Without a
doubt, you worked hard to get your bowling center to where it is today.
Between
building and modernizing the physical plant, to maintaining the mechanical and
electronic equipment as well as daily maintenance, you have used those skills
to get your center to where it is today.
But those
skills, now finally sharpened and you can probably do in your sleep, are NOT
going to be the thing that takes your bowling center to the next level.
Of course you
needed special skills to recruit and retain league bowlers in the “traditional model”
which today seems somewhat easier, but those same skills aren’t really what you
need to actually build your company from here forward.
So what do you
do, if you agree with this hypothesis?
First you build a strategy for your center
that is more in tune with today’s customers and you focus on the work and the
tactics to get it done; to work on the stuff that others won’t or can’t do
until it gets done.
And when the time
continuum gets crunched and confused and you feel yourself slipping back into
old habits, slap yourself until you realize that these old habits are exactly
the opposite of what you need to be doing.
Because the
very thing that got you here is exactly what everyone else is doing and if that’s
what it took to get your business to the next level, no one would be stuck
where they are.
Start learning new methodologies. Take more courses, read more books, attend more seminars,
hook up with people from your industry and other related industries (like restaurants, hotels, casinos, theme parks, etc) you can learn from and find ways to test programs and try
different tactics until you start to see your center moving to the next level.
You may even find that you need to create a different "model" for your center. If that is the case, go visit successful centers who have made that switch.
Or you’ll be
stuck where you are wondering what to do. And that's not a happy place.
