The Business of Tennis

This is the first in a series of articles about Succeeding and Making Money in Sports.

As Athletes we wanna do what we do best: play our sport.  As coaches we wanna teach our sport.

For those few of us who have already started making good money playing or teaching our sport, there are managers and bookkeepers who can take care of business.

But for those of us who are working to establish ourselves in our sport, we need a PLAN to get there.

A plan is NOT: “I’ll work as hard as I can until either I start making money from sports or the money runs out and then I’ll move onto other things”. That’s a not a plan. In fact it’s a sure way to find yourself under constant financial insecurity and stress, to sap your energy and to not perform at your top potential. In fact not having a plan may contribute to you not meeting your goal.

I’m going to teach you how to write a simple but powerful plan to achieve your goal in professional sports. The road to your destination (which is: financial success!) is often long, so a good plan creates sub-destinations.  Sub-destinations are more manageable. EG: Reaching UTR 13.  Or… Making the qualifiers in an ITF 15.  Reaching a sub-destination will  put a skip in your step and generate self confidence and excitement about the next phase.

Since Ranking = Money, you need a plan that plots both your interim goals and your earnings.  And initially those earnings will be dismal.  But you can’t become a professional athlete without developing a mature attitude towards money. That’s why your plan is going to be a Business Plan.  Welcome to the real world. You’re now an entrepreneur and you need a BUSINESS PLAN.