How a kids’ rugby club grew their brand with an affordable loan

Kids’ rugby club Try Time needed some help marketing themselves and getting their brand out there after the pandemic. Here, founders Danielle Dyer and Jane Gomez tell us about the challenges they’ve faced, and how a Funding Circle business loan helped them grow into the successful enterprise they are now. 

What is TryTime and how did it start? 

Try Time delivers rugby coaching to children so we can give them a positive introduction to sports, and the physical and mental benefits of moving the body. 

The company was born from wanting our own children to be outside in the fresh air, running around with their friends and having fun. We chose rugby as there weren’t any other clubs on the market at the time, but you can do so much with it – kicking, passing, catching, teamwork, and one of the game’s main principles is respect, too. 

Our aim isn’t to have the world’s greatest rugby players. We just want to make sure every child feels welcome, and inspire them to make sport an enjoyable part of their life forever. 

What are your core values as a business? 

When we started, we didn’t just say “Let’s go set up a rugby club!”. We really thought about what we wanted our values to be, and built a business around that. 

One of our main values is respect, so teaching children about keeping each other safe – not just throwing the ball and not caring where it lands, for example. We always try to bring in what respect means, what teamwork means and how we can look after each other. 

Another of our values is energetic, because all of the games we play are really silly, and we give lots of encouragement so it doesn’t matter if you can’t catch or if you’re not the fastest runner. Our games are creative and inclusive so everyone can enjoy them. 

What do you think has been key to your success? 

The locations are important. We look at the demographics, whether the parks are places people want to go at the weekend, with a playground or cafe. But the key to our success is absolutely the coaches. All the marketing in the world will draw the customers in, but our coaches have got to keep them there with amazing sessions. Without them we’d be nothing.

We’ve also had real perseverance over the years. It hasn’t always been an easy ride. We’ve opened clubs that didn’t work, and we’ve made a lot of mistakes. But being a business steeped in passion for what we do means we always try to push through the tough times. 

What happened when COVID-19 hit? 

We got to the point where the clubs were all starting to be profitable, and then the pandemic hit and we went to zero. We created packs with games to do at home which was great for engagement, but in terms of business it was zero as we couldn’t go online. 

However, now we’re out of it, all of our clubs are all a bit bigger – we think because people want to do outdoor sport, and we have a really strong brand. So while we’ve had two years of losing revenue and potential, we’ve actually come out of it stronger. 

How did a Funding Circle loan help and how was your experience? 

We were in this hole where we weren’t making enough money to pay for marketing, but without marketing we weren’t able to grow. So we used the loan to market ourselves, and also to set up two more clubs. It really sped up the process of becoming what we are now. 

We chatted with lots of different people about where to get a loan, and Funding Circle was always the one that everyone mentioned.

The Account Manager who dealt with us was just amazing, and it was incredibly quick. We couldn’t quite believe it all happened in the space of a few weeks, and the delay was only because of us. It was so extraordinarily easy, we’ve talked to other people about how good it is. 

How has your business grown? 

We’ve now got a member of staff who handles the memberships, and another who does our marketing. We also have a tiger mascot who the kids absolutely love! She joins the Saturday sessions and does a Try Time haka during the warm-up, which has been a huge success. 

We’ve also had David Strettle come on board as an ambassador – a rugby player who used to play for England and Harlequins. Of course the kids haven’t got a clue who he is, but the parents have really enjoyed him doing some coaching. As a brand, you have to get to a certain size before you can justify things like that. 

What are your goals for the future? 

We’ve recently put together a proposition for our head coaches to help them become their own club owners, so they can run their own club nearer to where they live. Because they’ve bought into what we do, and we’ve bought into them, there’s a real mutual love there – so we’d love to help them if we can. Not only in coaching sport, but also in running their own club for us and being successful at that. That’s how we’d love our business to grow.

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