History and lore will tell you that baseball is America’s favorite past time.  But, football drives the American sports scene in today’s day and age.  Now that high schools, colleges and pro teams have kicked –off their 2010 seasons, it marks a good time to make sure your team looks good for the next season.  Summer is gone, time to get back to business and position yourself for a winning season.  As team owner or coach, what are some things you need to do?

-          Make sure your team is trained and in shape.  Make sure all employees know the goals and have received the best internal and external training.  Consider your marketing materials as uniforms, making sure they are still pertinent.  New materials always help update your message.

-          Invest in your stadium.  A fresh coat of paint, some nice fall landscaping or a new HD TV in the common area gives you a better home field advantage.  Don’t forget your virtual home field, making sure your web site is up to date and looking good.

-          Develop your rookies.  It’s important to have new players on your team, but if you don’t give them a chance to contribute, it’s a waste of resources.

-          Evaluate your veterans.  Are they continuing to learn new things, provide fresh ideas, keep their energy level high and not get stale?  We need to keep the whole team challenged.  In today’s game, nobody can coast.  Get them in shape, challenge them with new strategies and keep them involved.

-          Know your opponent and playing field.  Who are your direct competitors?  Do they have new offerings or new advantages?  What have we done to increase our market share and make sure we are ahead in the game?  How was the market changed?  Have the economy forced any rules changes?  If you cannot relate to the outside world, your efforts are doomed.

Business is just like sports in many, many ways.  It’s fun to incorporate games into business as ways to motivate, team build and change things up.  But, like sports, it still comes down to winning and losing.  Make sure your team is strong, your playbook is up to date and you are out hustling the competition!