If your business is a success, chances are good that, at some
point, the sports community is going to notice-really notice. Maria
Erickson, is president and CEO of Fantasi International, a company
known for Bette & Court, a clothing line for women golfers.
She has 35 employees as well as a couple dozen independent sales
representatives working for her. Erickson has had pro golfers
approach her to be paid spokespeople for the Bette & Court
division--which brings in $8 million to $10 million annually.
Not a bad take, especially considering that her initial
investment was only about $13,000 from her savings, although
Erickson, 43, says she ultimately had to take out loans to keep the
business running in the lean years. "We were definitely
operating on a shoestring budget," says Erickson, who's
fallen into a few sand traps and made a shank or two over the
years.
One such year was around 1996, when she thought "Oh, boy,
the market's going great with the ladies--let's get into
men's clothing." What she didn't realize at the time
was that the "barriers for entry [were] much greater,"
she says. "The rules of business, the way the business game is
played, is much different than the one I had come from. I thought
we could take the exact formula and replicate it with the men's
[clothing]." We'll resist the urge to make a pun about a
clothing company losing its shirt, but Fantasi, based in Hialeah,
Florida, did lose "a significant amount of money" because
Erickson had plunged into an area of business that she hadn't
fully researched.
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Add to that the sagging economy of recent years, which hammered
away at Erickson's business. "When the economy is tough,
golf is a luxury. And when there are corporate layoffs, and
you're worried about your job and working twice as hard because
you've lost half your staff, the last thing you want to do is
spend frivolously on golf."
This is one reason why Erickson's business is still going
after new golfers, expanding its female clothing by marketing to
senior citizens and even girls. "I think the future is very
bright, but you always have to be cautious," says Erickson,
which is why she's not likely to join forces with an athlete to
promote her clothes, even though her experience with having a
spokesperson was largely a positive one. Erickson brought aboard
Michelle McGann--who was and still is a force on the Ladies
Professional Golf Association Tour--as a paid spokeswoman. That was
about four years ago, and McGann represented the company for
approximately three years.
For those who are interested in having a celebrity athlete as a
spokesperson, Erickson says you can realistically expect to pay an
athlete anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 per year to market a
brand. And, of course, you're talking about a scenario of
"how much money have you got?" if you want a Michael
Jordan type of player hawking your wares. But Erickson cautions,
"You really have to look at the big picture and ask yourself
'I've got $40,000--if I spend it here, what are the pros
and cons?' Having a celebrity spokesperson could potentially
bring you nothing--and if you do lose that 40 grand, then
that's 40 grand less that you could have spent on something
else." That's an expensive lesson.
But perhaps the most important tutorial is imparted by Munro,
who observes, "Just because somebody loves a sport doesn't
mean they can necessarily market a business." The subtext here
is that you have to love and understand the inner workings of the
business world as well.
Mannix, who often meets young entrepreneurs with basketball on
their brains, seconds that. "I think the most common mistake
entrepreneurs make is thinking 'I love sports, so I want to
work with [it].' What does that mean, anyway?" wonders
Mannix. "I love cheesecake, but that doesn't mean I should
start making it for a living."
Getting Equipped
Dan Mannix is CEO of LeadDog Marketing Group in New York City
and adjunct professor at New York University, where he teaches
classes in sports entrepreneurship and sports events tourism. We
asked him for some ideas on where to turn if you're interested
in learning more about starting a sports-related business.
Periodicals
- Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal: "A publication
everybody seems to get," says Mannix.
- The Licensing Letter: A newsletter, published by EPM
Communications, providing news and statistics on the licensing
industry. "A great resource for someone who wants to do
something in sports licensing," says Mannix.
Web Site
- SportsBusinessDaily.com: Essential reading if you want
to stay on top of the sports-business industry. It also has a daily
newsletter, The Sports Business Daily, and this, says
Mannix, is a venture that's only a few years old-"a
perfect example that there's always room for something new in
the sports-business industry."
Books
Curiously enough, the two books Mannix considers essential reading
for his students are not specifically sports-related books, but
they're written by the founder of International Management
Group (IMG), considered the leader in sports marketing
worldwide:
Geoff Williams is a writer in Loveland, Ohio. Contact him at
gwilliams2@cinci.rr.com.
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