We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Pazahanick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

DeKalb Tennis Center became our very first model for how we want to run public tennis centers. We now have a process of everything for how we manage and operate that has allowed us to scale.

Through our experience in managing public and private tennis centers, Agape has also developed standard operating procedures (SOPs). Our SOP’s along with our core values, guide all business functions, including customer service, communications and marketing, guidelines for managing all direct tennis activities, community outreach and engagement, and every functional area of tennis center management. We offer a general management philosophy that yields growth in center use based on providing an excellent customer experience and a dedication to serving diverse populations and community needs. Agape will continue to implements our general management philosophy to scale. Agape’s general management philosophy is built upon the following tenets:

Value-Added Service Approach—We are serious about tennis, but also understand that having fun and building friendships while developing competitive players adds value to the customer experience, which, in turn, adds value to our partnerships for tennis center management by building a stronger sense of community and increased profitability.
Excellence—Agape has high standards for staff. We expect demonstrated skills and proficiencies related to job duties and expect team members to participate in ongoing personal and professional development that lead to excellence in coaching and customer service.
Responsibility and Accountability—Agape expects all staff to be responsible and accountable team members. This commitment means that staff take ownership and understand the impact of their roles as coaches, customer service representatives, and managers and that the company as a whole is a responsible and transparent business partner.
Innovation and Collaboration—Agape encourages staff and guests to help us develop innovative services and collaborate with internal and external partners.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Founded by CEO Amy Pazahanick in 2012, Agape Tennis Academy, LLC, is a female-owned business enterprise that provides tennis center management.

Agape conducts operations at tennis centers under its management at the following locations:

DeKalb Tennis Center, Decatur, GA

Fountain Valley Tennis and Pickleball Center, Fountain Valley CA

Oxnard Tennis and Pickleball Center, Oxnard CA

Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District, Camarillo, CA

Agape manages 40 full-time employees and 50 part-time employees who provide tennis instruction and manage all administrative and marketing/community relations efforts for DeKalb Tennis Center in Georgia and for the Fountain Valley Tennis and Pickleball Center, the Oxnard Tennis and Pickleball Center, and the Pleasant Valley Parks and Recreation District in the state of California.

We are most proud of our reputation and our role to provide happiness and a place people come together in the communities we serve.

Agape has built a strong reputation within the communities we serve because we are focused on providing a great customer experience, and we will help build strong tennis and pickleball communities and neighborhoods near our centers. We have a forward-thinking view of programming as well as community outreach. We are committed to serving special populations such as youth, senior citizens, and individuals with disabilities. Most importantly, Agape is focused on providing a customer experience that is second to none.

Agape’s business model includes core elements that lead to success. Our innovative thinking and ability to address challenges by “thinking outside the box” allow us to approach both individual players and overall operations in a manner that achieves the best results in each situation. While we recognize that there are tried-and-true methods and best practices within our industry, Agape understands that, just as tennis and pickleball instructors often must adapt instructional methods and best practices to meet the needs of individual students, so, too, we adapt in innovative ways as an organization to meet the needs of the diverse and fluid communities where we operate.

Some of the unique features and things that sets Agape apart are:

 Pickleball leagues five days a week for all levels at most of our locations
 Expansive social media presence
 Ability to attract and retain quality coaching professionals in both tennis and pickleball
 85% of our coaching staff is certified
 Agape subscribes to TennisDrills.tv as an ongoing continuing education platform
 Focus on core values (HEART) and mission while delivering great results
 Structure of our Junior Program system, methodology, and philosophy
 Countless awards and recognition in both the state of Georgia and California speak to the success our unique features have garnered, including:

o 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 Best of Decatur, GA
o 2022 Public Provider of the Year by the Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR)
o 2022 City of Fountain Valley, CA Kindness Award presented by City Council
o 2022 Agape CEO was a keynote speaker at both the Professional Tennis Registry and Professional Pickleball Registry’s International Conferences

Our core values are the most important part of Agape. Since its founding in 2012, Agape has adhered to a set of five core values that drive all we do: Honesty, Excellence, Attitude, Responsibility, and Teamwork (HEART). Agape has also developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) that, along with our core values, guide all business functions, including customer service, communications and marketing, guidelines for managing all direct tennis activities, community outreach and engagement, and every functional area of tennis center management.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Less than 5% of business’s in the United States stay in business more than 10 years. We are very fortunate that we are not just staying in business, but that we continue to grow and thrive. The market is constantly changing and that means, we have to constantly evolve and change with it, and really, ahead of it.

There have been multiple times throughout my career where resilience has been huge. I have had to have resilience at virtually every step of the business from the very beginning to now. The start up or the start up of a new location is always the most most challenging. There are always people who do not want change and we always have to find ways of working with or prospering despite negativity that can come our way, whether than negativity is fair or not.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our core values and how much we care

Consistency over time

Contact Info:

• Website: www.agapetennisacademy.com
• Instagram: Agapetennisacademy
• Facebook: Agape Tennis Academy