subject: Sports Partners - where good sports meet [print this page] Sports Partners - where good sports meet Sports Partners - where good sports meet
In 2008 I was happily working as a professional in a Government-owned corporation. The hours were great, the stress levels were low, and the pay was not bad. Work was fun, but not overly challenging although that didn't worry me at all. I had a 10 minute drive to work each day and parking was FREE. And then I received the call. An opportunity had come up within my old company where I had spent 7 years previously, and where I completed my graduate program shortly after finishing my university degree in the year 2000. The challenge in this new job back at the old company would be far greater, as too would the salary. The one thing I didn't quite count on was all of the travel that would come with this new job.
Instead of a 10 minute drive, I now had 45 minute bus trip to and from work each day, and on top of that I was doing quite a lot of travel to the Bowen Basin Coalfields in Central Queensland. The travel involved plenty of flights in the QANTAS Dash 8 propeller jets, as well as many a night staying in Central Queensland hotel rooms. I can tell you straight that my nights in these hotel rooms were pretty dull even with the Austar television and nice meals. I was enjoying the work immensely, but can't deny the fact that I was getting extremely bored with the commute to and from work, and the monotonous flights between Brisbane and Central Queensland. This got me thinking should I take up some part time study and put all of this idle time I now had to good use? After all, there are only so many movies and TV series I could watch on my iPod. Even if they were "Free" movies my Grandparents had downloaded.
I gave the study a fair bit of thought, but couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to learn about or further my career prospects in. I also couldn't fathom the idea of studying again. This got me thinking, what else could I do with this spare travel time? It was then I got the idea in my head of starting up an online business. I had no idea where to start really and so I bought a bunch of 2nd hand books off the internet (some might say ironically, or not) and began reading up on small business and internet marketing and the like. I also bought a notebook and jotted down any ideas I could think of. All of this was done either on the Brisbane City Council Bus, or on the QANTAS or Jetstar planes. I would get home and do a bit of quick research on my ideas, and 99 times out of 100, find out there wasn't a market for my ideas, or worse still, the ideas had already been thought of and developed by others.
Whilst thinking of ideas, the one thing I kept at the front of my mind is that the business had to be in an area of interest that I would enjoy. I didn't want it to be a labour of hate. With this in mind, I kept coming back to Sport. Ever since I was a young child, I have always enjoyed playing sport, watching sport, and reading about sport. I had always dreamt of having a career in sports, but it did not quite pan out that way not that I have a single regret. It is still a joke to this day within my family, that if someone hands me a newspaper, I will turn it straight over to the back page to check out the sports headlines, before seeing what real news is going on in the world. Even though my fitness and skills are not where they once were, I still enjoy playing and watching golf, tennis, rugby league, touch football, cricket and more. You name it; I will give it a crack. Well pretty much. I can't say I have tried either yoga or ballet as yet though.
Back to my pursuit of a business idea - after 6 months of dreaming (literally at times) up online business ideas I finally thought of something that I thought had some potential, and more importantly hadn't been monopolised yet, in either Australia or Overseas. After 6 months of business development, website design and marketing, Sports Partners was converted from a dream to reality. It's at this point I have to tell you all that Sports Partners is not the work of just me. From the concept design, through to business development and now operation, the business is very much a friends and family affair, with 20 good friends and family involved in the business as shareholders or directors, as well as advisors and web site development. Our ages range from 27 through to 73, and we come from all walks of life.
So what exactly is Sports Partners? Sports Partners is a free website www.sportspartners.com.au where our members can find other individuals, teams, clubs, or businesses for sports, hobbies and travel. You can search by activity, club type or business type, age, sex, location, and skill level. For example, your new year's resolution is to get fit, and so you would like to find a running partner, walking partner or perhaps even a soccer team or touch football team. At the click of just a few buttons you can have a list of people's profiles in front of you, from where you can then make secure contact with as few or as many of them as you choose all for free of course. The same deal applies if you are in search of a particular business type or club. Simply nominate the business or club type, the distance range from your postcode, and you will have the contacts for the relevant organisations in front of you in a matter of seconds. Of course, if you are business or club, Sports Partners is a great place for you to gain targeted exposure.
Sports Partners caters for all ages, and is a great site if you are in search of a new golf partner, or maybe even a dance partner. In a similar vain, Sports Partners is proving extremely popular with people travelling away from home, people new to town and looking to meet others for sports and hobbies, as well as those simply looking for travel partners. What better way to meet new people when you are new to town, then to join a new netball team or basketball team, or even just to find a walking partner or running partner to get fit with or a mothers group to chew the fat.
To keep things fun at Sports Partners, we run regular Sports Tipping competitions, with some great prizes up for grabs. Some recent competitions have included the Australian Open Tennis, Ashes Cricket, World Cup Cricket, and Delhi Commonwealth Games to name a few, where our winners have won all sorts of great prizes ranging from Netbook computers, to Nintendo Wii's and Sony Playstations, to iTune vouchers, Alpha Sports Magazine subscriptions and Rebel Sport gift vouchers.
As you can see Sports Partners is a lot of fun, not just for our members, clubs and businesses partners, but also for myself and our Shareholders. We are growing by the day and in fact are now getting thousands of hits a month. We look forward to our continued goal of putting people in touch with others for sports and hobbies, and can't wait for our next development perhaps some smart phone apps and the like. One thing is for sure, the daily grind that was once my bus trip to work and back each day, now flies by in a flash, and my viewing of the latest blockbusters on my iPod has hit an all time low.
Michael Vincent
If you would like to know more visit www.sportspartners.com.au or drop us a line at admin@sportspartners.com.au
