This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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All right, everybody. Today we're gonna talk about pickleball. Pickleball tournaments, specifically. How can you host a pickleball tournament? Well, you may not wanna do that yourself, but one of our listeners is a fan of pickleball.
He's a pickleball enthusiast, let's say, as well as a community organizer at heart. And he's got this idea to host a pickleball tournament in his hometown, mostly for the fun and camaraderie. But of course, here it is, side hustle school, right? Also with a dream of perhaps trying to get into a profitable venture. So I love the community spirit.
I love this intersection of passion and potential profit. It really is where a side hustle should reside. You should be able to do something that you love and get paid for it. That is my philosophy anyway. And that's what we're all about here.
How can we increase your economic empowerment? My name's Chris Guillebeau. Let's dive into how we can set up this sporting event for success. Both for that community building process and that potential business. It's coming up after this quick shout out to our sponsor.
[Music]
Hey there, I'm Caleb from Santa Monica, California. I love the show and your books. I've recently developed a deep interest in pickleball. It's a sport that's picking up steam all across America. As someone who thrives on bringing people together, I've been contemplating organizing a love pickleball tournament.
My main motivation is to create a fun event for pickleball aficionados, but I've also been wondering, could this grow into something more than just a community event? If the tournament becomes popular, I'd be thrilled to turn this into a regular profitable venture. How can I plan this out so that, along with fostering community spirit, I could potentially generate a financial profit as well? [Music]
Caleb, what's up, man? Pickleball, yes, it is indeed the fastest growing sport, at least according to lots of folks.
It's so interesting. I'm seeing lots about it in the news all the time. I think I mentioned before my longtime friend and literary agent, David Fugate. He's really into pickleball. He keeps telling me he's gonna give me a lesson, but I haven't got the actual invite yet.
So David, if you're out there, let's make it happen. And focusing on Caleb here, as much as I love the world of side hustling for money, I think it's best to start, at least with the focus of, let's build this as a community event. Doesn't mean it can't be self-sustaining. Doesn't mean there can't be that element of profit, but I just think Caleb will be best positioned to make it more profitable later if he is in fact hosting these successful tournaments. So I guess my first question is like, what can we do to make it the most successful community event possible?
And then to make it profitable, okay, there could be several different revenue streams. There should be some kind of registration fee for people, like that's expected. You want it to be reasonable to not deter participation, but of course, enough to cover your costs, maybe leave a little extra sponsorships at some point. That can definitely be a profitable aspect. Merch sales, pickleball related gear like paddles, balls, clothing, perhaps.
At some point there could be like food and drink sales. There's lots of ways to go down that road, but I just think let's try to build it first and then introduce some more elements of profit or perhaps eventually sell it in some way, maybe selling the rights of the tournament to one of the many companies that is now trying to profit in this industry. That's my initial take, Caleb. And either way, even if you are more profit focused, I think the first tournament is probably not going to be a huge money maker. That's just pretty much normal.
So that's okay. Your focus should be on creating an enjoyable, well-run event that people want to return to and tell their friends about, including me. Like I would love to come and be part of it if I could learn how to play. So still working on that. But as the event grows in popularity, you'll have more leverage to increase revenue through some of those methods we talked about.
Anyway, it sounds fun. Good luck, Caleb. Listeners, if you have a question, if you're into pickleball or if you're not, or if you're into something totally different, whatever it is, we'd like to find a way to create some economic empowerment through it. sidehustleschool.com/questions. Let me know your ideas, what's working, what's not.
We'll continue to feature them each week, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects. So glad you're out there. I'm cheering you on. Take care of yourself. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
