Sports Camp Supervisor

Description:

Hold a sports camp (basketball, soccer, etc.) for younger kids. Choose something that you can do with a large group of kids because the more you can handle at a time, the more money you will make. Hold it every day for a couple hours for a week or maybe a couple hours a day a couple days a week for a month, whatever suits you. Charge a set price for the whole camp per kid. If needed get a friend to help you run it. During each day you cover different aspects of the particular sport and help the kids master the fundamentals of the sport. Make it fun (include competitions or games or something).

How I got the idea / found the employment:

I have always had a passion for sports since I was a child and had confidence that I had enough knowledge and skills to teach younger kids the game of basketball. My friend and I wanted to make money but didn’t want to get actual jobs (e.g. fast food) so we brainstormed ideas of what we could do. We came up with a sports camp because it was something we would have fun doing and would be an easy way to make money if it were successful

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

One challenge was finding enough children to participate to make the camp worth our time. We decided to make sure it was well advertised and in enough time in advance that people were able to easily plan for it. We also offered small discounts to those who came in groups so that those planning to come would find others to come with them so they could get the discount.

What I learned:

Doing this helped me develop organizational skills and gave me at least a small idea what it is like to run your own business and be in charge. I got an idea of the types of stress/pressure that can be related to that as well as the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction once it was over and the money was in our hands. Although the amount of money we made ended up being well above a typical minimum wage job, this “business” is really only practical occasionally and wouldn’t be a good part-time or full-time job. It is something you could do a few times over a summer but that’s about it.

Swimming Lessons

Description:

I was a lifeguard at our town pool when I was in High School. Going through that I decided to give private lessons and also cover private parties. Within my ward I had a ton of business doing swim lessons for 15 bucks an hour per kid. It was a great source of revenue for me in High School. To be honest I never ran out of business in the summer. As well, when our town pool shut down I still had business with those people for an extra month or so.

How I got the idea / found the employment:

I actually came across the idea by a member asking me to watch one of their parties. Word spread that this had happened and I had more business each week. I came up with the private lessons on my own and that worked great as well.

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

The only challenges I faced were with scheduling. I played a lot of sports over the summer and that sometimes didn’t allow me to cover for their parties. It also became an issue when I didn’t have enough time to cover all the parties because people had already asked me to cover another one.

What I learned:

That to create a business takes little work sometimes. There are times when you have to work your tail off to get it going and do other things but sometimes blessings really fall.

Swimming Lessons instructor

Description:

What we did was create our own swimming lessons business where parents would call my cell phone during the year and schedule the date that their son or daughter would take swimming lessons from us. We held 3 two week sessions during the summer. Each lesson was 1 hour long (45 minutes teaching, 15 minutes free time) and had lessons Monday through Thursday. We had about 6 lessons per day with an average of 15 students in the pool at each time. Since this is a lot for one teacher, I had two employees, a good friend and my mother helped a lot. Each student paid $40 for the two week session and would usually take lessons for multiple years.

How I got the idea / found the employment:

My brother and I were on the swim team through all of high school and being that we were good at the sport and registered as life guards we decided to put that talent to use and earn some money in the mean time. This worked out great because we already had our own pool and knew of many people that would be interested in having their children take swimming lessons from us.

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

Most of the challenges came from students not wanting to listen and that didn’t want to be there but were just because of their parents. This was very difficult at the beginning but with time we managed to be able to involve everyone and create fun learning activities that keeps everyone focused and smiling. Another challenge was health conditions of employees. If someone was sick we had to manage teaching their students along with ours and created some problems. With this we always had a back-up teacher that we could call in case of this situation.

What I learned:

- I learned that a simple idea such as this can really make you money. We had a talent and used it to make money, what else is better? I have now looked at my other talents and skills to see what else I will be able to do in the future.

- Working through problems as the arise

- Being able to teach and deal with little kids in a way that is loving but still hard enough that they know that I’m in charge and they need to listen

- Having fun at work is the way it should be done

teaching private swimming lessons

Description:

My job was to provide basic swimming lessons to children ages three to seven. The six and seven year olds knew how to swim already so we focused on techniques. The older children were preparing to join the local country club swim team. With these older children we tried to help them learn the techniques that would help them with their races. The younger children were learning how to swim. We worked on the most simple swimming skills: blowing bubbles, turning head to breathe, kicking, floating on their back, diving to the bottom of the pool, and making a splash. I did not have any employees or helpers. Some responsibilities I had were to set up the swimming appointments with the parents of the swimmers. I had to keep the pool clean (usually I cleaned the pool once a week, sometimes twice). If you were going to try to run this business you obviously need to know how to swim and have open access to a swimming pool (preferably your own). Something that helped me was having extra goggles for the kids and having workout tools like kickboards, pool buoys, and diving toys/weights. Each class was 30 minutes long and we did the classes five days a week. I only did the series of lessons for two weeks, but you could do it for a lot longer.

How I got the idea / found the employment:

A family in the neighborhood had a swim school in their pool and they needed a bunch of people to help teach the lessons. I was one of the coaches there and several of the children’s parents approached me to ask me if I would teach private lessons. Since our family has a swimming pool I decided I would do the private lessons. The parents were paying the swim school 60 to 70 dollars per session per kid and I was only making $8.50 and hour. When I taught the private lessons at my house I received 10$ per lesson per child. I was making a lot more money and only working for an hour and a half each day. After two weeks and 15 hours of working I made 570 dollars, and I was my own boss.

