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GAME PLAN
THREE KEYS TO
MORE BUDGET
DOLLARS Henry DeLozier is a principal in the Global Golf Advisors
consultancy. DeLozier joined Global Golf Advisors in 2008 after
nine years as the vice president of golf for Pulte Homes. He is a
past president of the National Golf Course Owners Association’s
board of directors and serves on the PGA of America’s Employers
Advisory Council.
T he saying “Speak now or forever hold your peace” is common at most
weddings. But it also applies at this time of year to golf managers with
budget responsibility. It’s budget season at most clubs and courses, and
now is the time to speak up. Because what you say and communicate
during the budget cycle will go a long way in determining how suc-
cessful, even how enjoyable next year will be for you and your team.
Many seem to think that budgeting is purely a financial function, filled
with numbers, numerical assumptions and calculations. However, our firm’s
experience is that budgeting is more about communicating than it is adding and
subtracting. To prove the point, here are three steps in the budget process that
rely on communications.
1. ESTABLISH OBJECTIVES. Begin the budgeting process by having discussions
with your management team to make sure you understand the larger goals of
the course and club. Next, review last year’s objectives to see which ones were
achieved and which need to be reflected in next year’s plan. Now it’s time to
write objectives for the coming year.
State what you want your operating department to achieve in next year. Set
aggressive but realistic goals for yourself and your management team.
Remember, objectives should be specific and time bound so they can be mea-
sured. “Improve course conditions” is neither specific nor time bound. A better
way of stating a goal like this is: “Improve course conditions to achieve a 10
percent increase in ‘excellent’ ratings by club members by the end-of-the season
member satisfaction survey.”
Do not equivocate or hypothesize. State clearly what you will accomplish.
Align the intended achievements to the goals and objectives provided by your
board of directors or ownership. State the outcomes in simple and measurable
terms, such as:
• “The club will generate a positive cash flow of $ x.”
• “We will recruit x net new members.”
• “We will increase rounds played at the course by x%.”
Ensure that your expected outcomes are supported by facts and are tied
directly to prior year performance, the realistic capacity of your facilities and the
potential of the programs and actions your plan proscribes.
Simple is better in all writing, and that’s especially true of budgets. If you
cannot describe your objectives in simple terms, management and the board will
be confused and you won’t get the budget you need. Here are three examples of
simply stated objectives:
28 SEPTEMBER 2015 golfcourseindustry.com
• Increase non-weekend food-and-
beverage revenues by 15 percent by
year-end. • Reduce temporary labor costs by
3 percent in the first and second
quarters. • Recruit new members and reduce
attrition to achieve a net growth of
50 members during the fall mem-
bership campaign.
This is not the place where you
state how your objectives will be
achieved. Those are the tactical details
that come next.
2. SHOW HOW OBJECTIVES WILL BE
ACHIEVED. Link your objectives to well-
defined programs and actions that will
deliver the desired results within the
stated time frame. Taking two objec-
tives from above, below are examples
of how your tactics could be expressed.
• Increase non-weekend food-and-
beverage revenues by 15 percent by
year-end. • Recruit new members and reduce
attrition to achieve a net growth of
50 members during the fall mem-
bership campaign.
Create new marketing campaign
focused on families.
Institute member survey that
identifies dissatisfied members
before they leave the club.
3. IDENTIFY THE RISKS. Risks abound
for private clubs and public facilities,
including local business downturns,
road closures, long periods of bad
weather and agronomic crises. An ef-
fective budget plan identifies the risks
and measures the potential impact —
in dollars, time and missed opportu-
nity — if risks become reality.
Excellent planners also describe
the cautionary steps and preventive
measures to minimize the unfavor-
able effects of business risks. Now is
the time to speak up and make the
case for the budget dollars you need
to do your job effectively. Speak now
or forever hold your peace — at least
until the next budget cycle.