More bang for your buck: eight ways to add new life to your facility without killing your budget.

Makeover mania has taken America by storm. Whether it's a makeover beauty queen in television's "The Swan" or outrageous home makeovers on a budget while neighbors are "Trading Spaces," Americans have gone crazy with low-cost improvements. But you may not have embraced that same "lots for less" attitude when it comes to your facility.

Is your aquatics center starting to show its age, but your capital budget is hitting an all-time low? Can your family aquatics center use a face-lift, but you just can't afford a new attraction?

There are plenty of ways to infuse some new fun, excitement and drama into your facility without breaking the budget. Some subtle changes will go a long way with your members and help to keep your facility viable and attractive.

The typical approach to improving an aquatics facility is to "think big." Add an attraction, expand a concession or create a new area are ideas that immediately come to mind. But most customer service complaints arise from some of the smaller issues of cleanliness and perception.

Here are eight ways to get a big bang from some small bucks:

1 Show them they've arrived

First impressions are everything. Your guests should feel a real sense of arrival. So take a good, hard look at your facility's entrance and take it up a notch. A new entrance sign, planter boxes and banners are affordable solutions that make a big statement. Have a boring cinder-block wall? A larger-than-life mural or a simple layered plywood sign painted with high-gloss paint makes a real statement.