All-Star Special Treatment From Ep's & Vendors

[Cheer_Explosion_Coach]

Cheaper events is probably not realistic without coming up with a way to lower the cost of producing an event.

My solution would be to have fewer, but larger events. (economies of scale, etc.) Getting to that point is the tricky part.

It's tricky but I think it'd be worth it in the long run to both coaches and EPs.

 

[BlueCat]

REA Dad

I'm not sure of the pricing structure of the gym you are at. Maybe your gym charges you for each individual competition, if that is the case then I can see why you would think that you should get the rebate. However, your gym owner would then most likely raise your tuition to cover that loss of income and you'd end up paying the same amount either way.

I do all inclusive pricing for everything except for Uniforms, since some people don't need new ones. So that its just $200 a month instead 0f $700 is competitions and $20 is for coaches travel, and $25 for music, and 100$ for choreography and 15 for a shirt and 70 for shoes and $20 for a bow plus $100 a month and so on. it works out the same. (I was just making up some numbers by the way)

We have a very similar system. We are all-inclusive other than clothing. Parents know exactly what their costs will be. Customers are paying for the overall experience of being on a team. We pay for choreography, music, entry fees, etc. directly and don't bill the parents for any of that. That makes life so much simpler for both sides, IMO.

 

[CheerBank]

We have a very similar system. We are all-inclusive other than clothing. Parents know exactly what their costs will be. Customers are paying for the overall experience of being on a team. We pay for choreography, music, entry fees, etc. directly and don't bill the parents for any of that. That makes life so much simpler for both sides, IMO.

In your heads though don't you have the breakdown of what you are charging for each of these things? Otherwise how do you come up with that "all-inclusive" rate you are charging them each month? And if a parent asks for that breakdown, would you give it to them or would you say you are paying for the overall experience? Because as a parent, I want to know what exactly I am paying for.

 

[ACEDAD]

In your heads though don't you have the breakdown of what you are charging for each of these things? Otherwise how do you come up with that "all-inclusive" rate you are charging them each month? And if a parent asks for that breakdown, would you give it to them or would you say you are paying for the overall experience? Because as a parent, I want to know what exactly I am paying for.

Do you get an individual price list for each part of a car you buy?

 

[Trolldance]

Since this is essentially a service and not a product, such as a car, I absolutely think the consumer is entitled to know where their money is going.

 

[CheerBank]

Do you get an individual price list for each part of a car you buy?

Let's say tuition and gym fees are the equivalent to the base sticker price of the car. I know what is included in the base price (let's just say automatic, leather seats, power windows and doors). If I want the roof rack, surf attachment, side rails and fog lights, I am going to get a breakdown of the cost of each and all of that plus the base price will be factored into my monthly payments. As a parent, I would like to know the travel fees, comp fees, etc. I have never had a number just handed to me and paid without knowing what exactly it was for. If a gym did not feel the need to share the fee breakdown it would make me feel that it was because they did not want me to see how much they were overcharging me for certain things.

 

[ACEDAD]

Let's say tuition and gym fees are the equivalent to the base sticker price of the car. I know what is included in the base price (let's just say automatic, leather seats, power windows and doors). If I want the roof rack, surf attachment, side rails and fog lights, I am going to get a breakdown of the cost of each and all of that plus the base price will be factored into my monthly payments. As a parent, I would like to know the travel fees, comp fees, etc. I have never had a number just handed to me and paid without knowing what exactly it was for. If a gym did not feel the need to share the fee breakdown it would make me feel that it was because they did not want me to see how much they were overcharging me for certain things.

I don't disagree with you at all. Just showing that there might be a different perspective and way of doing things.

ACE always broke down everything (including how much more girls had to pay if they cheered on coed teams) and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

 

[mstealtoyou]

Our fee's are broken down in different payments.

Comp Fee's (Which includes choreography fee's, music fee's, travel fee's, banquet etc)
Tuition
Practice Clothes
Makeup
Bows

Each fee is spelled out in the parent book. I have over paid by $5 before and gotten a call asking where to apply the $5. True story.

 

[drewpate]

I wish Nfinity would sponsor small gyms!!! My Senior Coed 5 team of (17 praying for 20) would love Backpacks!!!!

