Heathrow, FL (July 30, 2013) – Proponent Group, golf’s premier membership-based service company for top-echelon instructors and coaches, has completed its annual mid-year business survey of members. Comparing 2013 first-half revenues with the same period last year, 54 percent of Proponent Group respondents said their business was up.
Forecasting second-half business performance, these teaching professionals sounded a positive note. Approximately 58 percent said they expect higher year-over-year revenues in the July through December period, while 38 percent forecast revenues that would be equal with the same period last year.
This measure of lessons-and-clinics activity in the first half of 2013 seems to partially echo the industry’s rounds-played data. Held against the record warmth of early 2012, rounds as tallied by the National Golf Foundation were down in 2013 by 11.9 percent. The best indicator of 2013’s inferior first-half conditions for instruction comes from last year’s Proponent Group survey, in which a full 79 percent of participants reported increased revenues over January-June 2011. That 79 percent number was the highest figure achieved in the five years the company has conducted this survey.
To go with these numbers, Proponent Group President Lorin Anderson has extensive anecdotal data from daily conversations with members. Weather, in his view, is mitigated by several factors on the golf instruction side of the industry. “Many of golf’s top instructors are based in California, Arizona and Florida and those three states have had much of the good weather so far this year,” Anderson explains. “This is likely why so many of our members have seen revenue increases in 2013. Another factor behind this upbeat performance is that more than 40 percent of our membership teaches out of an indoor facility.” Appointments that cancel if open-air instruction is the only option almost always are kept if covered, heated hitting spaces can be used.
Most of the revenue growth cited in the study came from increases in the Adult Private category, with 60 percent of instructors saying they have had an increase in this category. Anderson finds positive indicators in one of the group-instruction stats from the survey. “We may be seeing the beginning of a comeback for multi-day golf schools,” he suggests. “A very healthy 17 percent of our instructors said they have seen an increase this year in this format. That’s after years of virtually no growth in this type of instruction.”
Also good news for instructors this year is that 48% were able to raise their rates in 2013 versus 39 percent in 2012. Proponent Group members, asked how they felt about their current job situation, expressed a mix of satisfaction and desire for some type of upgrade. Nearly three-fourths (72 percent) say they either “love where they are at” or are “very happy” at this time. That figure is down slightly from last year’s results.
The survey also found a steady increase in teachers with access to indoor teaching facilities continues with 41 percent having this flexibility, up from 35 percent two years ago.
For complete survey data contact Anderson at 407/878-1235 or via the web site, www.proponent-group.com.
About Proponent Group
Proponent Group, based in Heathrow, Florida, was launched in 2007 to offer serious, dedicated golf instructors a unique set of business-oriented benefits to help grow their teaching skills and their businesses. These include an annual conference, seminars, webinars, in-depth newsletters, downloadable business templates and one-on-one consulting. For more information about the services Proponent Group provides to its nearly 400 Directors of Instruction, academy owners and other accomplished teacher members world-wide or to apply for membership, call (407) 878-1235 or access the web site at www.proponent-group.com.
Contact:
Karen Moraghan
Hunter Public Relations
908/876-5100
kmoraghan@hunter-pr.com
