Ever wondered about how the business of sports is different for golfers?  Unlike other sports, they are self employed.

I was attending the RBC Canadian Open in the pouring rain.  Quite a few of the professional golfers competing here bolted after the first and second day.  They just left because of the delays and their early poor scores.  Eleven, in fact, left after the first round.

In what other sport will players simply leave in mid game?  But these golfers are compensated based on performance.  If they don’t make the half way cut, they get nothing.

True some get appearance fees and Pro-Am money, but that’s not from the competition.  So eleven guys would rather leave than pay for hotel bills and travel costs.  That’s different.

The PGA Tour is owned by the players.  That means workers control production.  The MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA are owned by owners of teams.  In those sports, players are employees.  They get paid whether they are successful or not on any given week.  Their expenses are paid when they travel, uniforms and equipment also paid for by the teams.

To cover costs, golfers will sell their hats, shirts, bags, clubs and even their balls for money.  That’s right the workers source revenue for the enterprise.

It gives them a steady cash flow as long as they are prominent enough to get some visibility.  They also sell their likenesses and appearances much like other sports figures do, but golfers can actually play their sport with customers – for a fee.  Presidents famously play golf with Tiger Woods, but I would hate to see one play hockey with Sidney Crosby.

So which sports business model works best?  Hard to say if there is any way to compare.  But one thing is absolutely true, there are no feather-bedders in golf.  Every dollar earned is from performance.

In other sports, players can make big bucks riding benches based on previous year’s performances.  There are many stories of inequality in compensation.  Toronto Blue Jays recently released their former closer who lost his zip.  He was making $12,000,000 this year and had 2 saves.  He made the same last year and got 38.  Hard to equate compensation with results.  Baseball, like other sports, allows players to live on their rep.

Doesn’t happen in golf.

So while the golfers may be communists — that is employees owning their source of income — they are also the ultimate capitalists.  Paid for performance.

Revenue sharing has always been a bone of contention in other sports.  Who should get more?  The team owners?  The cities?  The players?  The league?  Certainly not the fans.

The only consistency is that the taxpayers in the host cities bite the biscuit.  The remaining groups squabble over the millions and millions on the table each claiming a “poor and hard done by” status.

Now what about golfers?

They have to pay their own expenses and entry fees.  They pay for membership on their Tours.  On some of the minor league tours those entry fees and membership fees are sometimes what the prize money is created from.  The golfers are independent contractors, affiliated with Tours.

Consider the economics of someone who is not well established on the PGA, European or LPGA Tours.  Just to show up and compete might cost $70 to $80K per year.  If you are not among the gifted, you have to struggle — some driving from tournament to tournament, often sleeping in your car or sharing a room with a buddy, just to get the experience needed.

Today, in the pouring rain, no one is getting paid diddly.

The leaderboard includes some players who are still trying to break even.  Canadian Chris Baryla has made the cut and will get a payday likely better than any other he will have this year.  He is working on the Nationwide Tour where so far he has earned about $60K in five events as he plays himself onto that Tour after losing his card due to lack of performance in the past.

This weekend the winner at the Open takes home $900K US.  In his current spot he would take home $36K+. But today that means no play, no pay.

And getting on the PGA Tour doesn’t result from being  “drafted.”  It means fighting your way through all kinds of Qualifying tournaments, Q-schools as they are called.  Rare is the player who can go directly to a Tour and start playing.  You’ve got to earn your card.

Isn’t that capitalism at its core?

Capitalism gets tainted by unions that demand too much and won’t accept cuts when the going gets tough.

Consider the Toronto Trash Union who are currently on strike.  They get 18 sick days a year and can bank them for use as paid days off, maybe playing golf on the City tab.  They refuse to reduce these from when they were granted them by more charitable City governments in better times.

They are cousins of the non-performing baseball player, assuming entitlement for past year’s adequate performance.  Same is true of the auto workers who seemed more bent on letting their employer go broke than reducing their rates when the company’s performance took them to the brink.  Why are they entitled to any pay security?

Take a lesson from the golfers.  You should earn it every day.  When your company is floundering, it is like being demoted to the Canadian Tour to play for $150,000 in total money instead of the $5 million at the Canadian Open.

Post Script:  Our example, Chris Baryla came raging in with a final round 66 and finished with a share of eighth place to win $123,037 – double his winnings so far this year.  Nice payday.  Better than that he gets an automatic invite into next week’s PGA event, the $5 million Buick Open.

Operating System: Windows

Sometimes our clients asks us computer related questions. I will try to answer some of those questions here. One question is, ‘how can I take a screenshot of my website?’. Here’s a simple tip on how to take screenshots on any Windows computer, even if you don’t have Photoshop.

1. If you want to capture the entire screen, press the “Print Screen” button on the upper right corner of your keyboard. Mine says, “PrtSc”. If you want to capture only a specific window, click on the window to select it. Then press Alt+Print Screen. The Alt button can be found on either side of the space bar.
2. Open the Paint program. By default, it should be located in Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories.
3. In Paint, go to the Edit menu and select Paste.
4. If you are happy with your screenshot, go to step 9. If you want to crop your screenshot, select the crop tool and select the area you want to crop.
5. Go to the Edit menu and select Copy.
6. Go to the File menu and select New. It will ask if you want to save your changes. Select No.
7. Go to the Edit menu and select Paste.
8. If your selection is smaller than the page, you can resize the page by pointing your mouse on the bottom right corner of the canvas area and drag it to the size you want.
9. Select the File menu and select Save. Change the “Save As Type” drop down to JPEG.

