Entrepreneurial Business Plan
Feasibility Study
BUSINESS CONCEPT- GOLF INSTRUCTION
GOLF INSTRUCTION BUSINESS
Golf is one of the favorite recreational pass time and sports of millions of people in the United States. The Expertise and skills in this sport can be utilized to start the business of a Golf Instructor. Almost all golf courses require on-staff golf professionals to teach golfing lessons to the seekers. The business can be started on-field; however on-field instruction service might require huge investment in the form of a golf field. We can avoid this huge investment by providing the service on an in-home consulting basis or broadcasting or uploading the live lessons of techniques on the internet.
MISSION STATEMENT
We are committed to provide superior instruction and golfing techniques to players with skills of any level. Our experienced and skilled staff will serve their members and guests with excellence. We offer both on-field and in-home training through variety of schools or organizations. We also provide distant learning courses through our website to the learners. We help players to achieve the confidence they need to fully enjoy the game. We conduct all of our business dealings with integrity and respect. We aim to provide an ultimate golfing experience to the players to cultivate and capitalize their potential.
FEATURES AND COST BENEFIT OF OUR SERVICE
According to my plan, to be successful in the golf instructor business in a short period of time, we need to understand that it cannot be done single handedly. We would need a team at least of 3 golf instructors who are professional and trained instructors. This is because there are many existing big sharks in the market. In order to survive in this market we need to survive the intense competition through a great marketing and performance campaign. We can meet our investment requirements by finding partners to invest in our business plan or get help from banks in the form of business loan.
Golf Professional Team- we would hire an experienced team of golf professionals
•Personal Coaching- we would provide personal coaching to both males and females on a membership basis as well as guest members at $50 per hour for guests. We could potentially earn membership fees of $30000 for a year.
•In-Home golf training- we would also provide the training of golf techniques by in-home by sending a team of experts on the site for schools, colleges, corporate, clubs. The price charged shall vary according to the number of players and required experts.
•Online golf training- we would provide our services online by uploading the videos of technique learning on our website. The videos would be charged a nominal rate of $25 per video. We would also provide online courses of golf training which would consist of a series of video for a particular course opted.
•Outdoor tournament facility- we would also provide the service of hosting of tournaments for schools, colleges, corporate and clubs. We would give golf course on hire for hosting such tournaments and provide with all arrangements to hold the tournament
•The Golf Cup- we would hold monthly tournaments for our members on our field and award the players for outstanding performance to promote the membership of our firm.
I suppose, we can undertake the business as the Golf Instructor by renting at least half an acre of land and maintain it as a mini golf course. We would have to buy the equipment such as grass cutting equipment, spraying equipment, bunker raking equipment to maintain a golf course and make a few appointments for our assistance. The initial investment may cost us approximately $50,000 for equipment. Thereafter, it may cost us around $500,000 annually for lease payment of field, salary of trainers and assistants and yearly inventories and stores. If we are able to train approximately 20 players in a day and charge them at rate of $100 per hour, our yearly revenues would be a minimum of $720,000. Hence our minimum annual profits would be $200,000.
To promote our new enterprise, we need to make various offers to attract members initially, such as, discounts and incentives for lifetime membership, demonstration classes for guests, free online videos and discounts for in-home training. Hence our costs in initial years would be high and we may have to work on no-loss-no profit. However with years following, if we are able to gain popularity and memberships, we can earn revenues as high as $3 million per annum.
VALUE BENEFITS OF OUR SERVICE
We would hire trained, certified and experienced professionals for training our customers. For this we may approach experienced ex-golfer players. Besides, we would give life-time memberships or long-term memberships to customers at low cost. This would help us create members and bring investment for our business. We will offer attractive discounts on yearly memberships. We will also conduct tournaments and reward the members for their outstanding performances. We can also provide other recreational activities by building a community room in our premises, where we will screen important live matches on weekends and provide free refreshments for our members and their family.
FORM OF BUSINESS
We will conduct our business on both on-ground and online basis. We will provide services on-ground from our golf course or at premises of players. We can also take up contracts for providing a team to train players at schools, colleges, clubs and corporate organization or even conduct tournaments for them. Besides this, we will also work online by uploading the videos of training lessons, courses and golfing tips on our website. These videos can be accessed on payment of charges for a single video or for an entire course. This on-line training will help us create customers beyond the local areas and thus help us expand in the long term. It will also act as an on-line marketing tool of our business. The potential customers will be able to view demo videos of our professional trainers and be sure about the quality of our service. We can also update the details of new membership openings, discounts, new courses, timings and such other details on our website for the information of our members.
