Happy New Year, readers of Golf Business! It’s my favorite time of year, because I love New Year’s Day and the feeling of optimism that comes with opportunity. And what says “opportunity” like a fresh year in your windshield? I’m not sure how many of you pay attention to social media, but there seems to be a movement afoot to delegitimize the concept of the New Year resolution. The movement followers seem to think that people set themselves up for failure by setting goals, so it must be the goals to blame. Who likes the feeling of falling short of your stated goals? I get it, but man, this ship wasn’t built to stay in the harbor!
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Personally, each year I typically write my goals down and categorize them: physical fitness (a weight goal, tennis or golf achievements I want to hit), mental/emotional health (relationships with friends or family, things that will bring me peace of mind or serenity), professional (what do I want to accomplish at NGCOA), financial (retirement savings, college savings, etc), and service (where do I want to spend my time and money in service of others). I’m not sure how many of you go through a similar exercise, but I encourage you to.
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And to get you started (you’re welcome), I’m going to give you a draft list of New Year’s Resolutions for your business for 2024! Let’s use this to simply jumpstart your goal setting:
- Jump into dynamic pricing, or at least sit through a software demo, or talk to an NGCOA member that has moved this way. Let leaving money on the table be a thing of the past.
- In the summertime, sell ice cream sandwiches from the F&B cart, and mark them up. Delight the customers and make a better margin than a candy bar.
- Read the 2024 Golf Business Pulse Report and each issue of Golf Business magazine. They will validate what you are doing, or give you food for thought for change.
- Attend an NGCOA event. They are so valuable. Thank me afterwards.
- Bring a nagging problem to NGCOA’s Accelerate platform and let the crowd sourcing with other members educate and assist.
- Tell another owner/operator about NGCOA, and let us know that you did. NGCOA’s value to each of you only increases with each new member we gain!
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Let’s get back to the idea of plans, dreams and goals. Do some plans get derailed? Sure. Does everything get done as you hoped? No way. But starting the year, and even your days, with some optimism and goal-orientation, perhaps takes luck out of the equation for accomplishing what you dream for business, relationships, yourself and life in general.
Here’s to a successful 2024 for all of you! See you at the Golf Business Conference and PGA Show in Orlando.
Best wishes,
Jay