Earlier this year, one of my teenage sons had the idea of hosting a “bluegrass music camp” for kids this summer. His older brother had attended a high school debate camp the previous year, and the college kids hosting that camp made it look pretty easy. A budding entrepreneur was starting to spread his wings.
As some of you know, several of my children are pretty good bluegrass musicians. To staff the camp, he recruited his brothers and a couple of his bluegrass friends. He quickly had the staff necessary to pull this off.
Next, we put his mind to building a website for the event and a registration process, and finally securing a location for the camp. He even started to promote the website through other adults in his network. In April, things were looking great and hopes were high. I even saw an email or two between his buddys, regarding “how much money they were going to make.”
Then reality set in. Although he generated more than 1,000 unique visits to his website, the registrations were slow in coming. As the weeks ticked by, it became apparent that he was not going to have enough kids registered to hold the camp. Last week, he had to notify his instructors that the camp was cancelled.
As I contemplated how to turn this event into a learning experience, I ran across an article in this week’s issue of BusinessWeek. The article highlights the growth and success of businesses that offer summer camps to kids. The author tells the story of Andy Wexler, a summer camp entrepreneur who started a successful camp business:
“Andy Wexler didn’t much enjoy his own childhood camp experience. The only part he liked was going on field trips. That’s why, as a 19-year-old junior at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1990,
he borrowed $1,000 to start his own camp based entirely on daily excursions to Disney Land, Magic Mountain, karate studios, and more. 'I thought it would be a fun thing to do, so I got a list of kids and called them up,' says Wexler. 'I probably did about 1,000 telephone calls and convinced 25 parents to send me their kids.'
Within five years, his Southern California-based enterprise grew to more than 500 campers, and had revenues of more than $1 million for an 11-week season. Today, Wexler’s idea has evolved into Pali Overnight Adventures, a 74-acre camp complex offering 9-to-16-year-old attendees 16 areas of concentration ranging from Secret Agent sessions, where kids do things like soar down ziplines while firing paintball guns, to Hollywood Stunt Camp, where campers learn to jump from a two-story building, to a Culinary Institute where they receive instruction from professional chefs. Wexler’s camps cost almost $1,700 per week, as compared to, say, Camp Marston, a 90-year-old YMCA camp near San Diego, which costs $535 for six days. Pali’s revenue has averaged 10 percent growth annually over the past decade and rose 39 percent this year: 'If we have a day where we make under $25,000, we’re in trouble,' he says.”
This is a nice little business that Mr. Wexler has put together. If my math is right, he’s generating over $3M in revenue during his 11-week season. He’s also experiencing nearly 40% growth this year. How many mature businesses (he’s been in business over 20 years) are experiencing this kind of growth in today’s economic environment?
Similarly, my son had a great idea and picked an industry experiencing exciting growth. So, what went wrong? I suspect it is the same thing that goes wrong with new agents who are starting their businesses in the real estate industry today: He was unwilling to do a sufficient level of prospecting to get his new venture off the ground.
Notice what Andy Wexler had to do to get his first 25 campers: He made 1,000 phone calls! My son did not make 1,000 phone calls. And, subsequently, he did not fill his camp with 25 students.
What’s the lesson? It takes a huge amount of focused effort, determination, perseverance, and tenacity to get something new off the ground. Of course, the payoff for this effort can be quite substantial. Notice that Andy Wexler’s company grew from 25 campers the first year, to more than 500 campers by the fifth year. Once he made the huge effort of getting the ball rolling, growth likely came more quickly and easily than he originally expected.
This has been a great learning experience for my son…and it serves as good advice for the new young agents that you’re bringing into the real estate industry during these difficult times.
Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
