Ep. 171 - Camp Prep : What Do You Need to Be Doing Now to Have a Successful Summer?

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Show Notes:

Snow on the ground, but summer on the brain. We’re pulling back the curtain on how we sellout camps without burning out our team, and it all starts months before the summer season. Parents plan early, so we do too with dates posted by December, a clear January launch, and fun, action-packed themes accompanied by thoughtful lesson plans. These shifts took us from “hope it fills” to full-day weeks selling out in under 24 hours.

We map the entire summer with intention: full-day and half-day weeks, plus planned half-day-only weeks to reset energy. That runway keeps week ten as sharp as week one. We also talk why narrowing to four repeatable themes outperforms a dozen scattered ideas. Depth wins: detailed lesson plans, age-appropriate games, crafts that fit the theme, and a Friday celebration families can’t stop talking about.

Marketing is simple, steady, and local. After the launch push, we stay visible in moms’ groups, school wellness events, 5Ks, and camp fairs. The real secret weapon is operational excellence in plain sight: when morning class families watch camp groups move through stations with structure and joy, they picture their child in that flow next summer. On staffing, we start with a survey of our team, rehire great alumni home from college, then recruit seasonal hires early. One extra instructor beyond the minimum is insurance that pays for itself on day one.

We finish with the heart of it all: build an experience, not just coverage. Signature moments—animal visits, cheer showcases, timed ninja courses—give kids stories to tell and parents proud highlights to share. That’s how you create raving fans who will set their alarms to enroll during your midnight release. Want a head start? Grab our free Ninja Camp lesson plan from the link a, and tell us: what theme should we share next?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome back to Learning to Thrive. I'm Courtney and I'm Michaela. And today we are getting into something that with snow on the ground might feel a little premature. But this is a time for summer camp prep.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yes. And what we need to be doing right now to set ourselves up for a super successful summer.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yes. And I think we did many years in the early days where our summer camp prep came in May, like late April and May. And over the course of the years, I think the stress that that created on our staff and on our leadership, and just even like as far as getting hitting enrollment goals and that kind of thing, we've backed it up a little bit and a little bit and a little bit over time. We actually start our summer camp planning in December of the year prior now. That for that that may sound extreme. For some of you, that's right on point. But we have found that parents are usually ready to be searching for summer camps, planning their summers, making commitments, uh, vacation plans, like that kind of thing in, I'd say right after Christmas and forward, right? So having our dates posted allows our parents to plan. Um, we do a big launch day, usually the second Monday of January, where we open our camps and back at back in our earlier days, we would, you know, do the whole thing, go to the camp fairs and send the emails and hope to fill this camp and hope to fill this camp. There was a time that we did camp by the day. With there, we have been through so many different iterations. So many variations. Yeah. There's no wrong way to do it. And also the more that we plan and the more that we've we are able to give parents, our staff, our team time to prepare, the more we have found that the camps go more successfully. And then also the enrollment along with that has come a long way in the sense of parents know that day is the second week of or get the second week of January. They understand that a lot of the camps that they might want uh might be full if they wait past that day. And so we have a pretty good camp turnout on that day. We've sold out all of our full day camps in less than 24 hours. Most of our half day camps, with the exception of a few of our sports camps, um, and our we have two half day weeks in our summer session. So we we kind of go, we go two full full day camp weeks, a half day week, three full day camp weeks, another just half day week, and then we usually end the summer with two or three weeks, depending on when the school starts. Those half day weeks, we offer half day camp every single week of the year. We offer, or are sorry, not of the year, of the summer. The full day camps, because they are 8:30 to 4:30, they require more energy output, more resources, that kind of thing. So taking those two weeks where it's just half day camp gives our staff the energy break, gives the gym the time the pause to like if it needs a good cleaning, if like we just need to go through it with a vacuum and a bunch, like we vacuum on a regular basis, but like it gives ourselves time to pause and train if we need to in the afternoons. It gives ourselves just a little bit of a break, a necessary break, I think, for the success of the long term, making sure week one is just as energetic, just as polished as week 10.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, which I think is another thing to note is that we have grown our summer camp program to the point that we are running a full 10 weeks of summer camp. I know there are some, you know, places who have a like they'll go smaller, you know, maybe they're just starting out, or maybe they're building out a summer program, things like that. So they'll they'll offer maybe three to four weeks, you know, and then it grows and grows. Ours has now grown to the point that we've got summer camp all summer long. Yeah. The half day and the full day options minus those two weeks of just half day. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

