Staffing is one of the hardest parts of owning a gym. In this episode, Dan lays out a simple four-step framework for building real staff accountability — and how to know, without guilt, when it's time to let someone go. He walks through Expect (writing down real KPIs like retention and competitive performance), Train (including his own story contrasting his "death by PowerPoint" military training with the intensive police academy and six-month field-training program he went through as a 23-year-old cop), Inspect (a regular cadence for checking in on those KPIs), and Correct (documentation, additional training, and verbal or written counseling before anyone gets let go) — plus his reminder that none of it works if you haven't hired the right people in the first place. Dan also points listeners toward the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups, and the Cheer Biz Accelerator events, open to any gym doing $10K/month or more in revenue.

Filling your cheer gym doesn't have to feel like guessing. In this episode, Dan breaks down the exact framework he uses to turn strangers into lifelong members — and why most gyms are leaking people out the bottom of their funnel without ever noticing. He walks through the three stages — Attract, Convert, and Ascend — including why posting "we're hosting an open house" once on Facebook isn't actually promoting it, the free learn-to-cheer clinic that more than doubled one client's team registration, a $54,000-to-$12,000 price-anchoring sales call Dan breaks down line by line, and the churn benchmarks (6% for tumbling-only programs, 1-2% for competitive teams) that tell you whether your retention is actually healthy. Dan also points listeners toward the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups — where this episode's inspiration came from — and the Cheer Biz Accelerator events for anyone who wants a deeper, in-person dive into their business.

Picking a uniform vendor feels like it should be simple, until you're the one holding a surprise shipping bill and a prototype that didn't survive the wash. In this episode, Dan Cotton breaks down the exact framework he uses to evaluate a uniform vendor before committing a season's budget to them. Dan walks through the real story behind a dye-sub uniform that tested solid black and turned almost white the second it stretched, and the crop top redesign that followed a wardrobe malfunction at showcase. He covers how to set a price-per-athlete budget, what "all-in landed pricing" actually means, why you should never skip the prototype (and should wash it five to eight times before approving it), how to vet turnaround time and problem-handling, and the real tradeoffs between a DIY and a concierge-style vendor relationship. He also answers a question straight from the Facebook groups: is it okay to let AI design your uniforms? If you want us to put eyes on your gym in person, Dan's got four seats left for the Cheer Biz Accelerator event at Oregon Dream Teams this November, with two more events coming to Missouri and Oregon in 2027. Got your own uniform vendor story, good or bad? Join the conversation in the Cheer Gym Owners or All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups.