I’m in full planning mode for the upcoming year. How about you?
When I first started spending a decent amount of time to plan out my season, it was very complicated and cumbersome process. There were many moving parts, content, marketing, emails and strategies put into place to help me accomplish my revenue goals. I was learning as I went, so I wasn’t very efficient.
As I’ve grown as a business owner, the easier this process has become. Not necessarily because I’m building on the previous year (which helps), but I’ve also learned something valuable that is true of most business owners. I have learned that it’s a pretty natural tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be. When I stay focused, then my business strategy looks like something that I can tackle.
As I build my strategy every year, I continue to connect dots that are part of my long term goals.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how far that I’ve come within the last three years since I decided to implement a business strategy to execute all of my marketing ideas.
I’ve realized something very important.
What got me here, won’t get me there.
What does that mean? It means that we, as golf operators, must stretch, grow, and pivot in order to attain new goals that we set for our business. I’ve reached a certain level, but now I’m working on moving to the next one. We all must continue to grow and challenge ourselves. That’s the only real way to grow the game. We have to grow as golf operators first.
It’s not easy, but it isn’t meant to be easy. If it were, everyone would do it.
As I’m setting my 2018 goals, I find myself wondering what does my Breakthrough Year look like? What would an increase in business look like? What would a 10% increase look like? What would a 20% increase look like?
There are many questions that we should ask ourselves, but I’ve compiled a short list of questions to get you to stretch your horizons, so you can attain some amazing goals right along with me!
KEEP IT SIMPLE
First of all, you need to find that sweet spot in your business where you are pursuing things that interest you, you’re good at doing, and make money for your course. When you find that spot where those three overlap, you’ve found a less daunting way to see growth in your business. It’s much easier to grow when you’re excited about doing it, naturally talented and it helps to bring home the bacon!
If you manage to find that sweet spot where more than just you can perform using those three goals, then get ready for the best year yet. Imagine what could happen when multiple staff members bring their game as people who are interested, good at what they do and can bring money to the business!
WATCH YOUR NUMBERS
Numbers don’t lie.
Get out your utilization reports for your tee sheet. You know the ones you always say you’re going to use, but don’t. Examine them and find patterns in your business where your tee sheet is consistently slow.
Look at cost of event execution.
Dig deep and analyze how your business is truly doing.
Numbers remove the emotion from the process.
I remember fondly a promotion that I LOVED doing. It was fun and the neighborhood loved it. Sadly, when I really looked at the numbers, it just didn’t make sense to continue doing it. I gave it a year of additional marketing, then realized that my effort far outweighed the amount of income it brought, so we scrapped it.
ATTRACT YOUR TRIBE
Who are your perfect golfers? Is your marketing strategy aligned with attracting them? Decide who you really want to attract.
Now that you’ve considered those things while planning for 2018, I want you to ask yourself a few more questions.
For a minute, I want you to picture yourself at the end of the 2018 golf season.
- What did your breakthrough year look like?
- What made it different from 2017?
- What happened in order for you to say it was a breakthrough year?
- What did you and your staff do differently?
- What did you let go of in 2018?
Answer those questions before you begin creating your strategy. They’ll give you insight on what you truly need to be working on in your overall business strategy.
Own it. Push yourself. Grow. Accomplish great things!