And then we also run a half day sports camp in our field house facility. So we're running two locations with that full camp schedule, and then we have half day camps on our sports side that will run seven of ten of those weeks, and then there are three weeks built in there where we we basically partner with another organization that holds our camps here for those three weeks, and that gives our sports staff also that that pause, that that ability to break and go on vacation or whatever it happens to be, so that we can keep consistent staff for our camp weeks.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Do you know, roughly off the top of your head, even just a ballpark number of how many camp kids we have?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

We last year, I believe it was so on on any given day where we're we're operating a full full board, we have a hundred kids in our gym side. We usually have about 30 kids on our field house side, and we have about 40 to 45 kids at our Arnold location. So that is about 170. So I think last year it was like 2,133. If I like it's very, very exact. It could be wrong, could be a mole, you know, like um, but over 2,000 kids or spots, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Because sometimes the the kids will sign up for multiple weeks or things like that, but but roughly 2,000 camp spots from beginning of summer to end of summer.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yes. So it's so it's a busy operation, yeah. And that's where I point out, that's why I'm pointing out to you, to our our community here, building in the break points, like building in those slower, because running half day camp after running full day camp feels very easy, right? So building in those points where you can catch your breath, because we have done the weeks or the years where we did just pedal to the metal for the whole summer, and and by the end of it, you're just so burnt. By those last two weeks of summer camp, everyone's so burnt out. So making sure that there are pauses in there, even though, yes, is is your revenue gonna dip if you take a week off of camp? Yeah, but if your sanity increases or it allows you to give everybody a vacation week without stressing that the gym's open and camps going wrong, like I think that that is something to really consider. These summer months are not for the week. Running summer camp is not not as easy of a task, I think, as running classes, uh, because we have we're in charge of the care and the entertainment and the safety of these kids for an entire day across multiple weeks.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

So and that's where I think there's a big shift that happens from our classes to our summer camp. Like you said, it it does shift into more of a child care operation as opposed to a gymnastics instruction for us or a ninja instruction, you know. And so with that, if we're running a successful operation, then people come back year after year, and that's where we get to the point where we are now.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Yes. So I would say to that on the on the childcare front, and just for all of our gyms out there, we are licensed. Like in order to run a summer camp in the state of Maryland, you have to be licensed. So you, if you have never run a summer camp before and you're considering it, make sure that you check your your local, you know, and state laws to make sure that you have whatever certifications that you need. And also if you're if you've never run a summer camp before, I would not recommend jumping to 10 weeks. And if you are running a moderate summer camp, like you're like, yeah, summer camp's okay, it's not great. We because we did years there. It was like, oh, is this even worth doing? Because you know, is it making us money or whatever? I would say this might be your summer to level up, right? Because over the course of the years that we've been doing this, each year has gotten a little bit better in a different way. And so that's what we're hoping to share today is how can you, if you are running summer camps, how can you level them up? Even if it's just knowing what's gonna be happening and being able to plan for it. Um, but also, you know, how the the experience of your customers, you know, what does your lesson plan look like, that kind of thing. That's what we want to get into today. So wherever you are in the summer camp piece, right? Only do it if you really love it. Like, yeah. Yeah.