How to Capture a Screenshot from Windows Media Player

To capture a screenshot from Windows Media Player, just follow the instructions above. The only thing to note is that you need to change the Video Acceleration setting.

To change the Video Acceleration setting, right-click on the top bar in Windows Media Player. That will bring up the popup menu shown below.

Select Tools > Options. Then, select the Performances tab. Slide the Video Acceleration setting to half way, if it isn’t there already. Decreasing the Video Acceleration will decrease the quality of your video playback. It may also cause occassional freezing during playback, so it is recommended that you change the setting back to Full once you are done making your screenshots.

PART I: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make

We have been creating advertising for retailers for years. But we have always wondered why so many retailers insist on repeating someone else’s job.

Imagine, people who are notoriously careful with their funds – car dealers who haggle with their manufacturers in a tooth and nail duel, then turn around and think the only thing they have to say about their dealership in their advertising is information about that same manufacturer’s vehicles.

We have seen dealers insist time after time: “Let’s tell everyone about the new adjustable frammis on the brand new 2010 model.”

We say – NO! That’s redundant! If you run redundant advertising, your dealership may become redundant.

Like many industries, car advertising is neatly structured.

The manufacturer spends their time speaking about product. Food service is the same.

Let the national advertising component sing the praises of the product. That’s their job. Let them promote the brand and all it stands for. After all, they own it.

Then let the dealer associations or franchisee co-ops talk about the shorter term group promotions: The BOGOs. The 0% financing. The employee pricing. These things benefit a group of the retailers. No need for individual retailers to repeat these things since they all have the same offer.  Reassure, yes.  But feature, no.

Retailers should be advertising what makes their specific operation superb. Why service and deals at their dealership are the best. What their location can do for their customers.

For car dealers, we recommend creating a personality for their dealership. This is no easy proposition. You need the kind of personality that appeals to their potential customers and is believable for that dealership. A personality lets customers feel they know that dealership and what that it stands for. Sometimes it is the dealer principal. But not always. Even though they are franchisees, car dealerships are big businesses and can afford to have different personalities under their manufacturer signs.  Not so for other types of franchisees.

Retailers should locally brand their store or dealership with store-specific ads. Running ads from the franchisor helps build brands collectively but doesn’t do much for the local store. But the art work is cheap.

Dealers and other retailer are not getting the most from their money unless they have something that adds uniqueness about their location – and we are not talking about their address. It could be a special offer, promotion, event, or limited edition model. Even if the company ad they get for free has to be adapted for this to make it their own. Why would you run someone else’s ad for your business?

For food service, we recommend franchisees invest their own money in local store marketing. Heck, Calexis even wrote them a book on it.

There is so much they can do to drive their own sales by connecting to and becoming involved in their communities. And it pays off.

For all retailers, presenting a personality and connecting to their community is more effective than repeating whatever the national brand has to say.

Let them do their job. You do yours — and build on what they can do for you.

I like to explain brand definition by relating brands to products. If you wonder about brand offerings, and are considering extending a brand read on and then ask yourself the hard question about whether extending the brand will help or hurt the brand.

Consider the Mustang car. It has enjoyed a long term success. Maybe not as successful in these difficult days for US car makers, but still a long serving, successful brand. It has been a sporty two door small but powerful car. A plaything for the driver.

Let’s say you were charged with creating added volume and you were in charge of the Mustang brand.  You would have to ask yourself  how can you increase sales. Let’s say your bonus depends on it.

Clearly the Mustang is a limited brand. In a world where the vast majority of passenger cars have four doors, the Mustang is playing in a small sub-set by having only two doors.

Think of the volume potential of being able to compete in the huge majority market that features four doors.

Why not introduce a “four-door-Mustang” to provide an option to the vast majority of buyers who are looking for a four door vehicle?

The answer is that the two-door nature of the Mustang is an inherent requirement of the brand’s sporty personality. Once it is a four door, practical car it is no longer a Mustang. And it undermines the two door version of the brand. Why? Because it becomes a practical sedan which is not consistent with a sporty, plaything.

Same would be true of other cars that owe their identity to being a two door, performance vehicle – like the Camaro.  Or to products or retailers where a product feature both limits and defines the brand.  Break the limit and you “undefine” the brand.

That’s what happened to the Thunderbird years ago. It started life as a two door luxury sporty vehicle. By the time it went to four doors it had lost its zest. It was no longer sporty; it was just another family car and eventually it died. When it was reborn a few years ago, it was reborn as a two door.

What I am saying is not that cars should be two doors only. But that there are some aspects of a brand that are inherent to its identity. That define it.

Once you cross those lines, the brand becomes diluted and starts to be eroded. It might be possible to increase sales by exploiting the brand into new areas, but be careful that the exploitation is not the undoing of the brand. Like a four door Mustang would be.