The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges to college campuses. Department funding that relied on in-person based student fees — like campus rec — suffered the most as many students chose not to return to on-campus learning or to leave college altogether. These circumstances have led to the enrollment cliff in which reduced student population results in decreased funding to respective departments. Questions arise such as:
- What solutions can your campus rec center implement to generate new revenue and offset any budget shortfalls?
- How much additional revenue streams could the campus rec center add?
- What solutions have the greatest impact on your populations served and fill an existing need?
- What technology training needs to happen to get new services up and running smoothly?
- What marketing strategy should be deployed to show the presence of new service offerings?
Conduct a Needs Assessment
Start with a needs assessment. Here, you assess populations you currently serve and potentially in the future. Populations to consider are club/intramural sports, fitness, cheerleaders, band, police department, community and faculty/staff. Up for consideration are current staffing capabilities and budget along with the amount of additional revenue desired.
Tailor Your Revenue Streams
Select solutions that make the most impact on the populations you currently serve or future audiences. By tailoring any new solutions to these groups, the opportunity to generate immediate revenue and maximize ROI increases. Would your populations benefit from solutions related to metabolism, sleep fitness, stress management, brain fitness, injury prevention, nutrition, recovery or performance? Could you increase faculty/staff engagement with employee wellness initiatives? Answering these questions can go a long way in determining what solutions to choose.
Train Staff and Implement Processes
Once you decide what new revenue streams to add, training current staff on utilization and implementation becomes paramount. Any technology needed for service delivery should be mastered. You’ll want to ensure training and processes remain standardized as new staff will be onboarded in the future. Using tech-based solutions with AI ensures consistency in data collection and testing regardless of staff turnover.
Marketing Strategy and Building Demand
Implement a focused marketing strategy to get the message out regarding any new service offerings. Showcase new services to the appropriate audiences to demonstrate value up front. Maybe your users prefer Instagram, TikTok or YouTube content. Maybe your audience wants HR tips for employee wellness or you want to reach the band director and email is most effective. No matter the audience or medium, new services must be communicated to generate excitement and eventually engagement.
Okon Antia is the owner and a physical therapist at Campus Motion Sports Health. He can
be reached by visiting campusmotion.org or via email at info@campusmotion.org.
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