Organizing a Golf Scramble Fundraiser
By · CommentsSince I’m in the middle of this process right now, I figured it was a good time for this post.
Aside from the bureaucracy that your event or cause or benefit or organization must go through, here are the steps I use to duplicate Golf Scrambles over and over.
Step #1 You can’t do it all yourself. Find a small team maybe two or three others who can help. It would be best if everyone brought different personalities or skills to the table. For instance in the scramble I assist with every year, we have one person who knows a lot about food/catering and likes to hustle for door prizes and hole sponsors. We have another person who can get a lot of teams together. He has a large Rolodex and a good relationship with a lot of that Rolodex. I act as the organizer, planner, and also do my share of hustling for teams, prizes and sponsors. I also MC the event the day of.
Step #2 Pick the right course and the best date. If you pick a course and pro that is easy to work with, your scramble will go much smoother. Make sure you spot check your date with big events and other large scrambles. You’ll never steer clear of everything, but the last thing you want is to schedule it the same day as another large organization or on a major holiday weekend. If you’re looking at a weekday versus a weekend, just remember that during the week you’ll draw more business teams and serious golfers. On the weekend you’ll capture more of the family and friends crowd.
Step #3 Focus on 3 main things- Teams, Door Prizes, Hole Sponsors. I have a cookie cutter system now after 5 years. I have flyers for prospecting and each year I can just change the info. We use our website to link up the forms and to collect online registrations. We used to just get a paper form turned in. Either way will do. We have forms to track teams, hole sponsors and lots of forms for instructions on the day of the scramble.
With Teams here are my tips.
- Don’t allow individuals to register as this creates a communication and logistics nightmare.
- Sell 4 somes and collect the money up front, this way the team captain becomes responsible for securing his players and not you. This is especially important because players will drop and things will come up. If you don’t get the money up front; rain, a bad hair day, lack of coffee or a good show on TV could cause a team to not show up.
- You can handicap of flight the event or just have each team for themselves (this is what I prefer but not every organization is the same and some will want to make it fair-life’s not fair though)
With Door Prizes here are my tips.
- Make sure everyone gets one.
- We like to give out gift certificates in $10 increments and restaurants are willing to give them, although golf balls, shirts and other like items work well.
- Make sure they are equitable, don’t have one guy get a foursome to a nice club worth $160 and the next guy gets a mesh hat or umbrella. Since this is not based on performance I think it makes sense to make this equitable.
- Offer a nice sign in exchange for a $50 to $100 donation (this depends on the price tag of your scramble- it’s just math so adjust the numbers based on your ticket price)
- Door prizes are the result of walking into restaurants or businesses giving them information, following up and following up some more. It won’t just happen- trust me.
With Hole Sponsors here are some tips.
- Try and engage businesses in your area. For our scramble we prospect in Middletown.
- Don’t try and pit all kinds of businesses against one another. Use that as a selling point. The first widget company we get will be the last widget company we approach.
- Offer signage (don’t skimp), a link on your website for a period of time and the ability to include sales literature in packets for each golfer. Be creative or encourage them to be.
- Patronize your sponsors- we really believe in and live this one out. That’s probably why we get little resistance from our sponsors each year.
As a side note to these tips, I recommend developing relationships with vendors and using them each year. Sure you can always find someone cheaper, but cheaper doesn’t mean better and it doesn’t mean smoother. I don’t shop our vendors unless they give us a reason too.
Step #4 Rehearse the flow of the event in your mind and in your notes. Visualize people showing up and registering. Visualize people playing and having fun and this will help you to remember the small details that sometimes slip through the cracks.
Hit a home run, and have fun with it by all means.
Babyproofing Your Home
By · CommentsIf you have small children, toddlers and below, then this post should be helpful in your attempt to babyproof your home.
Rather than write a lengthy article, I am going to opt for a list format.
- Get a top of the stairs gate. Evenflo seems to make a good one that we have used. By the way I assume no liability for your decision to purchase any of these items. It’s sad that our society has come to that point but that’s my disclaimer.
- Get a plastic type adjustable gate for the bottom of the stairs. Forgot about that part didn’t you. Yes once they start crawling they will try to head up the steps as well as down.
- Get a baby gate with an extension to block off any large cased openings. Again Evenflo is the one we have used.
- Use a dog gate, baby gate or plastic expandable gate to block regular size doorways.
- Buy lots of plug covers. When you take them out to plug something in make sure you put the plug covers in a place away from the children but close enough to remember to replace them. The plug covers themselves can present a whole new choking hazard. If you choose you can buy large boxes which enclose the entire outlet. We use both options in our home.
- Buy door knob covers. This will keep little hands from opening important doors like the door to the garage or basement. They learn to lock and unlock very early in life.
- Quick hide the cords. This means the lamps have to go too if you want to ever relax that is. If not leave them and you can clean up broken light bulbs weekly. Also try to position furniture so it will hide cords.
- Keep every liquid, tool, and hazardous material out of their reach. That goes without saying.
- Remember to switch babies from small cribs to larger ones and then to toddler beds. For toddlers we like to keep the beds closer to the ground in case they do roll out.
- Babies and Toddlers like phones, remote controls, cords, computers and basically everything they are not supposed to like.
- Watch sitting drinks or liquids next to electronic equipment. It’s bad enough to have accidents which involve bumps, bruises and cleaning carpets. When the iphone goes down with the spill, then it starts to cost you money.
