Ready to learn how to run more successful competitions at your box? This post covers all the bases to help you bring more athletes in, manage your time effectively, and make more money. Our good friend Robby is a pro at running these events and makes 5 figures per event. Here is his personal advice.

This guest post is from Robby Blanchard who is the owner of CrossFit Reach. He is a business coach and mentor to other Box Owners who are looking to make more money, have more time to spend time with family, and more freedom to do what you love while your gym runs on autopilot. For more info visit: https://rxbusinessignition.com. Whether you are about to run your very 1st competition or this is your 100th, these 5 Tips from our friend Robby Blanchard at CrossFit Reach will definitely help you up your game.

This past weekend I ran another successful competition here at my CrossFit Reach with over 120 athletes and we were able to do 5 figures in revenue as we do with every competition. There are a lot of owners that have reached out to me to ask me for tips on running a competition so I thought I’d share 5 here with everyone that I think are really important to the success of your event.

 

1. Reverse engineer your comp: Whenever I am planning for a competition…I always start with what I want to accomplish and then work my way backwards.

That includes how much revenue I want to generate, how many athletes I want to have, how much help I need, etc.

Don’t just plan a competition without having your end goals in place first.

2. Set yourself up for success: When it comes to planning the competition…plan everything. Plan your WODs to make sure they flow together so that they are good for the athletes AND the judges.

Plan your transitions between WODs and make sure your help knows what is needed prior to the competition day.

I can’t tell you how many competitions I’ve been to where it will go until 6 or 7pm simply because there is no organization beforehand.

There is no reason why you shouldn’t start at 8:30am and be done by 3pm.

Also, using a competition software like the one from Triib makes registering athletes, scoring, assigning heats and workouts super easy while saving you a ton of time. The more you can use software like this to automate your competition..the better.

3. Take care of your help: More often than not your judges and help will be your members. Take care of them…they are paying members…not slaves. In my competitions…every volunteer gets a t-shirt, free lunch, $25 off their next months membership and I take them all out for a drink after.

Show as much appreciation for them because without good help, you can’t run a competition. If you take care of your help and show them how much you appreciate them…you’ll always have people wanting to help you.

4. Play the long game: I can’t tell you how many competitions just wing it now all in the name of making a quick buck. Don’t do that! Take care of your athletes and run your competition like you would your business. In our comps we make sure every athlete gets a t-shirt that they would want to wear out.

I also invest in a professional photographer and audio/video guy so that the athletes have great photos of themselves to use on facebook, etc (which is great for your brand).
Between shirts and photos and video…I spent about $2500 (so my take home was over $7500 for one day…not too shabby)…but guess what? The athletes are happy and will come back to my next comp AND I now have a ton of content that I can repurpose to promote the next comp as well as anything else I’m running at my box.

5. Run it like a business: If you run a competition correctly, there is no reason why you can’t do 3-5 of them per year with each generating 5 figures.

That’s an additional $30-50k to your bottom line which can make a huge difference in your business. In order to do that you have to approach it as a business and not an event.

Take the time to plan, coordinate and market your competitions the right way.

So go out there and start planning your next competition!

To your success,

Robby

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