Thursday March 1, 2012
Hi everyone! It's finally March and that means we're hopefully starting to make our way out of our winter slumber and back into training mode...right? Or does that mean Iowa still has at least one more terrible winter storm to offer up? Either way, it's been a while since our last entry so this one is going to be a bit longer. I hope you take a few minutes to read however because there is plenty of good information and some new developments.
This past race season was our first with multiple races and it was a time where we had a lot of fun, where we learned a lot and experienced even more, both good and bad. One of the realities with any business is that money, like it or not, is at the forefront of much of the proceedings. For every race, we need to have enough money coming in to cover standard expenses such as equipment rental, timing, external race costs such as city/county involvement, tshirts, food, prizes, and advertising. Some of these costs can be covered by sponsorship, but in a tighter economy, it's always trickier to make this aspect as fruitful as possible.
We'd be lying if we said that we don't want to make money from organizing races, however, at this early stage, we're just fine with trying to organize a great race as long as we break even. Hosting an event gives us the opportunity to see what works best for participants, what they could do without, and what can be changed. With that said, however, prices for everything are increasing. Our costs go up for all of our aforementioned expenses, and the response would seem to be to spend more on advertising to get more participants to cover the gulf. You, as participants, now have to pay more for a USAT Membership, and registration fees through sites like Active and SignMeUp.com continue to go up because credit card companies charge absurd amounts just to process a payment. These are the sites that often sell your emails to countless other advertisers and the credit card companies that are rocked by theft and fraud issues all too frequently. Why should you pay extra money for this on top of your registration fee just to click "submit" and hope that Julian Assange isn't waiting on the other end to take your card number? (an exaggeration but you get the idea)
We're going to try several things this year to reduce costs both on our end and yours. First, the portion of our expenses that could most use a trimming – advertising. The traditional approach to selling a race was links on every web page possible; sometimes free, sometimes paid. This was a lot of time spent of websites that most of the participants would probably never visit. On top of that, the even pricier portion came in when tons of posters and fliers were printed and hung all over the place to get as many eyes on them as possible. The problem is that many of these eyes rarely left the couch, aside from when they went into the fast food shop where the poster was hanging. It’s absurd to think that, all of the sudden, these guys would hop on a bike or decide to run a 5k. We still want to help grow the multi-sport community, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves trying to sell to somebody who has no interest in buying. Maybe if people can come spectate or volunteer at an event, then they would have more interest, however it won’t be instantaneous. (more on this later)
We’re going to focus on getting in touch with people that are already on the lookout for a race because their involvement now will help us grow in the future. More importantly, we understand that any race is just one day out of many weeks and months of training that you all have somehow made coexist with your personal and professional lives. Our goal is to live in the nooks and crannies of everyday life, work and training because that’s really the only place where something that takes such a small fraction of your time should belong. That means if you’re part of a team or club, we’ll try to reach you there through emails or forum posts or Facebook and Twitter links. If you stop by the bike shop, or running store, or that place where you buy goggles, we’ll have a poster or some fliers, but nothing that forces you to do more just to know about some race. More than likely, you’ll check out that shop’s website and we’ll be there as well so you could register right away, bookmark it, or completely forget it. The best thing about all of this is that it’s FREE. It’s no cost to us which means it’s no cost to you and hopefully we’ll be able to better target more of the people that are already part of our so called “audience.” At the same time, it will give us even better rapport with our sponsors which will translate into more benefits for you.
Now to save YOU some money. It is all centered on registration. We’re no longer going to use a standard registration site like the ones mentioned. There will now be a form directly through jgfracing.com for each race that interests you. Once you fill it out and submit, you will have two options. The first is simply to mail a check to the address shown and as soon as we receive payment, you’ll be officially on the registration list. The second form of payment is what we’re most excited about: DWOLLA.
Dwolla is a relatively new company straight out of Des Moines, IA. Some of you may have heard of them, some maybe not. They have built, and continue to expand, a completely novel payment network outside of the reins of the credit card companies. Through Dwolla, you have an online (or mobile app) account that is connected to your bank account the same way as many of you have direct deposit through your job. You must have a Dwolla account to receive payments, but with an account, you can send a payment to anyone – all they need to do is set up an account if they want their money. Dwolla is the closest thing to a cash exchange online and eliminates all of the percentages added by PayPal and other credit card based payment services. Even better, it’s incredibly secure because all of your funding is done through your bank, so unless Wells Fargo or Veridian are knocked over, your money is safe. When you make a payment, you not only need your 10-digit Dwolla ID, but also a PIN number much like a debit card. On top of everything else, Just Go Faster will definitely not be the last place where you use Dwolla. More and more stores, coffee shops, gas stations, and many other merchants are accepting Dwolla every day so starting with a simple registration site now will be a great way to stay up on the latest way to easily pay and get paid. Heck, if you decide to skip a race you registered for, we'll easily be able to send you your money back the same day without any hassle.
