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Entrepreneurship: How to be a complete boss at being your own boss

When Melbourne dad Ali Terai first went public with his new business idea, he was more or less laughed out of the room.

Not only did it earn some “strange looks” from wife Chantelle Rabaut, but he also received some brutal advice from an industry insider, who said it was the “by far the stupidest idea” he had ever heard — and he would “eat his hat” if the business survived three months.

But Mr Terai, 33, stuck to his guns and launched Gen Y Golf — later renamed Future Golf — with a single Facebook post and a “hideous” $100 website.

The idea behind the business is simple but revolutionary — described as “ClassPass for golf”. It is essentially a golfing membership that gives clients access to a range of participating clubs and courses as well as events and a social community instead of traditional golf memberships that are usually limited to a single club.

The father-of-two was inspired to start Future Golf after discovering the game in his early 20s — but struggling with golf’s traditional “intimidation factor” and “elitism”.

“I only picked up the game around 12 years ago because none of my friends or family were into it at the time,” he said.

“I was watching Tiger Woods on TV before his scandals and I thought it looked interesting, so I started going to the driving rage and playing nine holes but I didn’t know what to do next.

“I joined a club, got taught a few rules and took a few lessons then got a few mates into it — I basically did Future Golf before it existed. I started the business more out of necessity because nothing like it existed at the time.”

Mr Terai was working in higher education at the time and originally launched the business in 2014 as a side gig and a “passion project”.

But it eventually took off, and around 12 months ago, Mr Terai quit his job to focus on it full time.

Today, Future Golf has tens of thousands of Aussies on its database, with around 3000 members, more than 80 member clubs and facilities and rapid expansion on the horizon.

A huge focus of the business is helping connect a new generation of golfers — while the average golfer is aged over 60, 92 per cent of Future Golf members are aged between 25 and 39.

“Fundamentally, I believed golf for young people was a thing that needed to happen,” Mr Terai explained.

“I got so much negative feedback, but I was having so much fun starting Future Golf it didn’t matter what anyone thought — I had no doubt it would continue.”

Its revenue is now around $1.3 million a year, with around 90 per cent reinvested into the growth of the game — no mean feat for a business that had “more than a few doubters” in the early days.

It has injected more than $5 million into the sport in Australia since launching, is now one of the world’s largest communities of younger golfers and was also awarded the 2019 Telstra Business Award.

Mr Terai said the point of Future Golf was to help members “overcome barriers”, including price and intimidation often associated with golf, and inject more diversity into the sport by encouraging more young people, women and people from different backgrounds to have a go.

“Golf is like surfing — if you get past the first six to eight weeks you’ll likely get hooked and it will become a passion for life,” he said.

“But there is a learning curve — people have a couple of bad shots at the beginning and think they’re not good at it.

“It’s like surfing — you get dunked at first but once you stand up, it’s amazing.”