Looking at ways to build my business has always been a tricky challenge. My background is in football coaching and being in this market is quite liquidated. Thankfully, my previous experiences and qualities I offer, pay dividends and there is enough interest in my services.
Off of the field I have always collected memorabilia and shirts for some time, so my next venture made complete sense. Working for yourself requires a lot of time and hard work, in thinking of new ideas and then putting them into action.
Earlier on in the year, I hosted a football course for young children and it was apparent that they didn’t know many of the ‘older’ players, with all the focus on the usual suspects. Ronaldo and Messi are frequently spoken about, as well the obvious Premier League stars.
My thoughts were then fuelled by curiosity, as I was intrigued to know how many knew of Del Piero, Cruyff or Gascoigne? The answer was, barely any. I needed to educate these kids, as they are missing out on so much and some unbelievable past events.
With all of the items I have at my disposal, plus a community and platform that I can use to expand, it made sense to me to take the opportunity in growing my business.
First up, was the formulation of the ‘Retro Football Week’, which is taking place over 2 separate weeks in the summer holidays. In the month of July and August, we’ll be taking a trip down memory lane and visiting some of the greatest players, games, matches and tournaments in a variety of different ways. After we have learnt about one of the respective past times listed above, we’ll take to the field and reenact these historical events. This is something I’ve never seen on the market and something that I feel can educate players.
The next pop up I had was, if the children can benefit from all this amazing past glory in shirts, boots and medals…why can’t the adults?!
I have now made an addition to the ‘retro theme’ and included this under the new events package that I’m offering, under the umbrella of, ‘For the Fan’.
‘A Retro Football Event’, will be taking place once per month and will encourage fans of the beautiful game to meet, discuss and enjoy the previous moments that we have all loved. To add some real nostalgia to the evening, there will be a previous game shown on a big screen, a quiz, plenty of memorabilia and lots of shirts!!!
From my initial research, this has had positive feedback in my local area and is something that could be well attended.
These events will be officially opened to the public in September, with tickets available from August.
Lastly, I’ll be operating a ‘Design a Kit’ competition for local primary schools in my area, in preparation for the World Cup this winter. To build the interest and create some ideas, I’ll be taking my full shirt collection into a school and giving a workshop on key areas. Manufacturing, counterfeit vs original and the story behind a number of famous strips will be covered. There will of course some interesting facts that the children will appreciate, to build an understanding in the history of football shirts.
From participating in this workshop, the children will then be invited to take part in a kit designing competition. All entrants will be sent onto a neutral panel, where the best kit from each year group will be picked and then rewarded with a prize.
Using the football kits as a tool to educate, will cover many areas of the school curriculum, with fun as a consequence.
Details for the school workshops, will be released in September.
With a busy few months ahead, I’m really looking forward to seeing what will happen with these new projects and visiting so many memorable moments. I’ll be updating the blog more regularly, from the end of July and feeding back on what my learning’s have been.
