Two young entrepreneurs have successfully mixed business with pleasure, hitting a hole in one selling golf breaks online
by Ivy Pasic - October 2009
WANTED: EX-CITY TYPE with a year on his or her hands to play golf around the world - and get paid for it. It may sound like a credit-crunched banker's dream, but this job couldn't be more real. It's the latest hook from Yourgolftravel.com, set up by former university friends Ross Marshall (28) and Andrew Harding (29) in 2005. "We've had 3,000 applications for the role," says Marshall. "And we're sifting through them now. We just thought that there was a huge amount of doom and gloom out there, and this would be the perfect antidote." Marshall may sound light-hearted, but he wants to emphasise that this is a "serious" position. "It's a 12-month contract. The successful candidate will join our product-management team in 2010 and visit four continents within the year. He or she will review golf courses, write blogs, give presentations and get involved with contracting." The selection process, it must be said, is a little less "serious"; after making it through the interview stage, the final 18 will battle it out next month on the Celtic Manor golf course in Wales, home to next year's Ryder Cup, and the winner gets the job. You have to take your hat off to the pair of them: they give good PR.
It is this maverick approach that is at the heart of Yourgolftravel.com. When Marshall and Harding (then 23 and 24) left well-paid jobs in finance and the golf-exhibition industry respectively four-and-a-half years ago, they had spied a gap in the market. "Golf was a growth industry; Tiger Woods was big news. No major online travel companies were targeting golf aggressively, and, as passionate golfers, we saw an opportunity," explains Marshall. Bank managers, however, failed to share their conviction, but, undeterred, Marshall and Harding set about securing less conventional means of bankrolling their dream. "We weren't wealthy people, but, luckily for us, it was easy to get credit at that time. Between us, we ended up borrowing £30,000 (€34,000) on credit cards," says Marshall.
It was hardly the textbook approach to starting a business, but it's a gamble that has paid off. Last year, Yourgolftravel.com reported a turnover of £8.1m; this year, it's looking at close to £16m. Have these two not heard of the recession?
IF ANYTHING, THE world's economic woes seem to have done them a favour. "Golf gives people something else to concentrate on," says Marshall. "We had a letter from a guy in Norfolk, saying: 'I've lost my job, my house; my wife is leaving me. When I'm out on the golf course, all I have to think about is whether I'm hitting a six-iron or a seven-iron.'" But escapism is not the only reason the business is thriving. "A lot of people are going on short breaks, rather than big holidays, so business has been brisk for us," he says. "And whereas a lot of companies have started tightening their belts and stopped marketing, we've scaled ours up. We've also acquired two other businesses [Rightclub.co.uk and UK-golfguide. com]. It's a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Recessions also create opportunity; you get things done cheaper."
Whatever the magic formula, Marshall and Harding have had to fight hard for their success along the way. "We didn't pay ourselves a salary for the best part of two years. We were doing 20-hour days, six or seven days a week, and didn't see daylight," says Marshall. "We started the business from Andrew's bedroom in March 2005 and moved back home with our parents. A few months later, we moved the business into a £50-a-week leased office in Raynes Park, south-west London. It was pretty disgusting." Another move to marginally better-equipped offices in Farringdon, central London, followed in October that year, and by the end of 2006, they had employed 12 people. Last year, the company (now over 60 employees strong, all of whom "live and breathe golf") relocated to nearby Clerkenwell Green, where Marshall somewhat gleefully reports that they now have "high-speed internet". It's a far cry from the early days, when they spent hours trying to convince hotels to let them negotiate stays for prospective clients. "We must have made 1,000 calls a day at the beginning," he remembers. "But, even then, we always ran it like a large business, with targets to meet."
SUCH SELF-BELIEF and stringent discipline are essential when setting up your own company, believes Marshall. "In theory, starting a business is absolute lunacy. Ninety-one per cent of new businesses fail in the first four years. You have to plan carefully and know where you're going," he says. "Yes, the statistics are against you, but there are always exceptions to the rule. If you believe you have something... go for it. But you do need a lot of luck," he concedes.
Luck has clearly been on their side, then. But it is Marshall and Harding's dogged determination and expert understanding of the golf industry that have really paid dividends. With almost 50 other golf-travel businesses to compete with in the UK, online presence and broad consumer appeal are Yourgolftravel.com's USPs - according to Marshall, only 12% of their sales are corporate. Thanks to Harding's previous golf-exhibition connections, they provide access to some of the world's most exclusive courses, do credit-crunch breaks from just £1 and, for thrillseekers, offer the chance to play at extreme locations around the world - from glacial golf in Greenland to teeing off from the rim of a volcano in Hawaii.
THE DYNAMIC DUO have also ventured into social networking, with seniors' events, wine-and-golf packages and pampering breaks. "We've also started offering golf dating events," says Marshall. "People have to have things in common."
As the CEO of a successful business at 28, doubling the company's turnover in the face of the worst global recession for over 60 years, is it time to kick back and relax on the golf courses, rather than selling trips to them? Not a bit of it, says Marshall: "We've been busy launching a number of other brands, such as the leisure business Spabreaks.com. I enjoy working. Some people say: 'You work all the time.' But I like the challenge. What else would I be doing? I like to keep up the façade that all I do is play golf, but the reality is that I get four or five games in the whole year."