Enrollment & Marketing

SPEAKER_00 8:23

And it can be profitable. Yeah, don't wing it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's one of those words like only do it if you're fully committed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's it. If you are fully committed, you can make it very profitable. Yeah, because it counterbalances a dip in enrollment. Right. Yeah. But it takes a decent amount of effort. So diving into where should our effort be going as we're in March, as we're preparing for this, I think we start with your enrollment and your marketing. So, number one, if you have not put your summer camps out yet, the sooner the better, because you have those families who are planning the next six months. You know, they're they're planning what, okay, my kids are gonna be out of school. I need something for them to do all day. And they need to get that on the books fast because a lot of summer camps do book up. And all those child care options, they do book up. So getting your enrollment open as soon as possible if you haven't done it yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yes. And can I say one thing about if if you're still picking your summer camps, go with themes that you can do really well. One of the things that was a game changer in our camp world was picking, picking four themes, doing them both twice in the summer, and doing them very, very well. We used to pick random. Every week was a different theme. It was, and it was not like under the sea. Like I don't even know what we were doing for that at the time, but like, but we really zeroed in on four themes that we do, I think in this county at least, better than anybody else. Kids love them, parents love them, rinse and repeat, don't get really good at something and and don't do too much and try to make it work. So that would if you have not picked your themes, that would be my advice. Pick pick something specific to your gym that you really can do well.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yes. Then, kind of along with this, is if you haven't, if you have certain like enrollment goals and you're not quite there yet, or we're looking ahead to the next couple months, and as we get closer and closer, you're trying to fill those remaining spots. Because there are always people, you have your people who are planning their summer in January or December. Okay. But you also have your people who are planning what they're gonna do in June in May. That's me. That's where my heart lies. Yes. So if you're getting closer as the the spring months roll by and you're getting closer and you're like, we haven't hit our enrollment yet, don't panic.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, there's a group out there for you.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yes. But you need to start thinking of ways that you can show up in your community to advertise to get your name out there that way when they those families do come around to like, okay, so what are we gonna do this summer? Your name, your brand pops up in their mind of like, oh, I wonder if they do anything. Let's take a look. Yes. Um, or you know, they're seeing the advertisement for your summer camp so frequently that by the time they sit down to actually book stuff, they've seen your ad or they've seen your, you know, summer camp information five, six times, you're one of the first people that pops into their brain.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah. So that would be doing that through Facebook ads, doing that through getting on the different moms club groups. And like when somebody somebody asks the question, I have a six-year-old. What do you guys do for summer camp? You being there and being like, hey, this is what I do, like, or here's what we offer, right? That's an easy way to jump on that. Camp fairs that are put on usually by the local publishing companies. So like Macaroni Kid or your local family magazine or something like that. Um, and then there's also the school wellness fairs happen usually in March and April or 5Ks, right? The wellness fair for the individual schools in your area, find out where those are, bring your marketing materials. You're there supporting the school, which makes people really feel like you're connected to the community. You can pass out if you're not, if you need to boost enrollment coupons or flyers or whatever, you know, sign up today for a for you know 10% off or whatever. And then you're also there right in front of your literally targeted. So those are a couple of easy ways to hit the marketing that you don't have to do too much for, but can really make a boost in your camp sales.

Staffing

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Right. All right. So our next point is starting to look at the staffing that's going to be required for your summer camps and your seasonal staff. So I think there's kind of a couple of things to note here. So number one is you might have a handful of, let's say, high school age employees who work for you who during the school year they only work one or two days a week teaching classes because with school, that's what they can, you know, realistically manage and do well. But come summertime, they might be wanting to up their hours significantly. You know, they they might want to keep, or what we do is we have them keep their classes to continue, you know, maintain that teacher consistency in our rec program. But they want to pick up an extra day and they're willing to do summer camp, or they want to pick up an extra two days or an extra shift, you know, whatever the case may be. So, one, knowing what your target enrollment is, what your group size is going to be, and then how many instructors does that mean you're gonna you're gonna need? How many do you think currently you have that are just gonna up their hours for the summer? And where are the gaps? Where do you need to hire new people just for the summer? Your your true seasonal staff members. And before you even start putting out ads and things like that, start with your former employees or your former seasonal staff. So maybe you had a couple high school age instructors that were phenomenal and they went off to college, so they're no longer teaching for you during the school year, but it's summer, they're home for two months and they're looking for a fun job to make some extra money on the side while they enjoy their summer break. Reach out to those people first because they already know your business, they know how things are run. And you've probably got a couple people in mind that are like, oh, it, you know, we're so happy for them in this new chapter of their life, but we miss them because they were so great. Get those people back in first. Reach out to them. And then from there, well, I would say the third step is I would well, I would pause that because it yes, reach out to them.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

