Are you smarter than a Green Chairman, II?

Are you smarter than a Green Chairman, II? » Quiz School

It’s That Time, Again!

By Michael D. Vogt, CGCS

As we begin to wind down final months of 2009 golf season, your club should be well on its way with its business plan and comprehensive budget for 2010. Yet, many clubs forestall this process until the 11th hour thinking something will be discovered in the last quarter that will be ground shattering and life changing. The excuses are endless and far easier than the task of formulating an excellent business and financial plan. These are some of the reasons procrastinating department heads and mangers have used:

• We can’t start a new budget when we don’t have final numbers for 2009.
• We haven’t decided what we are going to do with our operation in the off season.
• We’re too busy.

• We don’t know what the cost of good will be in this crazy economy.

• We’re scared of what it might look like.

• We’ve tried that before and it did not help us.

• It takes too much time and we don’t ever use it for anything.

• Budgeting doesn’t require reinventing the wheel.

• Our financial plan is adequate based on past history.

By beginning the planning and budgeting process early management can head-off pitfalls!

The reality is that many golf clubs either don’t have the skills, commitment, discipline, or desire to put together a well planned budget. Planning and budgeting is work! Hard work! But like any other hard work well done, it provides benefits.

A forward thinking approach with a financial plan in place for the entire year and variances that are updated on a monthly basis with forecast and focus on creating the future is a paradigm that any successful business utilizes. Yet, I find that in most cases golf clubs do little more than take a perfunctory look at the numbers from the prior year and usually add a factor to account for price increases, several increases in wages and call the plan good.

I have seen amazing transformations in the actions Clubs take when the financial realities of their business are made known to them in black and white terms with a well thought out, financial plan and a goal orientated budget projection. I have implemented budgeting where it previously was not properly utilized and immediately new plans were developed for better expense controls and member satisfaction. Important priorities where addressed instead of just “Shoot from the Hip” afterthoughts. Directing focus towards creating the future through a thorough, well crafted business plan and budget is what separates great clubs from average clubs.

You need to set goals and standards for your Club.

 But putting together a business plan and comprehensive budget is more than just crunching numbers on a calculator all day. There is a lot groundwork that must be completed in order to get the proper foundation to a new financial plan. A solid financial plan is the final results of a thorough Business Planning process which includes:

1. SFSWOT Analysis

This is an analysis of each Club department’s and the Club’s overall:

• Successes

• Failures

• Strengths

• Weaknesses

• Threats

• Opportunities

It provides a critical self assessment of your Club and provides a great foundation for goal setting for both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the upcoming year.

2. Competitive Analysis

Who is your competition? What resources does your completion exploit that you don’t? What is your clubs unique advantage?

3. Standards of Service and Maintenance

What should be the standard at your Club; is it white table cloth dining or casual fare in a relaxed atmosphere? Are the greens mowed by six men by hand daily or triplexes just ahead of the first group? These standards will all have impacts on the business plan and formulation of the budget.

3. Membership Planning

What are your Club trends for both membership enrollment and attrition? What real growth do you want to plan for in 2010? What has been the trend with downgrades and upgrades? What are you doing with Initiation Fees? Do you have enough financing in place? How will you handle members wanting to resign?

4. Pricing Plan

What dues price increase will you take this year and when? Will guest fees increase? How will we retain our members with increased pricing? How will you price your golf cart and guest fees? Remember, golf course maintenance isn’t a revenue department but knowing the big picture gives knowledge to the superintendent and makes him/her one of your business partners. With the exception of a very few elite private Clubs, cost does matter.

5. Payroll Planning

What payroll increases are you authorizing for the Club’s employees in 2010? Are the wage increases performance based or just “no thought” across the board raises? Is it smart to give increases in pay during this recession? Do you have incentive based compensation plans in place or do you just pay for showing up regardless of the performance?

6. Expense Planning

What expense increases are you anticipating? Have you reviewed each department on a line item basis to determine if the expenses may have significant fluctuations either up or down? Items that can change significantly include general liability insurance, property taxes, utilities, fertilizer, chemicals, and fuel. Have you reviewed these thoroughly to ensure you have an accurate view of the expense side of the financial plan?

