By Naomi Nesenoff, PGA
I started my own business this year – She’s My Golf Pro. How I started my business is a lot like taking golf lessons with me. Sounds weird I know, but hear me out. If you’re thinking about starting a business, have one already or are just curious where I’m going with this, keep reading. I’m going to lay out parts of a golf lesson and compare them to starting a business, looking at some of the unique aspects of entrepreneurship from the eyes of a PGA golf instructor.
Nerves. Who isn’t nervous about starting golf lessons? When you start a business, you’re also nervous, no matter what industry you’re in. We often associate nervousness with fear and excitement with joy, but those two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Just as in a golf lesson, there is nervousness about a new experience and new instructor, but an overall excitement to learn and improve. It helped me through my nerves this year to constantly remind myself of my excitement about what I was doing. Trust me, it helps so much!
Introductions. Who wants to have fun at their job? In most industries, it’s all about the people who make the environment. In golf, finding a golf professional for lessons is a good first step. But finding the right golf professional who works best with you is even more important. Having the right people alongside you is imperative when starting a business and was a high priority for me in 2023. Working and collaborating with those who are genuine, give helpful advice, are excited about what I’m providing and are happy when I succeed, makes for a much more enjoyable job and life.
Expectations and Goals. Let’s say my golf student wants to hit the ball 100 yards farther in one lesson. Not realistic, right? Expectations and goal setting are not things to discuss only during that first golf lesson or at the start of a business. I’ve found it’s important to check in on both quite often. My business strategy was to set easy short-term realistic goals for the first few months of this year. Then with the additional time and effort I put in, I could build up the expectations of myself as my business grew. Just like my golf students growing their skills and goals, I could work hard to have the opportunity to set loftier goals.
Keep it Simple and Focused. How many parts of your golf game do you want to improve? I bet there are more than a few areas that come to mind right now. When starting my new business, I had a lot of ideas for what I wanted to do, not dissimilar to what a golf professional feels at the beginning of a golf lesson as he or she looks at their student’s swing. My mentor, PGA Master Professional Tom Willson, taught me to set a clear path and lesson plan after viewing just a few golf swings, rather than spurting out everything we see. Fortunately, I received some great early advice for my business from Tom and fellow PGA Professionals Pat Fannon, Keith Gagnon and Drew Chapman. They helped me narrow down what I wanted to focus on with my women’s golf clinic series during my first year, keeping it simple and clear.
Planning and Structure. Am I saying that golf lesson plans can be set up after only seeing a few swings? Yup! Golf professionals don’t typically come up with lesson plans out of thin air. With over two decades of learning and teaching, I understand the value of well-crafted lesson plans. The process is similar to structuring a successful business – it’s a strategic endeavor rooted in insight and meticulous preparation. Having extensive knowledge in your chosen industry or being part of a team that does can be a huge benefit. Gaining access to that knowledge helps create a business plan that can continue to grow.
Requests and Being Adaptable. Is it okay to ask questions of golf professionals during lessons? 100%! We welcome it! Even if we are focusing on a path, it’s okay to ask questions about another topic. We can determine which areas would be most beneficial to discuss at that time and which topics should be addressed down the road. It’s okay to shift focus when you see another area that may need attention while still keeping focus on the overall goal. I had several requests this year that were extremely beneficial to my business. They were for golf clinics specifically for businesswomen. While I continued to run my women’s golf clinic series, I also started customizing one-day women’s business clinic events for companies. I would not have started those events without being open to feedback. That is now the largest growing area of my business and I’m implementing that programming into my business plan going forward.
Recap. Always make sure you end your golf lessons on a good swing! At the end of golf lessons, I save five minutes to review with my students. We go over the “why and how” our changes made a difference and review what to practice to continue to implement those changes. It’s also a good time to remind them of their progress and continual journey. My golf students are often focused more on the small parts, so I enjoy showing them how much they’ve improved through videos and statistics. As I near the end of my first golf season with She’s My Golf Pro, this is the time to recap my business. I could focus on all of the little things, but now I’ve got to follow my own advice and do my best to see the overall picture and progress, and then start the process over again for year two!
After over two decades in the golf industry, Naomi Nesenoff is still driven to do more every year with women’s player development programming. In 2023, she started her own business She’s My Golf Pro to help empower women through golf. Naomi travels to golf facilities, bringing her programming right to the golfers. From golf clinic series that welcome women into the game and help them feel comfortable at their golf courses to running women’s business golf clinics that prepare them to participate in their company outings and business events, each part of Naomi’s business focuses on critical areas that make a large impact on women in golf.
