While many young men and women dream of pursuing a career as a high-level athlete, careers in sports are often short and uncertain. A soccer player’s career may last 20 years, but only 5-10 of these years are spent at the top of their game, where they can command the highest salary.
For long-term financial success, athletes must start to think like businesses. By this, we mean they need to create additional revenue streams so they’re less reliant on their primary source of income, which will come from their employer.
Whether you’re at the peak of your powers or you’re simply making your way through the college sport scene, here are three ways you can increase your earnings as an athlete.
1. Strategic Sponsorships
Sponsorships have long been seen in the world of sports, and most partnerships between brands and athletes benefit both parties. For the athlete, it opens up an extra income stream. For the brand, it helps enhance perceptions if the athlete is relevant to the target audience.
The top sponsorship deals are reserved for the top athletes – think of Michael Jordan’s extremely lucrative deal with Nike. But with more startup brands than ever before, there is an increasing number of opportunities on the table for all athletes, not just the household names.
Champion female boxer, Ellie Scotney, is the perfect example of this. She has recently partnered with up-and-coming activewear brand, A-Game, and wore their products in her most recent fight.
The secret lies in finding a brand that aligns with your values and your current standing in the sporting world. Even up-and-coming athletes can work with startup brands to increase their profile.
2. Become a Content Creator
Recently, we’ve seen a whole host of content creators bring their following into the sporting world. Most notably, the rise of influencer boxing events has proved lucrative for content creators. But what about moving the other way, from sport into content creation?
It’s never been easier to create content, and athletes already have an established following in the form of fans and supporters. Not to mention, they also lead extremely compelling lives, which many people are interested in.
As an athlete, this provides you with the perfect opportunity to transition into the world of content creation. It could be as simple as sharing training tips, behind-the-scenes footage, or lifestyle content such as ‘what I eat in a day’ type videos.
This can be one of the easiest ways to build a wider digital audience, not to mention the deeper connection you’ll build with current followers, which should both translate into monetisation opportunities.
3. Launch Your Own Brand
The final extra revenue stream, and probably the hardest to build, is developing your own brand. We’ve seen various athletes transition into business after their career, but it is now becoming common for current athletes to try their hand at entrepreneurship.
While it requires a lot of work, it’s never been easier to start a business. And the big advantage that athletes have is that they are already known and likely to possess large followings on social media, which is something that takes most startups years to achieve.
It’s important to ensure that any brand aligns with the athlete’s personality and values, whether they’re building in fashion, supplements, nutrition, or something else.
Final Thoughts
Sponsorships, content, and brand building are three of the most common ways to increase your earnings as an athlete. Fortunately, the shift towards a digital world makes these opportunities more attainable than ever before. More brands exist for sponsorships, content platforms like YouTube are geared towards monetisation, and platforms like Instagram and Shopify make it easier to build and monetise a following. It just goes to show that the biggest opportunities for athletes today may actually lie off the field long after the whistle is blown.
