Only the second time on a golf course in my life the Log of Wood motel golf tournament was certainly a day to remember. John Griffin Realty were sponsors for the event and so John and I attended the day. Neither of us are golf players although John did play for a few years in his younger days. Long long ago. I on the other hand have only been on a golf course once in my life when I followed my father in law and husband around for a game and was absolutely bored stiff. This did nothing to encourage me to participate further in the game.
Anyway on the tournament day we dully turned up and it was decided that John and Murray Woofe from PIC insurance would drive the drinks cart around and replenish the poor thirsty moteliers on their rounds. So what was to happen to me? I’ll just walk around I said, but, oh no, John in his wisdom decided that it would be better for me to take a cart around. I knew Anne from Boundary Court in Hamilton was also walking the course so thought I could catch her up and enjoy her company.
After a quick lesson in how to drive my cart I said well where can I drive. Anywhere you want but just keep of the greens John said as he and Murray disappeared in their cart. Ok off I crept down the gravel path until it suddenly ended about 10 metres away, I looked out at the golf course, green trees, green gardens and green lawns. How on earth do I keep off the green I thought it’s all green to me. Oh well I’ll just follow the tyre marks of other carts and stick by the trees no-one will be playing in the trees.
As I crawled around the course on this cart I started to get a bit more confidence and was even going faster than the walkers by this stage. I had trouble finding Anne and was just whizzing along at my great speed when I decided to go around the bottom of this hill which was quite long grass and a bit of a gully so I thought oh yes that will be okay. However!!!! Just as I was halfway across I turned and glanced to the left and noticed a golfer poised above a ball. Another couple of golfers standing around him and all of them watching me intently. When the golfer who luckily I recognized as Robert from Rosetown waved me on I began to think maybe I was in the wrong place. Getting to the end of the gully and travelling up the hill I was greeted by John Griffin who quickly said I think you better follow us now. This confirmed I had gone somewhere I wasn’t supposed to.
Following John and Murray and wondering why they stopped now and then and just seemed to sit still for no reason. We arrived at a hole and I realized Anne was there. AANNE I called out. Everyone turned and looked at me much to my surprise and almost seemed to glare. No Kathie you have to be quiet when they are playing John whispered in my ear. Oh gosh another muck up. Still I’ve only upset about 8 moteliers so far. Good relationship building from this sponsorship so far!!!!
I snuck over to Anne and suggested she came on the cart with me. Great all sorted and back to the cart to be greeted by ” Your phone has just rung it should be on silent you know”
Well as you can guess so far the day has not endeared me any closer to the game of golf. You can’t drive where you want, you can’t make noise and you can’t have your phone on doesn’t sound like fun to me.
In all fairness though things weren’t quite so bad after that it certainly helped to have a navigator. I would be driving along gazing across the expanse of the golf course when I would hear a gasp from Anne at my side and looking down to where I was driving I would see a large mud hole which I would have to evade very quickly with Anne hanging on tightly. I’m not sure if her day was getting better or worse she seemed a bit quiet so it was hard to tell.
As the day went on I became a much more confident driver with Anne and I attempting bigger and steeper hills on our drinks delivery rounds. Of course even the cart race between us and the John Griffin Murray Woofe cart was won by the ladies. Doesn’t take long to learn to drive those carts. Hope the green keeper wasn’t too busy afterwards fixing the skid marks.
The end of the day was fantastic with a get together in the club rooms, food, drinks and the prize presentations. As sponsors we got to do the prize presentation and I of course got to kiss the recipients. Now this ending to my day was very enjoyable and almost enough to make me consider playing golf. I was however told that the kissing at the end was not standard and this has made me hesitate to rush out and book golf lessons.
October 20 2009 | Articles for current moteliers and Entering the Motel Industry and Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Now we are established in 2009 and have time to think and review things it can be a time for reflection and setting some goals which we want to achieve over the next 12 months. I don’t know how many times I have said my goal for this year has been to loose weight. Many of the years however I have been setting the same goal for the next year as I haven’t achieved it. Looking back I can see I was never going to achieve it. I never said how much I was going to loose, how I was going to do it, and how I was going to measure the progress at different stages during the year. It’s impossible to achieve something when you don’t know what it is or how you are going to do it.
This relates to our business as well. Did you set a goal last year? Did you achieve it? If so good on you, really well done. If not maybe it wasn’t the lack of effort that caused it but rather a lack of direction and measurable steps along the way. This is why we need to take some time out once a year and set goals and objectives for our business, otherwise known as a business plan.
In order to do this the partners in your business need to sit down and work out what their vision is, if you haven’t already done that. Then come up with a small statement. Why does your business exist, who does it exist for and what do they expect. Write down what business you are in, who your customer is and what makes you different from others in the same market.
Now that you know what you are there for you need to define what your goals are. What is it that you want to achieve in your business? Look at each area of your business and see how you can improve or change that area. For example Occupancy, income, return clientele, running costs, chattels, customer service to name a few. Define your goals, for instance you may want to increase income by 5%. How can this be achieved?
Now the objectives are formed from the goals. You may say I am going to increase income by increasing occupancy from 60% to 65%. This means I need to increase occupancy by 0.5% each month. This gives you a measurable quantity or a target to achieve.
