2010 marks the 10 Year Anniversary of Tennis Works, which is based in Milton Keynes. John Cavill, Tennis Works founder, reports on an eventful decade.

Tennis Works has enjoyed a terrific journey over the past 10 years with many changes along the way. In 2000 Tennis Works was formed to offer affordable and accessible tennis to all in the community and was my coaching business. Over the first 3 years, the company grew rapidly....may be too quickly, with more and more coaches joining the team. I found more venues to work in and more coaches to work in them, but the business was getting to a point where it was not manageable and not very profitable, although we had hundreds of people playing tennis through us. In 2002 I set up The Community Tennis Club, a not for profit organisation that could attract funds to deliver tennis in the community. This was essential to getting everyone playing and we have some great success stories from this initiative.

In 2004 I got more ridged with the operation, with monthly coaches meetings, creating better lesson plans and procedures. My wife also joined the business to take care of the administration. In 2005 we had one of our best summers with over 1000 children attending our 24 camps that were all over north Bucks. This was also the year I decided to set up the Cavill Academy and start to address the needs of players who wanted to play competitive tennis. In 2006 my wife left the business due to the birth of our first child and I made a big change to how we operated. In the past we collected all the money for all the courses and paid the expenses. This was OK to some extent and profitable, but the responsibility and administration that was needed by the coaches to deliver the quality I desire, was becoming a problem. I introduce the Tennis Works Affiliation, a support mechanism for coaches to grow their own business, including monthly meetings, coach education, business advice etc.

Between 2007 and 2008 the Affiliation continued and I concentrated on building tennis in Milton Keynes along with the academy. In 2009 I decided to make further changes to the affiliation and open our meetings up to everyone. The thought behind this was that coaches enjoyed interacting with each other and sharing ideas, so the more people to contribute, the better the event. The meetings have now changed into the Tennis Works Forums and we run 9 events a year, all based at the David Lloyd Centre in Milton Keynes. The cost of affiliation has been competitively priced at £22.50 a month and we invite guest speakers to present for us. At the October 2009 forum, we had Alan Jones, the most successful British Coach and Jo Durie, former world number 5, come and deliver a fantastic forum with over 30 coaches. In December 2009 we had Adrian Rattenbury from the RPT Europe and in March 2010 we have Keith Reynolds, who works with British number 5 Jamie Baker. The other huge benefits for coaches are the LTA License points that they achieve on every event, which easily covers their annual quota.

2010 also marks the year where I have sold 49% of the business! This move is a positive one for me as my business partner and I look to move the company in different directions and expand the base that I have built. I’m sure all will be revealed over the next few months, but the journey so far has been fun and I’m sure the next 10 years will be 10 times better!

Released: 15 January 2010