- Find a way to block off your deck or patio using a large plastic play yard type gate. This has worked well for us on many occasions.
- I almost forgot about the cabinets. They make little plastic hinges that will restrict your bathroom or kitchen cabinets from opening all the way. These still work for our oldest two children at 4 and 2 1/2.
Again this is not very polished but since we have 3 small children we get these questions a lot and we have found our lives much most relaxing employing these little tricks.
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Below is a quick form that can be submitted instantly. No strings attached and no identification needed. If you’d like to email me you’re always welcome to do that as well.
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Creating and Guarding Your Environment
By · CommentsToo many times in the past I’ve let my environment spiral out of control.
Too many times in the past I’ve failed to create and guard a good environment once it’s established.
I noticed these concepts this week after making a few quick adjustments to our home. We made the home office more of an office and the upstairs extra bedroom a full fledged study.
The office has every thing one needs to conduct business. I can keep records, concentrate on work, print, file and do everything else I need to do in running a business. However, it didn’t help me rise early and devote a few hours to working on me each morning. I like to get up and do a little writing, studying, motivational reading, bible study and prayer each morning. The home office is in the basement with dim lighting and no natural light since there is only one small window. It works great if I’m making a call, working on a customer’s project, doing my accounting or preparing a proposal.
Of course some of these are all things I can do from a coffee shop with wireless. The basement home office didn’t work so well as a study. I never wanted to walk two flights of stairs in the morning. I wake like a bear who’s been in hibernation. I would find myself going to a different room daily or sleeping later than I wished. The problem? I had not created a good environment so I could trick myself into going there long enough to form a habit.
Since we had an extra room (however you could do this in separate corners of a one room-which is what I’d rather have anyway) we turned it into a study. It’s quite simple. There is a desk with nothing in it or on it except a lamp. There are two book shelves. The first holds books that I’ve read or use for reference. The second shelf holds books I’m reading or studying currently. There is good lighting and some natural light from the vaulted window. There are some inspirational pictures and awards on the wall and a simple little white board to record my thoughts early in the morning or late at night. That’s when I have some of the best ideas. Oh yeah and there’s a comfortable office chair.
Now I’m motivated to rise early again. I can walk right down the hall with no distractions. I can kick off the day the way I like.
- Is everything in your environment serving it’s purpose?
- Is everything in your home or office being utilized efficiently?
- If not then get rid of it or put it into practical use.
- Create a good environment- I think it’s easier and more effective than making yourself do something you’re not inclined to do.
Perfect Example of Parkinson’s Law
By · CommentsTim Ferris often writes and talks about Parkinson’s law. Basically it says that a task or project will contract or expand to the amount of time you allocate for it. I believed it was true based on some simple examples in my own life and through reading about others who had more complex examples.
Well the principle is true and let me tell you why. Not that I had any real doubt before, but doing something and saying something are worlds apart.
The example: tax preparation.
My CPA sends a letter that basically says hey your stuff is due March 23rd. Problem-I am leaving for a short mini vacation with the family. A long overdue one. I don’t really have a choice because even if we file an extension the books need updated and the docs organized so an attempt to estimate payments can be made. Bummer- I thought I could sign a form and procrastinate this mammoth project until I came home. In the past few months I had estimated that this project, which I’ll explain below, would take two weeks solid. My wife never totally believed me and turns out she was both right and wrong.
Now let me paint the picture. I started my business in the fall of 2007. I didn’t have much in the way of banking statements or financials in 2007. It was mainly start-up stuff. In 2008, I had a credit card and a business checking account and all the transactions which go with them. I used Quickbooks but not properly. I knew I was balanced through my online banking and register, but I failed to enter all credit card receipts and reconcile them. The same went for bank statements. My CPA told me that it had to be done. Wow-18 months of credit card receipts and bank transactions to reconcile! Then gathering personal tax records (that part was easier as we have a system for organizing them throughout the year), and putting it all together for delivery.
I started at 7PM while watching my favorite basketball team lose in the NIT. Not exactly motivating stuff. I knew that at 9AM we were leaving for Gatlinburg, TN. I had others thing to do as well like packing. This was much easier because we live a simple and organized life, but still it amazed me that it was possible. I starting sorting all the receipts based on credit card or business checking account. I then clipped them together based on the month. All 18 of them. I went back and entered any missing transactions from bank statements, alternating the credit card statements as well. I did this all night and into the morning. I reconciled each statement as I went. I kept 2007 separate from 2008 and from 2009 for filing and tax purposes. To my amazement everything balanced. I backed everything up to a flash drive and looked at the clock-6AM.
I spent the next two hours organizing personal schedule C, D and normal deductions like charitable, medical, etc. I packed and attended to other tasks. I pulled all this together in a package and we delivered it to the CPA firm on the way. A sorry goes out to my in-laws as we did add about an hour to the commute.
So does Parkinson’s Law work? Remember when I said my wife was both right and wrong, well she was. If I had tackled this over a few weeks it would have taken a few weeks or longer. Giving myself no other options but to finish it between 7PM and 9AM, I finished it and I feel like it was a better output as well.
No, I did not drive on the trip and got some good sleep the next few nights. I’ll take that trade-off. No I’m not recommending you batch your accounting annually either- maybe monthly.
Don’t really believe whether a principle works- stop talking about it and try it!