And also in your own staff, this is the time of year where we survey our staff about what they want their summer schedules to be. So if you can send out a Google form, I think we do this Google form. I'm pretty sure about that. Um, or it's an Excel spreadsheet that everybody if it if it is an Excel spreadsheet, let's do a Google form this year. But yeah. But um, you know, what what is your current staff looking to work for the summer? Because that'll give you, like that way you don't have to guess, right? Right. Like don't look at your numbers and just guess. Literally, Mark, it's March, ask your people. I'm sure they're already thinking of it. And it kind of gives them something to look forward to, like, ooh, my schedule's gonna change a little bit. Like people like that. So make sure that when you're in the same way of reaching out to old employees and you can send them the same survey. Hey, I would really love to have you on board. If you're if you're at all interested in working this year, you know, hey, you know, answer this survey so that I can, you know, keep a spot for you if it works out or something like that. So yeah, don't forget to check like actual facts, get it from your staff before you go out to this next step, which is which is hiring seasonal.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

So truly seasonal people. These are, like I said, these are college kids, these are people looking to pick up like an extra part-time job, these are high school students who cannot commit to something during the school year, maybe they play sports or something like that, that are looking for a job, a fun, engaging job that they can work for two months. Air conditioned, too. Air conditioned, yeah. If your gym is air conditioned, advertise that. And there's a lot of summer camp options, so the the pool is out there, you just have to find the right people.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And also for the friends of your current staff, right? Birds of a feather flock together. So, like, if you've got a kid that you're like, she is an all-star, go to her and say, Hey, do you have any friends that that want to work this summer? Yeah. She might be like, Oh yeah, Susie's looking for a job. Like, it'll prime her brain so that when she does hear people talking about what they're doing for the summer, that you may be an option. And being out in March, also, you're a little bit ahead of the game looking for that staff. So you're also likely to get those people that plan ahead, which is nice. They're not sitting there June 1 going, oh, my mom said I need to get a job. No, these are the kids that are like proactively looking. So now is a great time. As many people as you can talk to. You're talking to your business network, talk to your family, talk to your friends, talk to the neighbor across the street, like, hey, we're hiring, we're hiring, we're looking for good seasonal staff. We want energy, we want, you know, love of kids, yeah, and responsibility.

Lesson Plans & Crafts

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Right. And we will get more into this in another episode where we talk more about your seasonal staff. We really dive into this topic, but just as a quick note, when you were going through this hiring process and this process of figuring out, well, like, okay, how many instructors am I gonna need every day? What is my instructor to group size ratio? All of that. Um, just a quick note on this. Hiring one over or staffing one over. We'll get more into it, but oh, the headaches it saves you. It is such a it is such a it's worth the investment. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So our next note on this of where should our energy and our effort be going as we're planning out summer is lesson plans and crafts. I think the biggest thing is you should have, I guess uh also in this would be like gym rotations. Basically just saying Starting the process. Starting the process of coming up with a plan for every single day of what your kids who are coming into your facility are going to be doing. It it should not be a figure it out as we go or buy the seat of our pants. There have been years where we've done that. Yes. Yes, and we are telling you on the other side of it. So much better. It's so much nicer. Yes. Planning and some intention behind your planning of what the kids are actually going to be doing saves you so much stress. It also makes the overall experience for the kids much better in a bunch of different ways. So we have like a daily gym flow and a daily lesson plan of what they're doing. So, you know, on the gymnastic side of things, they've got their stations, they've got a lesson plan. So they are learning gymnastics in their structured time. They've got, you know, stations where they're going to and they're playing a game, but we've got the games broken out by age-appropriate games. So they know the instructors know what they're doing. This allows the instructor to feel a little bit more confident in leading their group throughout the whole day. It also allows for if you need to swap instructors for any reason, move people around, someone goes on vacation for a week, whatever the case may be, you can plug and play your instructors. They have the lesson plan, they know what they're doing. It's not, well, we did this with Coach So and So last week. Why, you know, yesterday, why can't we do it? It's like, nope, this is the plan, this is what we're doing. It also, with the gym flow and knowing where the children will be throughout the gym throughout the day, allows you to make sure you're maximizing your enrollment as well. Yeah. Maintaining, because we maintain our summer classes, like our morning classes.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

