I started the weekend squash tournaments and mid-week break squash coaching sessions at the squash centre and they were an instant success.
People came and stayed at the local hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts and, when they weren’t participating in the squash tournaments, receiving squash coaching or practising their squash strokes, they loved the surrounding countryside and walking the grounds of the quaint old manor buildings which were at the heart of the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre.
Many of the beginner and advanced squash players were also interested in buying squash rackets, squash T-shirts and other squash sports equipment.
I eventually suggested to Max that we should carry a stock of these items but, as always, he was ahead of me.
“Why don’t we advertise the opportunity to businesses locally who already sell squash equipment and other sports equipment, dude,” he said. “It will have the advantage that the squash centre automatically receives income whether or not visitors purchase squash rackets, squash T-shirts, squash clothing, squash balls or any other squash equipment!”
He looked at me shrewdly.
“It gives you more or less the same profits with fewer risks! Awesome!”
As it turned out, he was right, there was a local sports shop that was very happy to visit the squash centre during Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre events, sell their sports equipment and provide the squash centre a share of the profit.
Partnering with local businesses enabled us to quickly expand the facilities we were offering to visitors to the squash centre without incurring additional expense, investing in stocks of squash equipment or needing to provide staffing to deal with the sales.
Within a few weeks, the squash centre was an exciting and interesting place to work and provide squash coaching, squash courses, squash competitions and squash tournament and I was looking forward positively to identifying new ways of achieving even greater success for the squash centre – with the help of Max the intern, of course.