NAICS (NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM)
6-digit number (2012) - 611620- Sports and Recreation Instruction
This industry comprises of establishments, such as camps and schools, primarily engaged in offering instruction in athletic activities to groups of individuals. It includes overnight and day sports instruction camps.
Customer/Industry Analysis
Part II - Customer/Industry Analysis
Industry Analysis and Trends in Industry
The industry includes the various establishments, universities and the schools that are engaged in the offering of the instructions on the athletic activities to the individuals and groups. The sports instruction camps set up by them are provisioned day and night. The golfing experience provided to the players capitalizes on enhancing their potential. The recent trends in the industry comprise of the growing potential of the counter balance putters that would gain popularity (Golf Digest, 2016). Also, the greater number of pros would be ditching the anchored putter and the pros would not be wearing the google glass while playing on the course. The wearable technology will be altered for the players and the discovery of the technology which would aid them in playing really well and perform to the best of their capabilities with the stat tracking devices employed in the sport. Arccos too is a chip device which can be utilized by pro golfers which is clipped to the glove. The chip is able to monitor and analyze the swing operation while the golfers raises his/her arm while playing and has been growing popularity (Golf Digest, 2016).
Market Growth Rate & Demand Estimation
The market growth rate worldwide based on aggregate with the focus on the two big markets - United States and Japan is estimated close to $ 9 billion. The world's largest golf markets area representation based on the consumption of 80% of the equipment of golf based on the sales. The top five markets linked to the sport stand to be South Korea, Canada, United States, United Kingdom and Japan. With the surveys of more than 130 conducted across the year, the data pertaining to statistics of US business and the NAICS 611620 which is associated with sports and recreational instruction, the statistical survey has provisioned the above data (U.S Census Bureau, 2016).
Market Segment & Market Niche
The market segment for our business would broadly comprise of males and females in the age bracket of fourteen years to forty years. The schools and the colleges along with the universities that are offering the facility for the students to learn and get coached on the sport of golf would form part of the segment. The various PGA tours with the prime target market as ranked too are Florida. Arizona State of United States too offers attractive golf courses and the world tournaments have occurred here in plenty. There are various colleges and the universities in Arizona that has the focus on the sport and is provisioning facilities with the needed equipment's for golf. California itself, a state with more than 900 courses is a target for us and we wish to expand our horizon with greater emphasis in this region too. The land where Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were born is an inspiring state for the youngsters to indulge in golf. The niche segment within our target segment would be the colleges and universities ranked top in terms of the fee charged from students undertaking various programs. The students studying here too are of a family background of high standards and the fondness for the luxury sport is more in them. While catering to this niche segment within our target market, we plan to expand our horizon and the services provisioned to them.
Competitors & Their Location
PGA of America, being the largest sports organization and having its presence online too with the golf professionals including men and women has more than twenty five thousand members. The experts are dedicated in the sports and offer professional teaching to students. It is located in United States and regularly holds events as part of tournaments to entice the learners and follow the sports well. They have a huge database offering videos and learning techniques of golf online too and the USP of the competitor stands to be the offering of master professionals with the huge number of them available for coaching and the choice of the learners can be well catered to with getting the right instructor for themselves (Aldhaheri, A., and Bach, C.,2013). The website of PGA has the teachings from the pros and the learning videos are neatly sectioned with the emphasis of learning techniques in them explained in a simple manner that makes the process simple and easy for the learners as they undertake the course through them (PGA,2016).
Golf Digest has set up an alliance with Golf Logix and made part of the instructions in coaching golf along with the packaged courses offerings and a huge collection of videos that can be buffered and all this is done through the App. the provisioning also includes the course maps and the GPS yardages occurring for the rounds wherein the players and the learners are able to utilize the information in receiving the video tips too while they play on the fields.
The portal "Fix Your Game" provides online videos and instructions by the pro golfer and director of the project, Brant Kasbohm. The philosophy of instruction as provisioned by him works on the fundamentals in the course and has millions of students enrolled in the courses with the focus done on gripping techniques, alignment, weight balance and shifting along with the positioning and acceleration required in golf. Kasbohm stays in West Indies but the instructions and the techniques routed through the portal consisting of videos and learning material to enhance the needed skills in the sport.
Location of Business & Techniques to Attract Customers
The prime target location for our business would be the millions of people at United States. As there is greater reliance of online medium explored and experimented successfully by various marketers in their relevant fields, we would also attract the customers through the promotion focused through online medium and the various expertise and skills required in the sport through the instructors can be made available to the greater segment through the membership plans (Berthon, P., R., Pitt, L., F., Plangger, K., and Shapiro, D., 2012).
