Though your fishing club is in it for the love of the sport rather than the money, there’s no denying that generating club revenue is crucial.
You have fees and overheads to pay, members to keep happy, and potential for real growth that can help you become a pillar of the local community and the wider angling world. So, with that in mind, Clubmate takes a look at some of the best ways to see more revenue in the club.
Sell & retain more memberships
Memberships are the lifeblood of the club and likely where most of the revenue comes. Attracting new members & keeping existing ones for longer is key to long-term success. Having an informative, easy to use (& find) website is a good start but making it easy for members to join online & at their convenience will really help convert those ‘potential’ members in to full blown members.
Add new sponsorships
Sponsorships play a key role in growing any grassroots fishing club. Rather than hoping they find you, it’s better to reach out to them. Identifying the right sponsors is the first step. If it’s a brand you share an audience with (like a tackle shop or fishing brand), that’s a good start. Next, you need to figure out what you can offer them and what they can offer you. This means working out your full audience including not just members but also bigger match and fundraising event attendees and your social media accounts. That kind of exposure can be essential in attracting not just their cash, but collaborative marketing opportunities, too.
Make day tickets more widely available
Your fishing club may already offer day tickets to access the club’s venues, but if it isn’t, it should. They serve as not only an extra revenue stream but a great stepping stone in to signing up for a full, annual membership. You could help improve sales by making them available to buy 24/7, as well. Rather than having to patrol your waters all day, the best way to do that is with an online booking system that manages all of the admin for you. With in-built tools to help you quickly set up day ticket bookings and accept payments online, you could sell tickets to those who might not be able to visit the club physically or call when the office is open.
Sell club-branded merchandise
From caps to jackets to jackets to pins, there’s plenty of merchandise you could be selling both from the office and online. You can sell exclusively to club members or sell more broadly offering a discount for members. To those members, the club might be more than a hobby, it might be part of the identity. Everyone wins with merchandise, they get to represent that identity and you get both the money and marketing that comes with having your brand worn in the wider world. Clubmate makes it a lot easier to design and sell branded merchandise of all types with direct delivery to your members’ door, taking a lot of the organisational hassle off your shoulders.
Put on club events
Coaching days, family days and the like give you the opportunity to foster your connection with the community. Not only does this give you the opportunity to attract new members and grow your relevance to sponsors, it also brings some revenue opportunities. You can charge entry fees, sell your own merchandise, or offer space to paying brands and small business owners to sell their own goods at the event, too.
Maximise attendance to matches
Whether it’s the occasional fishing competition or a bigger tournament across a longer period of time, selling entry to your matches can offer a big boost for the club. Using an easy-to-find website with Clubmate and collaborating with sponsors and local businesses through social media can help you build a lot more buzz around your matches, while bigger prize pots can help you attract a lot more anglers and a lot more entry fees.
Fundraising
Another great opportunity to partner with the community, sponsors, and other small businesses. If you work hard to build a connection with your local area, 100 clubs, raffles, donations, and lotteries can help you get the cash injection you need. A little incentivisation, like offering unique prizes, can help draw a lot more attendants, too. And why not request a donation from new members at the point of joining too?
Government-backed grants
Fishing clubs play a large role in fostering the centre of a community, as well as getting the locals more active. With that in mind, there could be plenty of government-backed grants you could apply for. Your local council is the best place to start, as you’re likely to see less competition for that grant money. However, national grants from organisations like the Community Asset Fund or Major Events Engagement Fund from Sport England and the Angling Improvement Fund from the Angling Trust are also worth a closer look.
If you’re stuck for the extra revenue you need to keep the club running and growing, you don’t need to be stuck for ideas, too. There are plenty featured above to get that cash coming in and Clubmate can make it all easier through helping you develop an easy-to-find, friendly website, setting up your branded merchandise sales and making it all easy to run with our admin and management tools.
