week was the start of the Australian Open and unfortunately the article on tennis betting came out on the first day of the tournament.  Obviously it would be more credible if it didn't come from Buzzfeed but none the less it was an eye opener.  It looks like this has been going on for quite some time.  I do find it hard to believe that the ATP hasn't addressed this earlier.  The player at the center of the controversy is Nikolay Davydenko   http://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/the-tennis-racket#.qgqqpRM9z

Social Media Post Of The Week-Today we are expecting up to 20 inches of snow over the weekend and its funny reading all of the posts on Facebook and Twitter and from the local news.  School was cancelled at 4:00 on Thursday and they have pretty much cancelled every event in the area.  Hopefully we make it through the weekend!  Where we live we normally don't get out until a couple of days after a big storm so I'm hoping we get out on Monday!  We have had a pretty mild winter so I'm looking forward to having some snow.
http://www.nbc29.com/story/31025952/albemarle-co-police-warn-drivers-for-coming-snow-storm

Quote of The Week-I think it's only fitting that this weeks quote is from Lleyton Hewitt.  Hewitt retired yesterday from the tour after spending the last 20 years competing on the ATP tour.  He became the #1 player in the world when he was 20 year old and was a great ambassador for the game.  You could always count on him to give a fist pump or something to get himself fired up!

Article That I am reading-Three Winners Win Powerball Jackpot-This past week I did something I thought I would never do which was buy a Powerball ticket.  I had never purchased one before so I didn't even know how to buy one so I googled it and watched a video on how to do it!  It's funny how once you purchase the ticket you start to wonder what you would do if you actually won.  At the dinner table on Wednesday we talked about what we would do with the money.  My wife and oldest daughter Lauren said that they hoped they didn't win because it would mean that there life would change for the worst and me and my youngest daughter Hannah said we would take the money and have fun!!  Even though we didn't win it was great to think about what would happen if we did win.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/vanessamcgrady/2016/01/13/win/#2715e4857a0b3a27e10e80bd

Social Media Post-This is a article I read on Facebook from the Washington Post that talked about Daniel Radcliffe's relationship with Alan Rickman.  Over the last 10 years I have watched all of the Harry Potter films and loved the character Snape.  My favorite scene in all of the Harry Potter movies is when Snape is dying and Harry takes one of his tears and then finds out that Snape has been helping him his whole life. His other great character was in Die Hard when one of the main character Hans Gruber.  Great actor who will be missed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/01/14/daniel-radcliffes-touching-tribute-to-alan-rickman-he-was-so-encouraging-of-me/?tid=sm_fb