Fast growing franchise business provides unique entry into youth sports, education, and golf
El Segundo, CA – One of the country’s fastest growing recreational programs for kids and the largest national after-school enrichment program in the country, has become a golden franchise opportunity for self starters who enjoy working with children in a business venture that provides an entry into youth sports, education, and the golf industry.
TGA – Premier Junior Golf has developed a unique niche and successful business in the golf and education industries that teaches the game of golf to children in kindergarten through eighth grade directly at the schools through after-school enrichment programs that transition students to golf course programs.
“We have always believed that the best way to grow the game of golf was to bring it directly to the schools and provide an affordable and accessible program for kids and for the future of golf, said Steve Tanner, chief operating officer of TGA. “TGA has done exactly that and developed a successful franchise business model that is growing quickly nationwide.”
The variety of people buying TGA – Premier Junior Golf franchises around the country range from a former golf coach and software salesman, to a retired newspaper executive, and PGA and LPGA golf professionals.
Since its inception in six Los Angeles schools in the fall of 2003, TGA – Premier Junior Golf, with 45 franchises, has spread to 2,200 schools reaching 90,000 students in 21 states while providing people both in and out of the golf industry the ability to own their own business.
“The nice thing about our business is we have a turnkey solution for people to implement and grow the program and their business easily using materials we provide,” said Tanner. “Our operations manual is over 500 pages, we have extensive training programs for new franchise owners so we get them up to speed quickly on every nuance of the business to enable them to generate revenue and impact their community in a very short amount of time.”
Tanner sees a TGA franchise as an ideal and inexpensive home-based vehicle for those admiring the golf industry and who want to be a part of it, for anyone in the industry wanting to have a positive impact on kids and their community, and for someone who wants to own their own business and is willing to work at building it up.
“There really isn’t anything like a TGA business in the golf industry that concentrates solely on grass roots efforts to grow the game while building your own successful business,” Tanner says.
Each new TGA franchise is supplied with an initial equipment package, their own website, the business manual and on-site training to help set up relationships with schools. The average TGA franchise costs between $14,000 and $19,000 with some as low as $6,000 and others up to $35,000, depending on the affluence of the area. TGA awarded 11 new franchises in 2009.
A major selling point of the TGA program is that it eliminates golf’s traditional barriers for getting kids and parents involved in the game – accessibility and cost. Each TGA franchise owner brings the game, equipment, and instructors to schools and parents can sign up their children at a cost of $13 to $20 for a one-hour class. The same type of instruction at a golf club or teaching facility for a one-hour session would cost in the range of $50 to $100.
TGA teaches the fundamentals of the game, its rules, etiquette, and life values while promoting educational concepts of history, math, science, and English that relate to the game. The program’s curriculum was created by PGA and LPGA golf professionals, as well as PhDs in child and curriculum development.
Champ Detamore, an 18-year PGA professional is the very enthusiastic operator of TGA’s Charlotte franchise, “It’s been unbelievable,” he said of his three-years in the program. “As a PGA pro you might first work the range, then you move up to working in a pro shop, then you get your dream job running a club and work long hours seven days a week and never see your family.”
He said the TGA program has given him a real opportunity to own his own business and grow the game of golf as he works to instill a love of golf to the 2,500-2,600 youngsters he has in his after school classes. This summer he hopes to have 300-400 kids attend his camps.
“While I love being a PGA professional, I would never go back to being a traditional PGA professional at a course,” Detamore said. He said he firmly believes the TGA program is a successful business opportunity for PGA Professionals and entrepreneurs, and is the best of all competing programs aimed at reaching kids to grow the game.
In the Metro Detroit area, Dave Robinson, a former newspaper executive who enjoys working with children and is also an avid golfer, is entering his second full season as owner of two suburban franchises.
Instead of spending most of his days in high-pressure executive meetings Robinson said he is enjoying the kids, working with school authorities, building the business, and still finding time to get on the golf course.
“This spring we had 60 school classes, 33 in one of my franchises and 27 in the other,” Robinson said. “Most of the schools we approached have been very enthusiastic about the program.”
Robinson said he has spent the past year building the infrastructure for the program and now has a strong summer camp component in place with eight camp sessions scheduled for each franchise.
“We make it easy for parents. Schools out at 3 p.m. and we schedule classes right after so they pick their kids up just an hour later than normal,” he said.
Tanner points out that the hours from 3-6 after school are deemed the at-risk hours for kids, a time when they can get into trouble, which is yet another positive reason that parents and schools support the TGA franchise programs.
“We keep kids occupied during at-risk times, and keep them off the couch or playing video games”, he said. “We’re starting to see P.E. programs spout from the after school enrichment program as well, and it’s really interesting that schools are asking for in school time from us as well as additional after school programming.”
Sherman Leland, a former high school golf coach, software salesman, and frozen novelties franchise owner, is also a three-year double franchisee in the affluent Marin and Sonoma Counties, north of San Francisco. He acquired his first franchise in the spring of 2006 and his second two years later.
“The business model works. It is a solid business model based on the number of kids you get into your program. Using the TGA methods makes it a lot easier,” he said.
Matt Berman, a PGA Professional and former franchise holder for three years in Maryland personifies the success Leland envisions. After building his franchise, Berman sold it for five times what he paid three years earlier.
Tanner said TGA anticipates opening several new franchises around the country this summer in preparation for Fall school programs. New owners find that franchising opens doors to their success quicker.
“It means you are part of an organization where the sky is the limit, he said. “If you talk to franchise owners who were with us three or four years ago, they will tell you how in that time the TGA organization has grown in such a way, not just in terms of territories and kids and schools, but in making relationships in the golf and education industries.”
For more information about TGA – Premier Junior Golf or acquiring a TGA franchise, visit www.golftga.com or call (310) 333-0622.
Contact:
Joshua Jacobs
CEO
(310) 333-0622
joshua@golftga.com
Kevin Frisch
(989) 614-0241
kevin@fusionmediastrategies.com
