When thinking about turning your club’s fortunes around it is easy to get sidetracked by barriers; and even easier to think that all barriers are the same.
However, if you look closely at the barriers to starting the process of recovery, there are different varieties; on a basic level some of these barriers are “problems” and some are “constraints”.
Here are a few Problems:
- We don’t have any money to spend on marketing
- Our facilities are a bit tired looking
- The heating doesn’t work very well
- Our bar license doesn’t allow for that type of business
and here are a few Constraints:
- There is a lack of interest in bowling
- Its winter and nobody wants to know about bowling
- We can’t get enough junior members
- Our bowling membership is declining year on year
Have a look over them; you will notice that you normally can’t do much about constraints, but you can usually resolve problems.
So…stop worrying about the constraints; work around them.
Start dealing with the top 3 problems which are holding you back today. Going back to our problems above:
We don’t have any money to spend on marketing
Your target market is known to you: get out and talk to them…its FREE
Our facilities are a bit tired looking
Hold a paint and barbeque afternoon next Sunday for members
The heating doesn’t work very well
Find a local engineer (member) and do a deal…or use the warmer rooms to start with.
Our bar license doesn’t allow for that type of business
Create a new category of membership for your new target markets or re-negotiate the license.
Above all get working on something…decide what the top 3 barriers (problems) are and get working on them.
