By David Gould, Staff Editor
Using the high-value data generated by our recent survey of multi-teacher businesses, we’re presenting highlights and nuggets that best explain what’s happening in this generally under-researched segment of the instruction market.
A four-part series that goes segment-by-segment through the survey data begins here with a look at the structure of these businesses and some high-end revenue results.
NOTE: The entire package of survey questions and response tabulations can be downloaded by any member as desired—head over to the Proponent website, Click the Running Your Business tile and scroll to the Surveys header. You’ll find our 11-page summary right there.
We’ll start with some survey demographics, for context: The person completing this questionnaire was, predominantly, a self-identified “owner who also teaches”—81 percent of survey-takers checked that box. As for the scale of the operations described, a three-coach (32 percent) or a four-coach (36 percent) team was the most common configuration. (A few supersized academies also submitted data, which is why 14 percent of respondents put their coach count at an impressive seven instructors or more.)
A private golf or country club is the business location for 18 percent of our survey participants, a public golf course is home to 41 percent of them and an “indoor facility/storefront” is where you’ll find 27 percent.
We asked survey-takers to state the “total revenue generated by their multi-coach instruction business in 2023” and had them “include non-instruction revenues such as memberships.” The overall average of responses was $855,750 and the median response— the middle number among all responses—was $700,000. In that stack of responses, the low number was $100,000 and the number way at the top was $3,000,000.
Subdividing the data, we found the average revenue number for two-to-three-coach businesses to be $523,750; for four-or-more-coach businesses it was $1,077,083; for “indoor multi-coach” businesses it was $1,518,750; and for on-course multi-coach operations that number was $690,000.
We also asked which revenue streams each operation tapped into. Here is that list, with percentages:
- Private lessons 100%
- Junior long-term coaching (students pay monthly/longer time period fee) 86%
- Junior summer camps 77%
- Adult long-term coaching (students pay monthly/longer time period fee) 77%
- Group lessons and clinics (not including summer camps) 73%
- Clubfittings and / or club sales 50%
- Retainers and / or other payments from Tour Professionals 41%
- Corporate outings 36%
- Golf schools 32%
- Online instruction 27%
- Income from organizing / taking trips with students 18%
Our analysis was intrigued that only half of our biggest operators offer clubfittings and/or club sales, only about one-third offered golf schools and only about one quarter offer online instruction.
Next we asked about hourly lesson rates and how they varied within the team of teachers, distinguishing between what adult students paid and what juniors paid. Average rate for the top-priced instructor came in at $256 (adults) and $209 (juniors). Average rate for the lowest-priced instructor came in at $138 (adults) and $121 (juniors).
We then asked “What is the highest percentage of gross private-lesson revenue retained by any of your staff instructors?” The answers we got to that question averaged out to 71 percent. Along with that, we asked what was the lowest percentage of gross private-lesson revenue retained by any of staff instructors, and received answers that averaged 64 percent.
Finally we asked, “What was the highest total cash compensation among your staff instructors last year (not including the owner(s) of the academy if he/she teaches)?” That cash number was $96,475. We likewise asked what was the lowest total cash compensation among staff instructors, and that number came in at an entry-level-sounding number of $39,133.