The customers would also be attracted to our golfing techniques provided in the facility for in house golf trainings that would be provided and the USP would be that the consumers need not waste time in reaching the location, whereas our instructors would be going to schools, colleges along with corporate clubs and providing the facility. There would be the online golf trainings wherein with a click of button, the videos playing would aid the learners gather greater learning skills in the sport and the charge too would be pretty nominal, not exceeding $25 per video. If the consumer opts for a particular course on the sport, the series of videos would stand as an offering for the consumers and the training can be imparted in the best possible manner (Bryman, A., & Bell, E.,2015). The tournaments too which we would be holding for the members would act as a service which would entice the customers and the members would be keen on the facility. The outstanding performance would act as a promotional membership catering to the various customers and the keen learners of the sport. The equipment which we would be renting for training would be of superior quality (Solomon, M., R.,2014).
To attract the members, various promotional activities, incentives and discounts would be offered on the membership wherein the free online videos and the in home training would be utilized to have greater popularity amongst the target segment.
Promotion of Service through Online Media
The promotion of our business of the golfing instructors would need an increasing focus on promotions in online market space wherein the social media, web space along with the advertisements come into play along with the employment of analytics which would aid us to penetrate more into the target market. Given the rising importance of consumer activities available the digital space, the requirement for detailed and comprehensive along with dedicated assessment of the sport has the signification linked as a hub for marketing / promotion with the future and ongoing consumer behavior information which would be utilized as promotion for the service offered by us (Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., and Kotler, P.,2014). Based on our analysis, the digital space linked to the social media area which includes the Facebook, Instagram, Snap-chat and Twitter would be explored and made use in the application of promotional strategies linked to golfing.
The instructional videos as well as a source of business marketing would lay emphasis on the various campaigns and enriching the provisioning already existing in the market of golfing. The broadcasting and the lesson techniques uploaded would be shared on the online relevant mediums and the popularity would be achieved with greater viewership in the arena of search engine optimization. Facebook medium which is a widely used social media provisioned aiding in the sharing of status updates along with golf videos, etc. amongst group of friends and colleagues would drive the target segment towards our business and act as a source of getting subscription to our online teaching videos on golfing (Facebook, 2016). The Twitter also provides an interesting platform which offers the user to post the reviews and the various characters to a group of followers which is further related to a status update and this could be in form of the golf techniques and the crucial lessons with the link provided (Twitter, 2016). Twitter would aid in creating an environment that broadly aids in reaching out to the public and the target audience for the business.
References
•Aldhaheri, A., and Bach, C. (2013). "How to Implement Marketing 2.0 Successfully",
International Journal of Business & Social Science, Vol. 4 (10). pp. 36 - 42
•Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., and Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing.
Editions. Pearson
•Berthon, P., R., Pitt, L., F., Plangger, K., and Shapiro, D. (2012). "Marketing meets Web
2.0, social media, and creative consumers - Implications for international marketing strategy".
Business horizons, Vol. 55 (3), pp. 261 - 271.
•Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
•Facebook. (2016). Retrieved from:
https://www.facebook.com
•Golf Digest (2016). 7 Emerging Trends That Will Take Hold In 2015. Retrieved from:
https://www.golfdigest.com/gallery/7-growing-trends-photos#4
•PGA (2016). Golf Instructions & Lessons. Retrieved from:
https://www.pga.com/golf-instruction
•Solomon, M., R. (2014). Consumer behavior- buying, having, & being. Editiosn. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall
•Twitter. (2016). Retrieved from:
https://twitter.com
•U.S Census Bureau (2016).Industry Statistics Portal. Business Data From US Census Bureau. Retrieved from:
https://www.census.gov/econ/isp/sampler.php?naicscode=611620&naicslevel=6
Part 3. Management Team and Operations
2 pages single-spaced, please include subheadings
1. Describe who will be the CEO and his/her qualifications/experiences in the product/service industry, including both education and work and other relevant experiences.
2. Describe briefly how you will distribute your product or service. Ref. pages 348-358
3. Describe how many employees you will need at startup, their particular expertise (e.g. marketing, financial, operations, etc.), and how they will be paid.
4. Describe what types of external advisors you will need and how they will be paid (e.g. lawyer, accountant, etc.)
5. Describe the legal organization of your business (e.g. sole proprietor, LLC, Partnership, C Corporation, S Corporation) and reasons for selecting this legal organization form. Ref. page 600, Table 18.5.
6. Describe unpaid advisors who will assist you during startup and 3 years thereafter.