This is all good, but the best part is that every transaction is only 25 cents, no matter the amount – unless of course it’s under $10 in which case it’s FREE. You have the option, if you’re feeling generous, to take the 25 cent hit, otherwise, by default, we take that charge. To compare, GetMeRegistered.com, the cheapest fee of the big three registration sites, takes 6.25% plus $1 on every transaction meaning you pay just over $54 for a $50 registration. Square, the service that lets us swipe credit cards on a smartphone, iPad, or computer, charges 2.75%, meaning you pay just over $51. With Dwolla, you will pay $50 for something that is advertised as $50 and still have the convenience of an online transaction that doesn’t store personal information such as a credit card number. A few other notes on Dwolla:
• If you would like to pay for a race registration using Dwolla, we recommend that you set up your account before you complete the registration form because the bank account verification can take a day or two to process.
• Along the same lines, Dwolla may ask you for additional information such as a Photo ID or Social Security number. Don’t be alarmed. This is standard protocol to ensure you are really you. Because they are connecting directly to your bank account, they must be certain all of the information is accurate and secure for your future use. Just Go Faster never sees or has any semblance of access to it and Dwolla stores it only for security purposes.
Okay, so now you’ve saved $4, big deal, right? Right! Taking into account that USAT license fees have increased by $2, you’re already under last year’s budget. Now, to sweeten the pot, and also hopefully save us some time in recruiting volunteers here is our offer to anybody that has an interest in racing at a Just Go Faster event. We already said that we want to see our sport and community grow, so let’s get those people that are not yet involved to check out what all the fuss is about! Sign up for a race and for every person that you bring to volunteer at the event, you will receive $5 off your next JGF race (up to $50), whether it’s the next month or the next year. Meaning, if you can get 10 of your friends to wake up early one morning and be genearally functional, you get $50 off your next race, which will probably make it free or close to free.
So that’s where we’re at with Just Go Faster. We’re going to try to be a little bit more indie with our approach and try to grow our little races slowly but surely to make certain we’re pleasing the people that are most excited about participating. Registration will be open as of today for the Lake Macbride Duathlon and the Davenport Duathlon and will only cost you the price that you see. If you decide to mail in your registration, I suppose that’s more expensive because that’s a 45 cent stamp now.
--Pasha
Monday November 14, 2011
This year has been a great learning experience as a team of young entrepreneurs. Having a product and vision we all believed in helped this year be, in our eyes, a good second year of business for Just Go Faster. Things were definitely not perfect. In fact, I look at my notes and they read like case study from business school. Having this experience, however, has helped us understand where we have the most effective opportunities. We are looking forward to getting the ball rolling earlier this year in terms of course prep, marketing, and communication. Stay tuned for race dates soon!
One goal of starting Just Go Faster was to create and advance the multi-sport community as a whole. We want to provide not only great races, but also help create a forum to bring multi-sport athletes together. In order for this community to be effective and successful, we at JGF need to create and nurture a direct line of communication with YOU, our participants. We would like - NEED in fact - to hear from you guys on how we can improve, what you would like to see, and how you think we could best get great people at the races. We are working on some great ideas of our own, but some constructive (or not) feedback never hurts.
To accomplish this, we will make sure we are more active and engaging on Facebook, Twitter, our Newsletter, and on this blog to get you up to date information and updates on what's going on at JGF Towers.
Please leave comments at the bottom of the page.
Thanks for a great 2011 season. We had a lot of fun putting it on and can't wait to see you again next year.
--Travis
Monday September 26, 2011
We'll start this off with the news that everyone needs/wants to know first: unfortunately, due to low numbers, the Iowa City Duathlon is canceled for this Sunday, October 2nd. We are just as disappointed as those that were planning to race. Rest assured, that along with those of you that registered for the Cedar Rapids Du, you will be refunded for your registration. For those of you that signed up for all four races, you'll still be getting your JGF special gift.
We realize that several things on our end of the race prep should've been done differently which could have helped numbers - namely course finalization. However, various bumps along the road kept us from doing that. Nonetheless, we apologize a thousand times over that we weren't able to bring you a full on duathlon series this season. At the end of the day, I wouldn't have a problem organizing an event as long as we break even, but with the numbers for CR and IC, that wouldn't be the case. Wu-Tang philosophy even holds up for multi-sport events - C.R.E.A.M.
This was our first year with more than one race on the JGF plate, and with successful debuts for the Lake Macbride Du and Davenport Du, and good continuity with XTERRA Sugar Bottom and TriHawks, I'd like to think it was a relatively successful season. It's of course disappointing that two debut races were canceled. We've learned a great deal from all of the awesome participants we've had this summer and it will help us put on better events in the future. Along with that, we'll know how to better market to potential racers and hopefully have greater participation.
Our first year and four races. We hope that plenty of people enjoyed some small part of our races. We're looking forward to next year. Without question, it will be bigger and better and some new opportunities for everyone to go faster.
-Pasha