.png?width=194&height=56&name=MicrosoftTeams-image%20(8).png)
Education & Advisory Services
Education and advisory services that bring fact over opinion to your club
Club Benchmarking works directly with boards, members and management teams, using industry data and your club’s own benchmarks to build understanding and alignment. Educate your board, inform your membership and get expert guidance on food and beverage, from the club industry’s most experienced benchmark analysts.
Three ways we work with your club
Put objective, third-party expertise in the room
Historically, clubs have operated with a narrow focus, navigating from one year to the next and monitoring progress through last month’s income statement against budget. Sustainable success requires a more strategic, forward-looking view centered on stewardship of assets. Our services meet your club where the conversation happens: the boardroom, the membership and the F&B operation.
Educate and align your board
Board education presentations, board retreat participation and board orientation assistance that build a fact-based understanding of what drives the club financially.
Inform your membership
Member town halls and annual meeting representation that teach members about the private club industry and explain their own club with credible data.
Strengthen your F&B operation
F&B strategic analysis, member town halls and strategic modeling, led by Ryan Bender, CCM, a former club F&B Director.
Why Club Benchmarking
Objective, third-party experts in club finance
We believe that when club leaders elevate fact over opinion, the result is healthier clubs, more empowered general managers and boards equipped to focus on strategic issues. In our role as objective, third-party experts, we use data to facilitate fact-based conversations about your club and to inform the decision-making process.
Board Education
Board education that shifts the dialogue in the boardroom
Through in-depth strategic analysis of your club’s business model, we help directors understand what drives the club financially. Our proven approach creates alignment on key issues and gives every new board the same fact-based starting point.
Board education presentations
Interactive, customized presentations, typically 90 minutes followed by a detailed question and answer session, built around your club’s own benchmarks and the issues in front of the board.
Board retreat participation
We join your board retreat or strategic planning session to frame the discussion with industry data, so long-range decisions start from a shared set of facts.
Board orientation assistance
The Club Benchmarking presentation has become an annual tradition for many clubs as a highlight of their new board member orientation, preparing incoming directors for the realities of club governance.
What directors take away
How the club business model works, where the club’s cash comes from and where it goes, and why over-focus on F&B is a common and dangerous trap.
Member Education
Help your members understand the club they belong to
Members want to know how their club compares and where their dues and assessments go. We bring industry data and your club’s own benchmarks directly to the membership, so important decisions are informed by facts rather than anecdotes.
Member town halls
Facilitated, committee-ready sessions that present industry data and your club’s benchmarks to the membership. Ideal ahead of a capital project, a dues change or a major strategic decision.
Annual meeting representation
A Club Benchmarking expert presents at your annual meeting, giving members an objective, third-party view of the club’s position and the industry around it.
Teach the industry
How private clubs operate as a business, what peer clubs look like and the trends shaping the private club industry.
Explain your club
Where your club stands against its peers, how dues fund the member experience and why investing in the club’s assets protects its future.
Food & Beverage Services
Strategic guidance for your F&B operation, from performance analysis to member education
Whether your club is struggling with F&B performance, rethinking your approach to food and beverage as a member amenity, or simply looking to get your members on the same page, Club Benchmarking has a service built for you. No two clubs face the same F&B challenges, and the right kind of support depends on where your club stands today.
Read the research: You Can’t Have Your Cake and Break Even Too and “Losing” Money on Purpose: Why the Best Clubs Treat Food & Beverage Like Their Golf Course.
What our clients say
Managers and boards ask for it by name
“The business intelligence we access through our partnership with Club Benchmarking is invaluable to me as a Manager and to my Board Members. They ask for it by name.”
Michael Wheeler
General Manager
“Partnering with Club Benchmarking is such an easy ROI argument to make. It’s like buying a soft serve machine for a snack bar in a Florida club… a no brainer!”
Marcus King
General Manager
Beyond the club
Education and advisory for the wider club industry
Our mission is to provide reliable data and accurate club industry benchmarks to help stakeholders make informed, strategic decisions.
Industry education
Education has been an integral part of Club Benchmarking since its founding in 2009. Our live presentations and webinars are presented every year to local and national association groups, including members and leaders of CMAA, HFTP, PGA, GCSAA, NCA and CSCM.
Advisory for industry stakeholders
We serve as data-driven advisors to a wide range of club industry participants, including boards, owners, investors, developers, banks and associations.
Common questions
Club board and member education, explained
What happens in a board education presentation?
Our interactive, customized presentations are typically 90 minutes, followed by a detailed question and answer session. We walk directors through your club’s business model against peer clubs and the industry, so the board shares a fact-based understanding of what drives the club financially.
Can you help with our new board member orientation?
Yes. Many clubs make a Club Benchmarking presentation an annual part of new board member orientation, so every incoming director starts with the same facts about the club and its governance.
Will you take part in our board retreat?
Yes. We can present at a board retreat or strategic planning session to frame the discussion with industry data and your club’s own benchmarks before long-range decisions are made.
Do you present to the membership?
Yes. Member town halls and annual meeting presentations give members an objective, third-party view of the private club industry and of how their own club compares.
Should F&B break even at a private club?
Not necessarily. Many of the best clubs treat F&B like the golf course, an amenity the club intentionally subsidizes to fund the member experience. Our F&B services help your club decide what that subsidy should be and how to get the most from it.
How do we get started?
Book a meeting with our team. Tell us what is in front of your board, your membership or your F&B operation, and we’ll recommend the right format for your club.
Let’s talk about your club
Bring fact over opinion to your next board, member or F&B conversation
Tap into the expertise of the club industry’s most experienced benchmark analysts. Book a meeting and we’ll talk through your club’s needs.
Book a meeting with our team