How does your club make money?

[GMAC88]

It has recently come to light that our club isn't making an awful lot of money from the refreshments provided as the services are provided by a couple who rent the facilities, so, in the current financial climate, are there any clubs out there who are being creative to bring funds into the club?

We have a survey issued at present and are being asked to make suggestions about how they could improve the club and I was wondering if anyone had decent suggestions?

 

[duncan mackie]

a lot of clubs are latching onto the fact that the provision of catering costs more that the catering brings in at certain times of the day.....it's not news, but within the wider remit it's resulting in a lot of coffee machines replacing early staff!

for once those course that have regular society users are 'better off' as DIY doesn't really work for them.

it's a bit catch 22 in that there are some members for whom the availability of a decent cup of coffee (and even a bacon sarnie) is important to their overall membership decision - and there are other's for whom the additional £50 per annum on subs to retain such facilities is equally important the other way (and they never have bacon sarnies at the club....)

on the wider question, any club that looses sight of it being a golf club first and foremost is on dangerous ground - if people aren't prepared to pay (enough) to play the course you are probably in the wrong business.

 

[ADB]

Clubhouse catering has small margins primarily due to the fluctuations of business and the hours required to staff the facilities. I would question what your Club wish to make from the catering services over and above the rent paid by the couple - in todays climate, I would be thankful for the rent!

What I would guard against is a knee-jerk rise in prices as this could reduce uptake and have the opposite effect on sales figures. I would recommend them looking into 'events' where everything can be priced out and (as long as the sums are correct) a profit can be made. For example, renting the clubhouse for parties or gatherings (such as annual meetings or even wakes). The Club could negotiate a % on the total income for the event (for providing marketing/the room) and even a cut on bar takings.

Without knowing your Club I am not sure if this is feasible, but I would concentrate on using the members to keep things ticking over and make added revenue from events.

 

[mikee247]

Golf breaks and visitors with reduced green fees. Good hotel now in place and decent food. I miss having the place to myself and having it being in fantastic order in the summer but with low member numbers its essential to keeping subs down.

 

[fundy]

Ours first and foremost is just a decent value golf club. Pretty full membership, reasonable green fees and plenty of green offers (too many from a members perspective lol). In the clubhouse you can get get good food at very reasonable prices and theres a fully stocked bar. Early mornings its a pound in the machine for a hot drink.

Where they are good at our place is it never seem overstaffed (and the same staff tend to work both the shop and the bar, we have teaching pros attached), they let out the function room upstairs for meetings, training courses during the week if they can and for parties/weddings etc in the evenings/weekends.

All in all it comes across as well run by friendly people who care, and that counts for a lot for me, if anything we're more in danger of becoming too busy than the opposite (partly due to a couple of local clubs going under and potenitally HS2 going through APGC in the foreseeable future)

 

[Scouser]

A club website offered a raffle ticket for a years membership.....eg membership £800 when they sold 100 tickets at £10 each the draw would take place. Easy way to make £200 and a possible future member if it went to a visitor!

 

[GMAC88]

I wasn't meaning how can they make money from the catering, it can't be done! The hiring couple take all profits!

I've forwarded the idea of a club lottery, and if its run properly has the potential to make a fair whack for the club, I played with a local amateur football team who's club finances were the lottery and it covered all expenses!

 

[GB72]

We have had a few good little fund raising ideas. One I liked was a raffle for a named parking space in front of the clubhouse for a year. Raised good money for no outlay at all.

One thing that i have noticed at this club is a larger number of 'open' competitions. Mainly seem to be better ball events but they bring in money so do not mind the disruption.

I know that the OP has mentioned that catering is out but at my club they do miss out on the early morning breakfast money as there is only a coffee maching until about 10.00. I for one would be up there for breakfast at least once at weekends. My old club went too far the other way. They had staff in the clubhouse and a very good halfway house that most people used so one was taking business from the other. My current club has a halfway hut but it is only used on big days. They miss out there as few go to the clubhouse after 9 holes. if they even just sold coffee and hot drinks then there would be money to be made.

 

[Jay Gee]

One local club was offering 150 range balls if you spent £10 on food/drink after 5pm Sunday to Thursday. I took advantage and ate there a couple of times where I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

 

[bozza]

Apparently our club is losing money and has to be subsidize by the council to the tune of around £80,000 a year, hence the reason it is being sold and being taken over by a members club across the road that is struggling with money but have a course on prime building location.

There is no way our course itself can be loosing money as it's always pretty busy, they are down to the bare minimum for greenkeepers. It's the clubhouse that loses money due to council running it and having no clue.

It's busy for sunday dinners but quiet during the week so to tempt people into the clubhouse during the week they put offers on, one of them was a free childs meal with a adult meal but this was only during the week and was only valid to 2pm! Complete waste of time as kids are at school till after 3pm unless it's the holidays.

Also during the winter months the driving range closed at 5pm!

It's safe to say the council here are pretty clueless.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Not seen the books recently but I know we were down on revenue and being closed regularly over the last few weeks because of the weather won't help. We have a membership open day on the 21st (if anyone is interested PM me) and to be honest I'd rather get regular members in paying their subs than worrying about small profit margins on guys ordering tea and toast once a week.

We have some staple nights like bingo, quiz nights etc and are beginning to offer the venue for weddings and parties which could be a good revenue stream. Our new GM has only been in place about 6 weeks and so far I am impressed with his drive and ideas and hope he can continue to move the club forward