7. Marketing Plan

Do have a written quarterly game plan for driving the revenue sources that are important to your Club? Are specific timelines and people assigned to carry out the plans? Did you make sure you budgeted the needed dollars for marketing to ensure you will be able to achieve the results you need?

8. Retention Planning

Do you have a comprehensive calendar of events that appeal to all segments of your membership to keep them using the Club and providing needed revenues. Is your calendar planned ahead at least 3 months at all times? Or are you trying to come up with things at the last minute because the newsletter copy is due?

9. Qualitative Improvement Planning

Do you have a written quarterly plan in every department for qualitative improvement? Specifically, are you challenging all of your golf club departments to implement 2 or 3 initiatives that create a better member experience, provide for improved employee efficiency, introduce a new product or service, or produce a better financial result?

10. Capital Planning

Do you have a written capital replacement plan in place for 2010? Replacing depreciated assets on an annual basis is a major component of a successful business. Do you have the necessary cash to replace what is needed in 2010? Are you going to lease or finance needed equipment? Have you made sure you have done the analysis? Is your plan at least looking ahead 5 years?

The conclusion is this:
If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.


- Yogi Berra

Test Your Knowledge of Irrigation

Test Your Knowledge of Irrigation » Quiz Question Maker

The Five Essential Steps in Successful Turf Care Center Planning

By Michael Vogt, CGCS, CGIA

When is it obvious that existing facilities are deficient?

Several symptoms of an inadequate Turf Care Center:

• Front-line equipment parked outdoors

• Maintenance items beginning to overflow from storage areas

• Staff areas can no longer or never could accommodate training sessions or mid-day meal breaks

• Administration areas can no longer accommodate files, computers or daily routine tasks

• Expensive preventative equipment maintenance parts and accessories have no dedicated storage areas

• Chemical and fertilizer storage areas are becoming environmental concerns

• Each day your staff moves equipment out of the way to get to equipment needed for the daily job tasks

The above are just several examples of aging and inefficient Turf Care Centers. The issue of change begins with a solid Turf Care Center Master Plan.

When Should You Begin the Planning Process?

You should get the planning process moving forward as soon as one year to as much as five years before construction. Allow as much preplanning time as possible. With more planning time, more of the questions can be asked and problems solved before actual planning begins. The planning process with the planner and client can often take four to six months.

Step One: Green Committee or Owner Input

Plan a tour of the Turf Care Center with select Green Committee members or the golf course owner. Openly discuss the strengths and weakness of their current facility with an eye focused on safety, equipment storage problems and size of staff areas. These three topics will in part be the basis of an initial needs assessment. I am sure every superintendent would like to increase staff efficiencies at the Turf Care Center, with more time spent on the golf course. Equipment storage and employee safety, along with proper circulation and traffic flow, can dramatically increase production time for the maintenance staff.

At this stage of the process you do not need to have all of the answers, just a conceptual idea of what would be needed to help solve the major problems at your Turf Care Center. After the tour of the Turf Care Center an open discussion of needs and an initial visit by the Planning Consultant should be the primary first step. With an unbiased view of the

Turf Care Center, the Planning Consultant can assess particular needs based on the Golf Course Superintendent’s unique management challenges. The ultimate goals for the Turf Care Center can be expressed to the consultant.

The Turf Care Center Planning Consultant should be a team member of experienced and trained design professionals that can assess your ultimate goals and supply an architectural solution for the Turf Care Center.

Step Two: Assessment of Empirical Data

After the initial visit with the Planning Consultant, the task of gathering data on the unique golf maintenance issues the superintendent faces is compiled into a report on the Existing Conditions. This report normally uncovers many obstacles that are apparent as well as some items that are not. While the superintendent is the key management facilitator on golf course issues, building and facility issues may be specific and apparent to design professionals that specialize in Turf Care Centers. The issues that may seem insignificant at first can have dramatic ramifications later in the design stage. With the initial visit, the Turf Care Center Planning Consultant will take photographs and study traffic and work patterns of the golf maintenance team. With the investigative information gathered, the assembly of site data can be recorded for planning use.