Next how are we going to achieve this? Maybe by implementing a monthly newsletter to regular guests, introducing a thank you card or e-mail for every guest who stays, giving guests fresh baked muffins on arrival or you may have another idea which is something that is unique and will make you different to the motel down the road. Whatever your goal set yourself a method of achieving it and a method of measuring if this method is working.
Lastly make sure you monitor those goals at the measuring points along the way. Have a bring up system in your diary or on your computer and look to check how the progress is going. You may find that you are achieving well or you may not be meeting the targets. It may be necessary to change the methods you are using or reassess the goal if things are not working out how you planned. If you don’t check and monitor the progress you will be just like me and my weight; at the end of the year you will be surprised to find you haven’t got what you wanted.
Business plans sound complicated and are often put off for other things which seem to be a more immediate need such as re-painting a unit or trying a new advertising avenue. They are of equal importance but are less of a physical thing and so it is harder to see the importance. There is no point painting the unit if you haven’t got any guests to fill it because your competitors have used a business plan which highlighted opportunities to win over your customers.
I know it can seem a bit daunting but a business plan doesn’t have to be a big fancy document. Just write down the steps and follow it through. If anyone would like to do a plan but is not sure where to start just send me an e-mail and I will send you a template document to fill in the blanks. Then you can just start writing after all it will only cost you the price of the ink but could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars on your business
April 21 2009 | Articles for current moteliers and Entering the Motel Industry and Uncategorized | 73 Comments »
How does this affect you when you buy or sell a motel? It is really important to understand the RMA as it can have an effect on what you want to do with a property you may purchase. Can a motel be built on this land? Does this land have existing use rights for the current motel? Is this land zoned for a motel? I am selling are the people purchasing my motel able to do what they want to develop it further? Are there any restrictions to my motel?
I have been a bit notable by my absence in the realm of blogging lately and it is due to the fact that I have been doing some further training. I am a real advocate of upskilling and gaining as much knowledge as possible so that when I deal with people who wish to buy a motel or those who have a motel for sale then I can give them the best possible service and advice. After all that’s what being a professional broker is all about.
Anyway to get to the point our latest topic was the Resource Management Act which although complicated was really good to learn about. It has always been a bit hazy before now and one of those areas which I tried to steer clear of if I could. I really enjoyed the course and learnt so much I decided that the RMA is a really important topic and would be good to talk about here on my blog and share the information. The actual topic is huge and would take pages and pages to explain so I thought, like many other bloggers, I would do a series of blogs with my topic being The Resource Management Act 1991(RMA).
The first blog will explain why we have the act and how it is setup as a workable framework.
The intentions and structure of the act are reasonably clear and well defined
Firstly the intent of the act. Why do we need it? Under section 5 of the act it states the purpose which is
Purpose
· (1) The purpose of this Act is to promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources.
(2) In this Act, sustainable management means managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing and for their health and safety while—
o (a) Sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations; and
o (b) Safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and
o (c) Avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment.
(Source: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM231905.html)
The purpose is fairly self explanatory and my feeling is that the purpose and intent are definitely good values which we should all strive towards.
In order to maintain and implement this act we have to have a framework to support it which spans both central and local government and helps to regulate the requirements within the act designed to achieve the purpose.
At the top of the framework is the act itself. The Resource Management Act 1991 which sets the standards and regulations for the environment.
From this act the framework generates NZ policies being specifically The NZ Coastal Policy Statement and the National Policy Statement. The Minister of Conservation and the Minister of the Environment respectively are responsible for preparing and reviewing the policy statements which basically say what we will do to protect and preserve our environment but not how we will do it.
The framework then reaches out to the various regions who create their own policy statements which say what they will do to protect and preserve the environment within their own region but once again not how they will do it. These Regional Policy Statements must be aligned with the national statements and can not contain any policies in conflict with those in the National Policy or NZ Coastal Policy Statements..
From the Regional Policy Statements we need a “how to do it” document and this is where the regional and district plans come in to effect. The regional Coastal Plan and Regional Plan are prepared by the regional council and document the rules and regulations which must be adhered to in order for an activity to be permitted or to require consent. Thus ensuring the activity is in alignment with the policy statements. The activities or land use requests which involve air and water are covered under these two plans. The district or city council prepares the district plan which covers land use requests for land activities. Once again this plan documents the rules and regulations which must be adhered to in order for an activity to be permitted or to require consent in order to align with the policy statements. There are some land use requests which involve both land and water (e.g.: A factory with a water discharge) and these requests require consent under both the regional and district plans.
If the activity is not a permitted activity under either the regional or district plan then resource consent will need to be applied for from the relevant council.
This is a brief description of the purpose and organisation structure of the RMA. When looking at any land use it must always comply with Section 5 or the purpose of the act. Once this has been looked at the principles of the act must be applied. This however is the next topic.
Other sources: www.mfe.govt.nz/rma
www.business.govt.nz/Business-regulations/The-Resource-Management-Act.
November 03 2008 | Articles for current moteliers and Entering the Motel Industry and Uncategorized | No Comments »