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By Steve Eubanks
The Laramee family maintains a healthy balance both personally and professionally with Johnson Golf Management, from the customers it works with to the needs of each and every property
Only 30 percent of family businesses survive through the second generation. Only 12 percent make it past the third, and less than 3 percent of all family enterprises remain viable for the great grandchildren of the founder.
Kelly Laramee knows those numbers. And she and her husband, Jason, are determined to be in the minority.
The Laramees own and manage Johnson Golf Management, a Massachusetts-based firm founded by Kelly’s father, Doug, that has provided turnkey services to public and private facilities in New England since 1988. “My father started the business when I was only 10 years old,” Kelly says. “He was a superintendent at a club just west of Boston for about eight years when he decided to go out on his own. After I graduated from college, I went out and did some HR stuff.
“But he finally convinced me to work for him,” she continues. “I had worked summers at the snack bars and other outlets, so after he asked me to join him several times, I finally said, ‘I’ll do it. Let’s see how it goes.’ Here I am, almost 30 years later.”
By all accounts, Doug Johnson was a no-nonsense operator who understood municipal operations better than anyone, including, in many cases, the city managers putting course contracts out for bid. Twice, JGM won lawsuits against municipalities for improperly handling contract renewals. And in May 2014, the company won a 10-year management contract for Highland Links Golf Course, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore and owned by the National Park Service.
The Highland Park contract was extraordinary, not only for the length of the agreement, but also because the city of Truro, Massachusetts, had run the course for 50 years. At the time, there was a great deal of angst in the area. Jan Zimmer, a resident of Truro and a regular at the course, told the Cape Cod Times the management change was “devastating.” She went on to say, “It’s a community here. We have many good friends we play with here.”
Johnson just smiled and told the paper, “Our bid was higher.” He went on to say, “We want to make everyone feel welcome here.”
While almost everyone agrees that JGM succeeded in putting out the welcome mat for all, Doug’s statements have been all but lost to the avalanche of history. Three days after getting the Highland Links contract, Doug Johnson passed away suddenly at age 63.
His son, Brendon, lived in Chicago and his youngest daughter Macie lived in Oak Harbor, Washington, with her husband. That left Kelly and Jason to run JGM.
“There are no guarantees,” Jason says of the current municipal golf management business. But he could easily be talking about life.
“Many of today’s contracts go up for bid every three to five years, so you have to be prepared for anything,” he says. “We don’t own any of the clubs we operate, and while we currently have one contract with a private owner, most of our courses are owned by municipalities or the National Park Service. Those contracts used to be seven to 10 years in length. No more. So, as an operator, you also have to make a difference early and do it in a way that sets you up for the next round of bidding. It can be tough, especially in a competitive environment.”
According to Kelly, who juggles the demands of motherhood with the business and maintaining her father’s legacy, JGM has had approximately 20 contracts over the last 30 years. “That sounds like a lot, but it’s the nature of this business,” she notes.
With such a turnover in contracts, you’d think staffing would be an issue. Not so at JGM. “As a small family business, what separates us is that we have surrounded ourselves with a core group of people who have been with us, with my father, for 10 to 20 years,” Kelly says. “Because of that, we have all built a level of trust in each other, a continuity that allows us to go into a new operation and streamline things immediately. Whether it’s the golf course maintenance, the sales or the teaching of the game of golf: our people have done it long enough and often enough that there is a cohesion to the entire process.”
JGM currently has six management contracts: four nine-hole and two 18-hole courses. “In recent years, we’ve had as many as nine courses under contract at any one time and as few as two,” Jason says. “The contracts stagger, which makes it challenging. You’re constantly trying to build long-term relationships in a short period of time, not only with the municipalities, but also with your parks and recreation directors, your town managers, your golfers and elected officials. It does become very challenging because everybody’s expectations are different.”
“You’re constantly trying to balance those relationships,” Kelly interjects. “We think we’ve done a good job over the years of listening to everyone so that we can adapt on the fly and make whatever modifications are needed in a way that satisfies as many people as possible while getting the job done.”
Balance is a word that comes up often with Kelly. Whether it’s balancing the demands of running a family business with the challenges of raising a family, or balancing the needs of various golf properties 100 miles apart, she speaks for all of the people at Johnson Golf Management when she says, “Life is all about balance, in everything and with everyone. Whether it’s professionally or personally, we try to find the right balance. We balance the expectations of the customers with those of the town manager, the recreation department, the golf course advisory committee, the National Park service, whatever or whoever it might be.
“And we balance the needs of each of the properties we have under contract,” she adds. “You have to treat every place you manage with the same level of respect and the same level of detail that you do all the others. In order for that to work—in order for any family business to grow and succeed—you just have to find that perfect balance.”
Steve Eubanks is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and New York Times bestselling author.