Step Three: Development of the Turf Care Center Master Plan

With the Turf Care Center on-site visit complete, preliminary site plan and floor plans are developed for the Master Plan. The following issues are considered:

• Safety

• Security

• Labor savings

• Proper equipment storage

• Co-worker comfort

• Environmental impact

• New technology

• Appropriate square footage requirements

After the above topics are considered, the Turf Care Center Planning Consultant prepares the Master Plan with an Opinion of Probable Cost. A meeting with all parties is held to explain the plan.

After the Master Plan concepts are approved, a final conceptual site plan and floor plans are completed. These documents will be the basis of the final presentation to the club’s Board of Directors, or to the Owner if that’s the case.

Master Plan drawings are not construction drawings; they are conceptual but adhere to an accurate scale. The Master Plan is a tool to communicate and to give a focus and direction, so the Turf Care Center Master Plan can be given to the local architect or design-build contractor.

The goals of the Master Planning process are to:

• Understand the space relationship of buildings to site

• Communicate long range vision to owners and committees

• Structure a strategic, logical progression of improvements

• Communicate building needs to other design and building professionals

• Create reasonable budget figures for finance proposes

• Get project designed and built on time, and on budget

Step Four: Selecting the Final Design / Construction Team

With the Turf Care Center Master Plan approved it’s time to select the final design and construction team. The Master Plan will guide the local architect or design-build contractor through the final construction plans to prepare pricing. The Turf Care Center Planning Consultant will be of assistance in selecting qualified professionals to design and build the project.

The Turf Care Center and the building components associated with it are very unique. The use of the Turf Care Center Planning Consultant provides the necessary expertise to plan correctly. The superintendent’s participation is paramount during the planning and design stages of the process. The club’s architect or design - build contractor should be responsible for monitoring workers, reviewing progress and issuing payment requests based on progress of the project. Although the golf course superintendent may be familiar with construction, the many components involved in construction management are a full time position. The superintendent should act as the owners / members representative, but should not be the project manager.

Step Five: Construction and Occupancy

With the heavy lifting of construction, document preparation and contractor bidding completed, the construction process can be started. Zoning and local planning officials should have checked off on the project, and environmental issues should have been resolved. A construction team should have its critical path on construction, inclusive of the time schedule. Once a building permit has been secured the project can start. Whether using the design - build option or a more traditional architect and construction contractor, items of monitoring are:

• Insurance certificates

• Weekly construction site meetings

• Change orders

• Accident reports

• Meeting minutes

• Costs and payment requests

• Departures from budget

• Local building inspections

• Disruption of golf course maintenance

Five areas of advice that should be considered a successful project are:

• Try to avoid using members for the project itself.

• Have a club member who has relevant construction experience oversee (or be on the committee of) the project.

• Always hire professional planners, architects and construction firms with relevant experience.

• Budget adequate funds to complete the project with adequate contingency.

• Do not allow the golf course superintendent to manage the Turf Care Center building project. The superintendent has a golf course to maintain and doubling up his / her responsibilities will cause problems.

When the construction is complete, occupancy of the building can take place. With well thought and executed Turf Care Center Master Planning, the guesswork and many of the inherent problems with construction and renovation can be averted. The decisions made in the early stages of planning are critical to the ultimate success of the project. A team specializing in Turf Care Center Planning brings in a wealth of knowledge from many prior experiences and solid design concepts.

You’re Point of View

By Michael Vogt, CGCS

When Patti La Belle sang "I tidied up my point of view--I got a new attitude," she probably wasn't thinking private club golfer "new attitude". But we ought to think about it.

My posts often mentioned the importance of maintaining a line of communication with the membership. The club memberships’ “attitude" of you, your staff and the golf course in general are important topics for the golf course superintendent to keep abreast of. In approaching the subject of golf course conditioning from the perspective of the club’s golfers, emphasizing what they want or need should be common knowledge to any golf course superintendent. It's more than a matter of playing with height-of-cut or planting flowers around the clubhouse or even major projects. In all business it’s paramount to deliver the best of products and services based on clients desires. The membership’s wants and desires are not necessarily what you imagine are correct. It's good business to recognize what the customer wants.

