Page 36 - GBC ENG fall 2021

Why is business planning important to golf courses?
• To set milestones in number of rounds, membership and service
• To plot your financial goals (revenue, needs, costs)
• To thoroughly understand the competition
• To better define your target customers through effective marketing strategies
• To maintain/ build a better course through maintenance, management and innovation
• To determine your staffing needs and attract the right employees
• To nurture the spirit of community and elevate its role in social responsibility
• To position your business for success for the current season and for years to come
to setting goals, actions to meet targets and flexibility to continually update plans and keep pivoting when necessary. Why start with three-year targets? While this is a shift from the typical one-year business plan, by focusing on three years before you chart your yearly and 90-day goals, you begin with the end in mind.
One caveat: Businesses tend to do too much in 90 days and never enough in three years. There may be only three or four actions you and your employees will be able to complete in the short term.
Don MacKay, president of Muskoka Highlands Golf Links concurs: “Every owner thinks they are in that cycle. And it is a tough one to follow once we open. The 4 months that we are essentially closed is the time that lets us focus on this cycle. We all realize we cannot do everything this year, so it is getting the tasks into the right time spots for consideration in the future.”
One of the biggest reasons why strategic plans fail is that they are too complicated. Integram’s SAP, for example, charts goals in a simple, one-page format to provide a bird’s-eye view of targets. A simple plan encourages you to be clear, concise and concrete.
READY, SET, REVISIT
When to plan is equally important. Most businesses don’t make planning a priority and tend to revisit plans only when things go wrong and, subsequently, need to dig themselves out of a situation.
According to a recent study by Harvard Business Review, 85 percent of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. Another 50 percent spend no time working on strategic plans. When it comes to communicating strategy, 95 percent of employees
don’t understand the company’s efforts in this area. Researchers attribute the lack of attention to planning as one of the key reasons why businesses fail to meet their strategic targets.
It’s a common pitfall when business is doing well. For example, the Canadian golf course industry saw an average 18 percent growth in rounds played over the 5-year average last year; however, sustaining that buoyant momentum with planning is key to long-term success.
Planning needs to be a continual process so you’re ready for an uneventful situation (read: COVID-19). It allows you to forecast foreseeable issues and be ready to shift focus when necessary. Crisis planning, for example, may include selling merchandise through an online store in the event of a shutdown or to keep things afloat while the course is under repair.
The constant process of planning is vital because as soon as you implement a plan, it can be old, something can go wrong, or your competition has figured out a better solution. Don’t make planning “an event” but a “process,” explains Simon Sinek. “The process of planning” and not the plan itself is important. In other words, haphazard planning doesn’t make the cut.
SET THE COURSE TO GROW!
The final phase in our Create pillar is creating a unique and memorable brand identity that outlines key features such as the company’s principles and tagline, among others. This type of brand groundwork will set the foundation for the next phase, where you’re ready to build your story, shape it and share it to reach your target market.
Golf Business Canada
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Golf Business Canada