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

There weren’t too many challenges for my business, but the two largest I faced were scheduling and weather problems. Since I was making the schedule with the parents I had to make calls and keep everything organized. Sometimes things came up for the parents or me and we’d have to scramble to find times to do the lessons. You have to be proactive about getting kids to do the lessons because lots of kids are already taking lessons or on swim teams so you need to get fliers out. It was a little easier for me because parents knew me from the swim school, but to start from scratch would require a lot publicizing. Sometimes the weather was bad (lightning or rain) and we would not be able to have the lessons. This created problems because we’d have to have make-up days on Saturdays or in the week following the two-week sessions. It was hard to get times when the different families could all do make-ups but we always figured something out with the make up days.

What I learned:

I have gained a lot from my experience of teaching swimming each summer. One thing I benefited from was that I was able to work with older people (the parents) in the neighborhood. As a teenager I didn’t have a lot of interaction with adults, but when you do business with them you learn to have adult conversations and interact with adults in a different way. Running this business required me to be a lot more responsible. I had to be especially responsible with regards to time and scheduling. I had to make sure we started the lessons on time and finished on time. I also had to make sure that families were getting there money’s worth by making the time count when they were in the pool (not just messing around and having fun the whole time). My family held me responsible to clean the pool and get everything ready for the lessons. Another valuable thing I learned is that you have to adapt your teaching to the learning style of the kids. They all had different personalities and skills and abilities, which required me to tailor my coaching to them. This experience has helped me to learn to interact with others more effectively.

Teaching private swimming lessons

Description:

My job was to provide basic swimming lessons to children ages three to seven. The six and seven year olds knew how to swim already so we focused on techniques. The older children were preparing to join the local country club swim team. With these older children we tried to help them learn the techniques that would help them with their races. The younger children were learning how to swim. We worked on the most simple swimming skills: blowing bubbles, turning head to breathe, kicking, floating on their back, diving to the bottom of the pool, and making a splash. I did not have any employees or helpers. Some responsibilities I had were to set up the swimming appointments with the parents of the swimmers. I had to keep the pool clean (usually I cleaned the pool once a week, sometimes twice). If you were going to try to run this business you obviously need to know how to swim and have open access to a swimming pool (preferably your own). Something that helped me was having extra goggles for the kids and having workout tools like kickboards, pool buoys, and diving toys/weights. Each class was 30 minutes long and we did the classes five days a week. I only did the series of lessons for two weeks, but you could do it for a lot longer.

How I got the idea / found the employment:

A family in the neighborhood had a swim school in their pool and they needed a bunch of people to help teach the lessons. I was one of the coaches there and several of the children’s parents approached me to ask me if I would teach private lessons. Since our family has a swimming pool I decided I would do the private lessons. The parents were paying the swim school 60 to 70 dollars per session per kid and I was only making $8.50 and hour. When I taught the private lessons at my house I received 10$ per lesson per child. I was making a lot more money and only working for an hour and a half each day. After two weeks and 15 hours of working I made 570 dollars, and I was my own boss.

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

There weren’t too many challenges for my business, but the two largest I faced were scheduling and weather problems. Since I was making the schedule with the parents I had to make calls and keep everything organized. Sometimes things came up for the parents or me and we’d have to scramble to find times to do the lessons. You have to be proactive about getting kids to do the lessons because lots of kids are already taking lessons or on swim teams so you need to get fliers out. It was a little easier for me because parents knew me from the swim school, but to start from scratch would require a lot publicizing. Sometimes the weather was bad (lightning or rain) and we would not be able to have the lessons. This created problems because we’d have to have make-up days on Saturdays or in the week following the two-week sessions. It was hard to get times when the different families could all do make-ups but we always figured something out with the make up days.

What I learned:

I have gained a lot from my experience of teaching swimming each summer. One thing I benefited from was that I was able to work with older people (the parents) in the neighborhood. As a teenager I didn’t have a lot of interaction with adults, but when you do business with them you learn to have adult conversations and interact with adults in a different way. Running this business required me to be a lot more responsible. I had to be especially responsible with regards to time and scheduling. I had to make sure we started the lessons on time and finished on time. I also had to make sure that families were getting there money’s worth by making the time count when they were in the pool (not just messing around and having fun the whole time). My family held me responsible to clean the pool and get everything ready for the lessons. Another valuable thing I learned is that you have to adapt your teaching to the learning style of the kids. They all had different personalities and skills and abilities, which required me to tailor my coaching to them. This experience has helped me to learn to interact with others more effectively.

Teaching Swim Lessons

Description:

During the summer of 2007, my brother was trying to raise money for his mission. He had a job at a local hospital, but he needed to make more money. He decided to use his swimming skills to his advantage and started a small business where he taught swim lessons. He made enough money over the one summer to fund most of his mission. This was a short term, small business so he had no other employees.

How I got the idea / found the employment:

He had been on a club or school swim team for about 10 years at the time and had worked over the summers as a lifeguard and part-time swim lesson teacher. He then spread the word out, found some students, and got to work.

Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:

He knew he could not use the local public pool for his lessons because of time restrictions and large fees. So, he found a neighbor with a private swimming pool and offered to give her two children free lessons in exchange for the use of the pool for his other lessons. He also had problems getting the word out to begin with, but after time word spread through networking and referrals from those he was already teaching.

What I learned:

I learned that skills and talents I have can be used to start a business that can be used to fun some future expense (like college). I also learned that this entrepreneurial business is the best because you are your own boss, you set your hours, you succeed or fail because of your own accord, and you choose how much you make by how much you charge and how much you spend. It’s more hands-on and I like it. My brother loved what he did that summer and when he returns from his mission he may start up again.