Back to your point of view

It’s easy to think you know what’s best for the club based on your point of view, by putting yourself in the golfer’s place and supplying the kind of conditions that you perceive are appropriate. Even the well connected superintendent may be missing the message on conditioning and projects needed or wanted by the membership. Are these messages communicated to you by the vocal minority, or select members of a club committee, or perhaps by an otherwise well intended manager or golf professional?

Consider a survey; a complete golf survey can add direction and complete or accomplish tasks that you may not even consider.

When conducting a survey don't make your message all about "me" or "us". If you're trying to uncover what your membership wants, emphasize what's in it for them. We must understand we are in the business of satisfaction. Our unique McMahon Group surveys always point out that Very Satisfied Members are more likely to have a loyal and a close connection with their club. These members also use their clubs more often and spend appreciably more and tend to bring guests more often. The management staff’s goal is a Very Satisfied Member.

Death of a career

I recently received a call that shows a marked insensitivity to the "you attitude":

A superintendent worked diligently to accomplish many goals for a club. Renovations, increased quality of turf conditions, a more stable, highly trained maintenance staff, all things seemed to be moving in the right direction.

One thing the superintendent mentioned was that he had communication problems with select members of the committee and several long time members. These problems began to increase and without intervention became a battle of personalities. As time went on members began to think the superintendent was not responsive the needs of the membership as a whole. This superintendent was highly skilled at all things agronomic and had a great grasp of fine tournament golf conditions. Golf course condition had never been better but after several years the superintendent was ask to resign.

If a survey was administered, I feel it would have pointed out what the membership wanted and needed. The survey would have either repositioned the club’s long range plan or confirmed the superintendent was on the right track. Left to rumors and innuendo the membership increasingly began to suppose the superintendent had his own agenda for the club.

Ask yourself, “What can I, the superintendent do for YOU the member?” Without a golf course survey to map out a direction you most likely will never arrive at the final destination. Flowers at the entrance to the ladies locker room may be a concern you have overlooked.

Furthermore, a survey reinforces your commitment to membership satisfaction. A membership that feels they contribute to the successes of the club is more engaged and more satisfied. Remember, Very Satisfied Members are your ultimate goal.

The knee jerk

How many times have you been asked to remedy a situation or problem that all of the sudden became number one on your list of priorities? With the tendency to solve these problems quickly an inordinate amount of resources need to be allocated to this emergency issue at hand. These knee jerk problems neither may nor seem important to you but perhaps someone thinks they are. Would a comprehensive membership survey point to these number one issues before they become immediate must respond situations?

The big project sell

As a former golf course superintendent I can look back on my career and site several different opportunities that should have begun with a club survey to either strengthen my position or plans for the golf course’s future. One example was a new irrigation system; it took four years to sell a new irrigation system to the club membership. After most club members realized the old quick couplers could never deliver the quality of turf that nearby country clubs offered a new system was slated for the following year. A well drafted survey could have shorted the curve on approval, I am certain of it!

Sand bunkers, cart paths, golf course restrooms, irrigation systems, drainage and turf care centers are all big ticket items that are difficult to “sell” to memberships. These aforementioned items are the most sited when a golf survey is completed. If golf superintendents need a resource to help acquire needed capital to keep the golf course in excellent condition and accomplish Very Satisfied Members a survey is just the tool to expose a need and solution exists.

The club’s participation in a golf course survey might just surprise you. Most clubs that conduct a golf course survey are so amazed at the participation rate the club elects to conduct surveys at regular intervals to engage members on their most important asset, the golf course.

The process

• Find the issues, (focus groups)
• Ask the right questions
• Be Specific
• Be statically accurate
• Keep it simple
• Ask several “Open Ended Questions”
• Use a combination of Paper and Online formats for highest returns
• Share the results as soon as possible
• Make changes based on results

Remember, the entire staff’s goal is a "You Attitude" or a Very Satisfied Member.

If you need more information on the survey process email me at mvogt@mcmahongroup.com .