GK gave our gym ALOT of Nfinity backpacks as coaches gifts for hte small competition we host (idk if we still charged them for their vendor table, but i would doubt it) something like 65 or so. Then they also gave our coed 5 backpacks for worlds. While we aren't a small gym, we aren't a big gym or big name by any stretch of the imagination

The kicker.... we don't use GK for our cheer program (but have used them for our competition gym program). Wink also hooked us up with makeup for worlds. (they were going to have their staff do the makeup, but we went WAY too early in the morning for that to happen.

 

[CGAcheer]

In your heads though don't you have the breakdown of what you are charging for each of these things? Otherwise how do you come up with that "all-inclusive" rate you are charging them each month? And if a parent asks for that breakdown, would you give it to them or would you say you are paying for the overall experience? Because as a parent, I want to know what exactly I am paying for.

Exact breakdown vs easy consistent budgeting

Do you want to know that you are paying-
1200 tuition(100 a month)
700 comp fees
750/# of kids on team for music
2000/# of kids on team for choreography
15x3 for shirts
75 for shoes
20 for a bow
300 for a uniform
100 warm up
300/# of kids on team x number travel comps for coaches travel

And following that methodology of paying for each thing as it's due you'll have some months that are nearing 600+ while others are only 100
Vs
Paying a flat $220 a month

Now if you want to add leather or a roof rack we have various classes that you can add on to your base allstar inclusive monthly fee

 

[mstealtoyou]

Exact breakdown vs easy consistent budgeting

Do you want to know that you are paying-
1200 tuition(100 a month)
700 comp fees
750/# of kids on team for music
2000/# of kids on team for choreography
15x3 for shirts
75 for shoes
20 for a bow
300 for a uniform
100 warm up
300/# of kids on team x number travel comps for coaches travel

And following that methodology of paying for each thing as it's due you'll have some months that are nearing 600+ while others are only 100
Vs
Paying a flat $220 a month

Now if you want to add leather or a roof rack we have various classes that you can add on to your base allstar inclusive monthly fee

I think she just meant she didn't mind paying the flat monthly payment of total expense per kid times 11 or 12 months. She was just asking if anybody gave a detailed account of where the flat figure came from. She likes to see where her money is going.

 

[cupieqt]

My old gym also did.

3 of a few. We should start counting.

 

[REA Dad]

REA Dad

I'm not sure of the pricing structure of the gym you are at. Maybe your gym charges you for each individual competition, if that is the case then I can see why you would think that you should get the rebate. However, your gym owner would then most likely raise your tuition to cover that loss of income and you'd end up paying the same amount either way.

I do all inclusive pricing for everything except for Uniforms, since some people don't need new ones. So that its just $200 a month instead 0f $700 is competitions and $20 is for coaches travel, and $25 for music, and 100$ for choreography and 15 for a shirt and 70 for shoes and $20 for a bow plus $100 a month and so on. it works out the same. (I was just making up some numbers by the way)

My idea is not based off what/how my gym charges for competition fees. I'm very happy with the cost of my gym fees and my gym.

If you go back and read my posts you will see that I'm saying that IF the EP is offering an end of year rebate/discount to the gym owner for bringing them the business maybe instead they should offer the discount right from the start so that the cheerleader/parent is paying less instead. Then the EP's focus would be on the cheerleader instead of the gym owner.

 

[CheerBank]

I think she just meant she didn't mind paying the flat monthly payment of total expense per kid times 11 or 12 months. She was just asking if anybody gave a detailed account of where the flat figure came from. She likes to see where her money is going.

Thank you mstealtoyou! I'm not sure why there is such surprise by my question. And CGAcheer, I would much rather have the consistent monthly payment throughout the year and I never indicated otherwise, but I would like to know how you arrived at that number. I don't think any of your fees are unreasonable because I am pretty much aware what each component should roughly cost, but if I saw that my gym had allotted $200 a month for tuition over 12 months and $125 for cheer shoes I would want to know why.

 

[BlueCat]

I do understand the view of wanting to know as much detail behind the cost decisions. I am curious about how many service businesses arrive at their cost myself. It is our experience, however, that breaking down the costs ALWAYS lead to much more headache, time, and upset parents than if we just estimate/average the costs and be done with it. Besides, I really do believe that it averages out better for most of the customers in the long run if we do it that way.

<<deleted lengthy digression into economic theory>>

Further complicating the issue is that we often don't know which events we will attend or what the cost of those events will be until after the season starts.