My father is in the golf course industry. He’s a superintendent and his course recently underwent a change in ownership.
I don’t have to tell you that the golf course industry, or entertainment industry at large, is an industry prone to suffer during an economic recession.
Some guys bought the course, threw every dime they had into purchasing it and now have no additional capital. They can’t cut prices to lure in golfers, they can’t pay for a promotion and can barely pay to fix critical equipment when needed.
Some say, why buy a golf course during a recession? I would answer, if managed and marketed correctly, why not? What if Disney, founded during the 1923 recession had said “nah, forget about it”? What if HP, which began during The Great Depression had balked? What if Bill Gates nixed the idea for Microsoft during the recession of 1975?
What did these three entities have in common? They had a plan. Entrepreneurship is reserved for those that can see surviving not only through times of economic uncertainty, but also beyond. Like the old saying, failing to plan, is planning to fail.
Just gathering the capital you need to invest in a business and throwing every penny into becoming a partner is a key example of poor planning. You leave yourself with no room to invest in infrastructure, invest and continue maintenance and more so, no capital to market the business.
Marketing, especially during times of economic uncertainty, is the key most often overlooked by businesses today. The idea that you have to spend some money to make some seems novel to some, yet still folks are buying or investing in businesses and once they become part “owner” they believe their work is done. It isn’t until there’s no additional capital to execute promotions or invest in new enhancements to service until they realize the real work starts.
They find themselves in the middle of a high stakes game of Texas Hold’em wondering how the heck they’re going to explain to their spouse they lost the shirt on their back.
It’s never a wise choice to buy or invest in a business without a plan, it’s actually incomprehensible. There’s nothing wrong with risk, but it must first be calculated and planned for.
About the Author
Brooks A. Brown is the founder and principal of Shout Out LLC, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based marketing, public relations, and communications firm serving clients throughout the nation.