There is a cap on the number of kids that you can have in the gym well. Right. And you don't really know that until you plan out those smaller details. And so knowing that early and not letting your camp get overfilled, or knowing it early and saying, Oh, well, actually, we could take 20 more kids. So, not letting your wait list sit there when you could take 10 more or 20 more kids. Like, yeah, that is the benefit of planning some of this stuff out this early, is you get to see the full picture and you're able to make decisions about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah. I will also say, as a quick note, because like I said, we run our morning classes, our morning, like, you know, younger, under five classes. I every year, it gets better and better every year, but every year I have so many parents who I tell them, I break, I'm like, all right, listen, the first week of camp, it's an adjustment period because there's just a lot more bodies in the building, especially compared to the school year in the morning. You know, there's a lot more volume. I said, but we we have a plan. It is controlled chaos. It is there, you know, just give it a week to adjust. After that first week or two, the amount of parents that we're like, it is incredible. You have so many people in here, and it is just a like a well oiled machine. Like you look around and it looks crazy, but then you actually stop and look at what's going on, and every single group is doing something, they're moving cohesively, it's not a free for all.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

And that and that. Goes back into marketing in the sense of those parents that are there for the morning pre par, you know, preschool class or the parent-child class, their kids are going to be camp aged soon. Like at some point, right? So if I'm in your facility and I see your teachers, you know, keeping these kids or busy, I see the organizational flow, I see that the kids look like they're having a great time. I see I can hear how the you know staff is talking to the kids, then my first camp for my four-year-old or my five-year-old, it's probably gonna be Thrive, right? Or you or your facility. Because I'm you're I'm what they're they're seeing in real life, and also when they're at the playground and they're talking about camps, they've got a real life experience of what your camp is like because they've been in class while your camps have been going on. That could work against you as well. But if you're running a good operation and you're running a great camp, that's gonna work for you all day long. And your next group of campers is sitting right there in their opening circle for their toddler class. So not enough could be said about planning out the finer details and making and I know you can make it work without doing that, but literally taking an hour or two in March and planning out these details and then refining it a little bit in April and getting it, getting it to the point where you're like, yeah, this is a well thought-out plan can be make a difference. We do have a freebie for you guys. We do have a one of our four themes that we repeat over and over is our Ninja Camp. And so we have put together a Ninja Camp lesson plan and kind of everything that you would need to run a successful Ninja Camp week. So you can find that in the show notes and click on that and then download that so that you can kind of see how do I lay that out? What does it look like? Um, what do I need for crafts? What do I need for each day? Um, and see a sample of what we do here and then take that and apply that to whatever you're doing in your facility. And maybe that's your up level, right? Maybe that's your uh maybe having lesson plans this summer is the way you up level your camp this summer, right? Or maybe having a rotation schedule is the way that you upload it, up, up level it. So the up level doesn't have to be huge, but making sure that you know we're we're upgrading something this summer, this is these are two easy, fairly easy and good places to start. Yep. Yeah.

Defining Your Customer Experience

SPEAKER_00 24:16

All right, and our final one is ask yourself in this whole process, and while you have the time to make these adjustments or to up level in the way we're talking about, what is the overall experience going to be? Yeah. Why is your camp the camp to be at? Why should these people spend their money at your facility when there's 50 other summer camp options that they could choose from? So if you're already running camp, what are you doing well right now? And how can you make it exceptional? Yeah. And if you're not running camp, then taking a look at like what's something that you guys just do in general within your business that you're either known for or you feel like you do very well, it comes very naturally to you. And then how can we pull that and highlight that in the camp experience?

