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On Saturday I ran my first ever trail race, the EnduranceLife Coastal Trail Series. I entered the 10K, which was more than enough for me at the moment. They also run a half and full marathon version of the race. It was an amazing experience, trail running turned out to be much harder than I expected, but far, far more rewarding that road running – I can’t wait for the next race!
As usual, once I’d finished the race and hooked up with my family I started looking at the event organisers and their business and picking it apart in my head. After all it might just inspire a post about sports/running related business ideas! 
When you look at it, running sporting events is quite an attractive business opportunity. It’d be a lot of fun if running a business around your sport. Then there’s the financial side, for example, there were around 600 runners this weekend, who had probably paid an average of £30 to enter the race, bringing in roughly £18,000 of revenue, on top of that there’s some additional revenue from sponsors and sales at the event shop. The cost of running such the event shouldn’t be too high covering, staff, medals, timing, route signage, insurance and costs for the event base and access to the land. Overall I’d guess the event could make in the region of 50% (£9k) gross profit.
Sounds pretty good really, run a few of those per year and you’ve got a nice lifestyle business. It’s not quite that simple though as you’re also going to have overheads to cover (marketing, insurance, website, admin and office costs etc.) which will all further eat into the net profits. On top of that there’s a limited number of events you can run per year – limited by the time it takes to organise them, the risk involved (i.e. advertising and organising an event that might not be profitable or have to be cancelled) and the access to venues.
Overall I doubt that such a business will ever make anyone rich, but if it’d certainly be a great business to run if you’re into sports and fed up of being stuck in an office all day. Alternately it’d be a great business to run part time with some friends in order to make a little money on the side from your hobby.
Photo by: Dawn – Pink Chick.
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This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
As one of the directors of Endurancelife the company responsible for the organization of the Coastal Trail Series events mentioned, I found your comments very interesting. Generally your revenue estimations are very close, but our gross profit is a lot lower than your estimate due to a whole heap of costs and overheads that you probably aren’t aware of.
Your final comments are also interesting and slightly ironic, as I and our full time team of five do spend 99.9% of our time sat behind a computer in an office! 50% of the time we are liaising with councils, the NT, landowners, magazines etc., and the other 50% we are liaising with customers and managing the huge plethora of enquiries and people booking, canceling, re-booking, changing, asking for refunds etc… We are 100% employee owned and all of us work far more than 40 hours per week at what works out as far less than minimum wage. This is not a lifestyle business in any way shape or form, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying do do something like this with your friends as a bit of a sideline.
Like anything in life if you want to something really well you need to be 100% focused. Plenty of people try to copy us, but they only ever do one event.
We aim to provide our customer base with the best possible experience from their first point of contact with us. We aim to design and host the best possible running courses in the most scenic and inspiring locations in the UK. We believe that by motivating people to actively engage with our landscape they are more likely to care about both their own health and the health of the environment. Endurancelife is not simply a business, it is a philosophy – nobody ever got rich from a philosophy and that is not our aim. We just want to share with people what we already know and engender an active community who understand the importance of conserving the natural environment and the health benefits of connecting with it.
We are stoked that you enjoyed the event that you did with us and from your comments it seems that we have succeeded in improving your life in at least a small way. I hope that you will return to do more, but please don’t think of us as a money-grabbing corporate entity – that is not the case at all. We are here to share with as many people as possible what we already know – physical challenge + inspiring landscape = happy people who care about the environment.
Best Wishes from all of the Endurancelife Team!
Andrew,
Overheads by definition don’t affect the gross profit.
As I pointed out in the post net profit will be a lot lower due to the overheads of running the business.
However, overall I think we’re in agreement – you’re not getting rich from running the business and it’s not a quick route to riches for anyone attempting to copy you.
As for being a lifestyle business, well I’d argue that you are a great example of a lifestyle business, after all you, yourself wrote:
“Endurancelife is not simply a business, it is a philosophy – nobody ever got rich from a philosophy and that is not our aim”
Which sounds like a lifestyle business to me and a damn good one too. I salute you for it.
I certainly don’t think you’re money grabbing, in fact the events seem good value to me. I will be returning for more – and not just the remainder of the CTS series that I’ve already booked.
Regards, John