Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ryan Dailey, Co-Founder of Operation 36 Golf, located in Lillington, NC, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Operation 36 Golf is a program, development model, and technology designed to introduce and guide anyone in playing the game of golf. It is delivered through a network of over 1400 professionally trained golf coaches throughout the world at over 650 facilities. These coaches use the brand, program, model, and technology to deliver world-class beginner golf programming to their students.

Our customer is, first and foremost, the professional golf coach. We design our product and support around helping them be successful in marketing and filling their golf programs to the local golf student. Currently, the local golf student number is close to 100,000, with an even mix of about 50% junior golfers and 50% adults.

Tell us about yourself

Operation 36 was founded in 2010 by myself and Matthew Reagan. It started as an attempt to create a long-term junior golf development program. We understood that it takes a long time to become a skilled golfer. The idea was if we could get the juniors to come consistently to the golf course for the entire golf season, we would have the best chance to take a beginner and turn them into a competitive golfer. We always thought the hard part would be creating good competitive golfers. Little did we know that it is even harder to take a complete beginner and get them connected to love the game of golf. Without doing this, you will never create a golfer, competitive or recreational.

It took over 5 years of trial and error, running programs and working with kids daily, to learn all the components that should be in place to make becoming a golfer fun and motivating. We have learned even faster over the last 7 years as we have grown to over 650 program locations that are led by over 1,500 golf professionals who also want to improve the introduction to golf. Our company's mission is to create 1,000,000 new golfers through the network of Operation 36 coaches around the world.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

We started with 3 students in Buies Creek, NC, and now have close to 100,000 students using Operation 36 around the world. Our biggest accomplishment is surviving long enough that our team could problem-solve, adjust and pivot to develop a product that could completely transform how someone is introduced to the game of golf. We are confident that our program is the most effective way to do this, and now it is a matter of spreading the word and finely tuning the product. We recently launched a book to assist with this. We invite anyone thinking of starting the game of golf or guiding someone into the game, to read this short-form book to help arm them get started and feel competent to ask some good questions when they arrive at the course for the first time - https://www.amazon.com/HOW-CREATE-JUNIOR-GOLFER-Operation/dp/B0BHG81FMW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=R1ZTOE2NW2LP&keywords=how+to+create+a+junior+golfer&qid=1665329221&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjE0IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=how+to+create+a+junior+golfe%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-1

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Priority. Each day has an endless list of items to focus on, and determining the highest priority items is certainly the biggest challenge each day. Some days you do a great job choosing those items, and feel like you made some good progress. On other days, you swing and miss and feel like you are spinning your tires. That is the true joy of being a business owner, each day is an opportunity, and you get to take a swing at it. Some enjoy that risk and love being a business owner. Others don't, and owning a business might not be the best choice for them.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Read books on those that have come before you to get you fired up. If you aren't fired up to start a business, you won't make it through the tough times, and you'll give up. I've used books to fire me up from the beginning and continue to try to make reading stories from other successful business owners a high priority.
  2. I'm not a huge advocate of debt and wouldn't advise someone to take out a lot of debt to get started. If you are starting your business from scratch, I would recommend starting it as a side hustle to another job until it starts to get some traction. That's what we did with Operation 36; it was a side hustle that turned into a full-time business. That was the least stressful process for our families as they weren't burdened with a large amount of debt and minimal income in those first 10 years.
  3. It's a game. If you love the game, you can't fail, every day is a lesson learned, and you move quickly to the next thing. If you have trouble moving on from failures or don't view them as lessons learned, you might want to start reading some books to change your mindset.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://operation36.golf/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/op36golf
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operation_36/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dailey-pga-00909022/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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