Creating Winning Initiatives

1. Creating Winning Initiatives Connecticut Recreation & Parks Association Learning Resources Network October 2013

2. High-Dollar vs. Low-Dollar Initiatives • Low-dollar/participation courses/events are not cost effective to do much needs assessment. Follow these guidelines: • Accept normal cancellation or failure rate, based on historical experience. 15% overall. 30-50% new. • Look at a larger group or division. Think market segments or best divisions. • Do quick surveys. Ask best customers. Short, quick. • Just do it.

3. High-Dollar vs. Low-Dollar Initiatives • Spend time doing research on high-dollar/participation initiatives.

4. New Initiative Types • New Product Area – Cooking • New Market Segment – Generation X Families • New Delivery Method – Camps

5. Develop and Follow New Initiative Guidelines • Guideline A • Initiative should have an expected life of 3 years or more. • Guideline B • Initiative should generate $100,000 or 5-10% of your total income by year 3.

6. Guideline C • Initiative should generate an “acceptable” operating margin and net by year 3. • Cover direct costs in year 1. • Cover direct costs plus more in year 2. • Make operating margin goal in year 3.

7. Guideline C example • Year 3 Goal = $100,000 Revenue, $50,000 OM, and $5,000 Net • Year 1: Direct Costs are $25,000 so Revenue is $25,000 • Year 2: Direct Costs are $40,000 so Revenue is $70,000 • Year 3: Direct Costs are $50,000 so Revenue is $100,000

8. Guideline D • Initiative should have 1,000-10,000 names available or an “acceptable” market potential.

9. Guideline E One New Initiative a Year!

10. 8-Step Needs Assessment Model 2016 2013 2015 5. Develop/Test 2014

11. 2014 Example • Deciding on and evaluating 2013 initiative • Developing, testing, and rolling out 2014 initiative • Selecting top 3 2015 initiatives. Modeling top 3 and picking top 1. • Brainstorm and research 2016 initiatives.

12. Stage One: Brainstorm • Don’t negate or pass negative judgments on ideas. • All ideas are good. Not all ideas are feasible, workable, or marketable. • Don’t become attached to an idea. Don’t give an idea ownership (e.g. Pat’s idea). • Brainstorm lots of ideas, keep 10 or more active at any given time. • Use participants, business books, staff, advisory boards, and yourself to come up with ideas.

13. Stage Two: Research • Look deep, and in many ways, at your own participation data. • Analyze each one of your three closest competitors. • Explore the total potential audience or “universe” for each new initiative idea. • Research lots of ideas at any given time, at least 10. • Use low cost or no cost techniques in your research. • Listen to your customers.

14. Stage Three: Choose Options • You control the advisory board, you set the agenda, they help you. • Use your small group to help improve your new initiative idea. • Use an advisory board to help you narrow down your best new initiative ideas. • Recruit at least half of your advisory board members from your best customers.

15. Stage Three: Choose Options • The advisory group does not make decisions or the final choice for a new initiative idea. The final decision is made by your audience when you try it. • Survey your small group often to help refine and improve your new initiative idea.

16. Stage Four: Model • This just takes a few minutes, and involves only one sheet of paper. • Ignore this stage, and you put your new initiative idea in peril. • If your new initiative idea can work on paper, it can work in real life. • If your new initiative idea cannot work on paper, it cannot work in real life. • The numbers rarely fall into place easily, so do some adjusting and “what if…”.

17. Stage Five: Develop/Test • Survey for the right questions. • Always be surveying your customers. • Build enough to make your efforts an initiative. • Start developing the product, market segment, delivery method. • Use experts. You cannot be the subject matter expert. • Survey your best customers only.

18. Stage Six: Try It • Estimate income conservatively, budget to break even. • Lower the risk, test only one new variable. • Promote early, and promote it heavily. • Test one new initiative idea at a time to give it your full attention and resources. • Schedule the first offering shortly after your final survey for the new initiative idea.

19. Stage Seven: Decide • If the new initiative can double or triple its enrollments, go with it. • Don’t be afraid to kill a new initiative idea if the market was not ready for it. • Don’t spend a lot of time, but do some hard thinking. • Don’t cut a new initiative that will eventually be a winner. • Break even is good enough for the first offering.

20. Stage Eight: Evaluate • Explore ways to conduct the new initiative more efficiently in terms of staff resources. • Keep improving. Go through the cycle again, brainstorming and researching more ways to improve the initiative and boost its success even further. • Your first offerings should be the ‘worst’ quality wise and financially. • Work on improving the promotion and marketing of a new initiative idea. • Look at streamlining and improving your production and quality.

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22. THANK YOU! GREG MARSELLO www.lern.org