So you are an experienced clubfitter. You attended all of the training. You have cut and glued more sticks than you can remember. You can judge the weight of a shaft by feel. YOU ARE READY TO ENTER THE MARKETPLACE! What is the first step? Before you jump into the deep end of the entrepreneur pool, you need a comprehensive business plan. A business plan is a written narrative of your business proposal with several financial worksheets. The narrative is the heart of the business plan, describing who, what, when, how and often neglected why aspect of the business entity. The financial worksheets are the numbers or the life blood which supports your entrepreneurial endeavor. The value of creating a written plan is the process of researching and thinking through your business proposal. This takes time, time invested on the front end and avoiding costly mistakes later. Sometimes, the result is to NOT pursue this business idea.

Below is an outline of financial and market areas to address in your plan. This outline is not absolute or all inclusive. Each plan is personal in nature based on desired outcomes, market, and economic conditions. A quality comprehensive plan takes several weeks with the majority of the effort invested on critical thinking and researching all aspects of the proposed business venture.

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a one page summary of your business proposal. Explain the purpose of your business. Describe your products and services; who the target market is; what is the future of custom clubfitting and the golf industry.

General Company Description

What is the purpose of the business?

Mission Statement: Reason for existing in the market place and guiding principles;

Company Goals and Objectives: Where do you want to take your business, what are the benchmarks for success?

Business Values and philosophy: What is personally important?

What is your target market? Describe golf industry. Is it a growth industry? What changes do you foresee in the industry, short term and long term? How will your company be poised to take advantage of them?

Describe the company strengths and core competencies. What factors will make the company succeed? What do you think your major competitive strengths will be? What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?

Legal form of ownership: Sole proprietor, Partnership, Corporation, Limited liability corporation (LLC)? Why have you selected this form?

Products and Services

Describe products and services that you plan to offer. Describe competitive advantages and disadvantages? Include level of quality or unique skill or proprietary features. What are the pricing structures of the products and services? Wal-Mart pricing or Macy’s?

Marketing Plan

Market research

No matter how good your product and your service, your business cannot succeed without effective marketing. And this begins with careful, systematic research. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time will be well spent. You may find out that there is not a market for goods and services you want to sell. In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all-important sales projection.

Product

In the Products and Services section, you described your products and services as you see them. Now describe them from your customers’ point of view.

Features and Benefits

List all of your major products or services.

For each product or service:

• Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
• Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?

What after-sale services will you offer? Free loft adjustments, free repairs, refund policy?

Customers

Identify the demographics of your targeted customers. You may have more than one target group. Identify the most important groups.

• Men
• Women
• Juniors
• Seniors
• Income level

Competition

What products and companies will compete with you?

List major competitors in your market: (Names and addresses)

• Golfsmith
• Golf Galaxy
• Dicks Sporting Goods
• Big 5
• Play it Again Sports
• Golf Courses (private and public)
• Other Club fitters

Will the competition challenge your business on every aspect or just certain products and services? How do your products and services compare with the competition from your point of view? From a customers point of view? Get opinions from those you respect, but be prepared for the cold hard truth.

Niche

Now that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your company fits into the world. In a short paragraph, how does your business differ from everyone else?

Strategy

Now outline a marketing strategy that is consistent with your niche. How will you find customers? How will your customers find you? How much do you plan to spend on advertising when you first open? How much do you plan to spend on sustainment advertising?

Pricing

Explain your method or methods of setting prices. For most small businesses, having the lowest price is not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service.

Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?

How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers really make their purchase decisions mostly on price?

What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Proposed Location

Probably you do not have a precise location picked out yet. This is the time to think about what you want and need in a location.

Sales Forecast

Now that you have described your products, services, customers, markets, and marketing plans in detail, it’s time to include sales projections. Use a sales forecast worksheet to prepare a month-by-month projection. The forecast should be based on your historical sales, the marketing strategies that you described; your market research; and industry data.

Prepare two forecasts: 1) a "best guess", which is what you really expect, and 2) a "worst case" low estimate that know you can reach regardless of what happens in the market

Operational Plan

This may appear to be pointless, but explain the daily operation of the business, its location, equipment, people, processes, and surrounding environment. Will you operate from your garage, leased property, partnership with local country club? How much inventory will you carry?

Management and Organization

Who will manage your shop on a daily basis? You or someone else? Who will manage the shop if you are sick or on vacation?

While you may be a great clubfitter, you will need help with taxes, insurance, financial issues, etc. Who do you go to for professional and advisory support? Who is your mentor?

Startup Expenses

You will have many expenses before you even begin operations. It’s important to estimate these expenses accurately and then to plan where you will get sufficient capital. Often, entrepreneurs under estimate startup expenses, take the time on the front end to ensure adequate cash is available to operate.

Financial Plan

The financial plan consists of a 12-month profit projection, a five-year profit projection, a cash-flow estimate, and a break-even calculation. Together they constitute a reasonable estimate of your company's financial future. More important, the process of thinking through the financial plan will improve your insight risks of your proposed idea. This financial plan should include customer count, number of clubs regripped, number of iron sets assembled, number of fitting sessions, and any other product and service you plan to offer. This plan should consider seasonal peaks and valleys. If projected sales are not sufficient to cover all costs, then perhaps your golf shop idea should not be pursued.

Refining the Plan

A business plan is a living document and should be revisited as necessary to measure whether the business is obtaining the desired outcomes. Are there products and services that need to be added or deleted? Has the market shifted? How has the economy affected sales? Customer perception?