Enterprise Nation

I’ve never scored a hole in one. In fact, despite my Dad and brother’s love for the game, I’ve never completed a round of golf. But as soon as I saw www.golfshake.com I knew it was an interesting business. I wrote to the founder to find out more and uncovered quite a story.

Background

On Thursday I spoke at an event in Nottingham on the topic of starting a business from home.

By the time I returned to Redbrick House that night, Darren Ramowski of golfshake.com was following me on Twitter. I checked out his site, loved it for the niche it holds, and wrote to Darren asking about the origins of the business.

This, ladies and gentlemen, was his reply… 

The story of golfshake.com

Yep, did hear you speak today in Nottingham and was worth the visit to hear yourself and Michael speak. (the Michael referred to is Michael Acton-Smith of www.mindcandy.com)  You also gave me some inspiration and new found energy for working from home! Having spent the last 22 months working out of a bedroom and then purpose built conservatory.
 
Anyway, golfshake.com, can you profile on EN? Yep, sure. Here's some very brief background :)

• Back in 1998 I started developing some basic golf sites to enhance my coding skills and get out of accountancy into IT !  Which I did in 1999.
• Golfscoretracker.co.uk was born around the end of 2000 as an online golf score system and to help my golf, offering a free service.
• The site then just ticked over and was worked on 5 til 9 after my day job had finished more as a hobby then a business.
• End of 2003 I was relocated to Birmingham and then spent 2 hours a day on the train travelling from Nottingham to Birmingham, this gave me loads of time to redevelop the site and take it to the next level.
• During 2004 I had introduced the Freemium model and offered a free service and Premium service.  Most of the competitors at this time only offered a paid for service.  By the end of the year I had 2,000 registered members, not all paid Premium members though.
• 2005 pretty much just ticked over with me supporting and working on it 5 til 9 plus during the train commute, with my wife doing some basic day time business hours support whilst she looked after a 1 year old child.  The score tracking service was also enhanced to include functionality to manage golf societies and events online.
• 2005 and 2006 saw the birth of the community, mainly from member feedback, with the introduction of web2.0 social features such as forums, blogs, open profiles etc.  Sorry this was the geek in me, not quite sure golfers were ready for it, and some still aren't.
• 2006 I was actually approached in terms of an investment partnership and I took the decision to enter into a Joint Venture with another golf company at the beginning of 07.  The community features grew and I ran a few golf events to meet the members. I also developed the first white label partner site for a UK golf magazine.
• 2007 I quit my full time job and started working on the site from home.  Due to the social aspect golfscoretracker didn't really explain what it did so golfshake.com was born, one of those no meaning names so popular on the web.
• 2008 was a pretty big year for us and at the end of the year we had introduced a 3rd tier to the service by offering an offline golf handicap card, reached 45,000 registered members on our site and 25,000 across the white label partner sites we run, plus we increased our partner network to 5.
• 2008 also saw us become the no1. golf score tracking and handicap service in Europe, plus we have become the no.1 source of golf club information in the UK and possibly world, having generated over 10,000 course reviews all submitted by our members.
• 2008 we also increased the number of golf events we ran for the members and organised the 2nd golfshake.com North vs South competition, which was a great success and saw 64 golfers battle it out for their respective parts of the country.
• On a personal level the site didn't grow as much as I would have hoped due to some development delays, primarily due to me becoming unwell and undergoing chemotherapy during 2008.  I never took a day off and it was great to be able to work from home.
• 2009 will be a very exciting year.  We are introducing more features and content to allow golfers to interact, review games, play more golf and improve their game.  Interestingly, golfers tracking their scores during 2008 saw a 3 shot reduction in their golf handicap.
• Golf in the UK tends to be some what seasonal, so we are busy gearing up for the warmer weather and getting ready to release some new and exciting functionality to an already great site and service.
• At present we have 4 employees. I am the Managing Director working from home doing support and development.  The other Director concentrates on Commercial and Business Development.  We have an online editor/marketing guy and we have a part time home worker handling support and projects.
• So, how's my golf ? shocking.  Whilst I have a great work life balance working from home, I spend far too much time working on the site to play golf but I'm always up for a game.   Send me a Private Message via the site if you ever fancy a round

PS re: Twitter, although I have had an account since 07, I still don't quite get it. But given Stephen Fry discussed it on the Jonathan Ross show, it's now time to use as a PR tool and 2009 will be the year it really goes mainstream.  You could argue it's the catalyst for this email :) 

What is golfshake.com

golfshake.com is an active online community of regular golfers and group organisers. It provides golfers with a free handicap and score tracking service, and society organisers with a comprehensive system for managing every aspect of their groups, including tracking their scores, organising events and posting results.
 
golfshake.com is a place for golfers to get together online and discuss the latest hot topics in golf, chat, ask for advice, write blogs and air their views. It provides a wealth of knowledge on everything golf including reviews and tips on courses, technique and equipment. Above all it is a place where golfers can enjoy themselves and their game.

Thanks to Darren for his time - Emma Jones

• Golfshake.com