It’s a recurring nightmare that plays out with many volleyball club directors. Midway through the season, you realize your organization has overspent and doesn’t have the money to cover the remaining costs. What happened? Chances are, you failed to adequately prepare a budget based on the club’s specific needs and expenses.
Listen, budgeting isn’t the most appealing part of managing a volleyball club, and it’s likely not the reason you became a director anyway. Creating a detailed budget before the season kicks off, however, will make every other aspect of your organization run more smoothly. And trust us: Parents and participants will notice and appreciate the smooth ride.
How to Prevent Overspending
You can do several things to avoid spending more than you are bringing in. Here are three ways to build a successful, customized budget:
1. Do not use a generic budget based on other teams within your sport.
Even within the same sport, every club is different. Expenses will differ based a variety of factors such as the number of planned overnight trips versus day trips and whether the coaches are paid or are volunteers. Below is an example of two clubs within the same sport whose budgets are completely different:
TEAM Y
| EXPENSE ITEM | FEE AMOUNT |
| Practice Facility | $2,000 |
| Uniforms | $2,500 |
| Travel Expenses | $1,500 |
| Tournament Registration | $5,000 |
| AAU Membership (10 players, 2 coaches) | $172 |
| JVA Insurance | $110 |
| Equipment | $500 |
| Coach Stipend | $4,000 |
| TOTAL | $15,782 |
| PER PLAYER | $1,578.20 |
TEAM Z
| EXPENSE ITEM | FEE AMOUNT |
| Practice Facility | $2,000 |
| Uniforms | $2,500 |
| Travel Expenses | $300 |
| Tournament Registration | $2,000 |
| AAU Membership (10 players, 2 coaches) | $172 |
| JVA Insurance | $110 |
| Equipment | $500 |
| Coach Stipend | N/A |
| TOTAL | $7,582 |
| PER PLAYER | $758.20 |
Team Y’s budget is nearly double that of Team Z, even though they are involved in the same sport. You can see that Team Y requires a fee for a paid coach, enters tournaments with higher tuition, and travels more than Team Z.
2. Make your budget transparent and easily available to parents.
When parents are asked to blindly pay fees with no detailed explanation as to what the fees are for, it creates confusion and negative feelings. By making your budget available to parents, they can directly see the expense items and their respective fee amounts, which can lead to successfully financing the whole season. Parents can better understand what their money is being used for, and it will positively resonate with them.
3. Be prepared for some level of non-payment.
No matter the sport or club, there will inevitably be non-payments. Making sure to account for some level of non-payment will prevent you from having a blown budget. For example:
Expected collections: $100K (50 athletes pay $2K each)
Predicted non-payment: 5% ($5K of the $100K)
Actual collections: $95K
What if you need the entire $100k to cover expenses? You could change the $2K fee to about $2.1K to cover those uncollected payments. However, this MUST be balanced with charging a reasonable price. You need parents to be able to afford signing their athlete up for your program, not to be pushed away by outrageous fees.
The Big Takeaway
As a club director, your main concern should be keeping the price per player low enough to draw athletes into your organization while covering expenses.
- Create a successful budget tailored to your club
- Make the budget transparent and accessible to parents
- Be prepared for non-payments
Follow these steps to avoid having to ask parents for surprise fees. In the long run, it will encourage families to want to return to your organization next season, maybe bringing in some additional friends, too.
For related reading for Club Directors on the business of junior volleyball click here. For more education on running a volleyball club click here.
About the Author
Darby is the former Content Marketing Associate at PaidUp in Austin, TX, a payments company supporting youth sports organizations.