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah. And because I think there's a difference between babysitting and giving people an experience, right? And you can run a camp, honestly, that does both, and people will pay for both. They really will because there's a lot of parents out there that need their kid to be doing something during the day because they're working. Like that, that's just the They just need the child care. They need the childcare. Here's the thing though: when you create a camp that is an experience, something that the kids come and they look forward to this every year or that every year, or they leave getting in the car and going, oh my gosh, we saw the animals today, or oh my gosh, we, you know, our cheer, our we do cheer week as well. Our cheer show is on Friday. I can't wait to show you. Like, this is you're doing more, you're you're enriching their lives and the family's life, right? Because the the parent on the other side of that, you know, door, when you when you close the car door, they want their kid to have a fun summer. They want to make those memories for their kid, they want to provide an experience for their kid. And like they don't want their kid being like, oh, I was just in camp all summer while my parent worked. No, that that's a huge emotional point for the parent. So giving them things that they can, the parent can feel good about, like, oh, my kid got to see the animals, or ooh, my kid, you know, was part of a cheer show, or oh, you know, they they got to nerf gun, you know, in their ninja camp today. That's awesome. The parent can take that to happy hour. And when they say, What have your kids been doing all summer? And they get to sit there and be like, oh, they were in a nerf gun battle this week. Like that, you're that's the that's the piece for the parent that is key. And then for the kid, they've had an experience. They get to go back to the class, and you know, this teacher's gonna ask, let's write an essay on what you did cool this summer. Well, I was I was, you know, I I did the ninja course in 25 seconds or less. Like, you know what I mean? So you're giving them those things that they can they can take back with them, and that then becomes how you get people to well, we have our people get up some okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Our launch time is midnight, yeah. And there are people who set their alarms 300 this year, 300 people enrolled at midnight.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Yeah. So, like, but we we take our responsibility for creating experience very seriously. And so that over time has resulted in that. But that's what I'm saying. It you can go, you can, you can go either way, but man, is it fun to make an experience for these kids and to have the parents feel so proud that they're a part of a thride camp. They got they got in. I got in, you know, like raising fans, raving fans, yeah. So that to say, it's time. It's time to be focusing on what is coming ahead, and what is coming ahead is summer, and how you prep for it in March is going to be deeply impactful to how it turns out in June, July, and August. And we want you to thrive through the summer. So we want to make sure that you are thinking in this direction. We are gonna spend the month of March talking about these topics that are related to the customer experience and also the staffing piece because I think that's the piece where our community really finds the pain points and also finds the opportunity to elevate themselves. So just to recap, it is March. What are what should you be doing now so that you can be thriving this summer? You want to be focusing on your enrollment, know what your enrollment is, know what your enrollment goal is, and then what is the easy low-hanging fruit marketing to do that? And remember, we said the Facebook ads, get in those moms groups and answer those questions. Go to those community events at the schools, the 5Ks, the wellness fairs, all of that stuff. Put yourself out there so that you can get that enrollment to where you want it. Number two, start thinking about your seasonal staff. Find out what your current staff is doing, survey them, reach out to former staff, survey them, and then looking at your schedule, the holes that are left, hire for those. Look for, look for friends of your staff, look for you know people who um even sending something out to your parents and saying we're hiring for summer staff. A lot of siblings are old enough now to work. So getting your seasonal staff rolling, it doesn't have to be set, but just rolling that idea. Starting to create your lesson plans, rotations, craft lists, making sure that the prep is starting to happen there, and then really thinking through what is the experience that I want my customers, my kids, my parents, my staff to have this summer, and then starting to put some pieces in place there.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

It's a lot. It's a lot, but you pour in, it will it will come back to you. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah. All right. We hope you all keep on thriving and don't forget to get that download.