How To Avoid Self Sabotage In Your Martial Arts Business
Chances Are It’s What You’re Not Doing That’s Hurting Your Business…
What does this have to do with martial arts business success? Read on to find out...
How to Increase Your Profits Without Increasing Your Costs
How to Increase Your Business Dramatically Without Increasing Your Overhead
In Jay Abraham’s excellent book, Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got, Mr. Abraham claims that there are only three ways you can increase your business:
- By increasing your number of clients -
- By increasing the average size of the sale per client -
- By increasing the number of times clients return and buy again.
So, let’s take a look at Mr. Abraham’s observation above, and see how exactly we can apply that to the business of teaching martial arts. Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (5) Posts Differentiation As A Martial Arts Business Success Strategy
Wanna’ Crush Your Competition?
Many times, the best way to crush your competition is to be as different as possible.
Crushing your competition right out of the gate is a hard thing to do…
Especially if you’re opening your school in a tough market with lots of competitors.
Even so, there is only one nearly surefire way I know of to crush your competitors…
And that’s to compete on a totally different playing field than the ones they are running their businesses on…
Here’s how you can do exactly that, and secure your school’s financial future by carving out a niche in your market that is uniquely yours and yours alone. Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts MASAI Member Marketing Plan for March 2010
Marketing Plan for the Months of February/March
1. Print Ads: If you’re running ads in print publications and they’re working, keep it up. Also, start considering hiring a door-to-door flier company to target area neighborhoods around your school with the fliers from this month.
Or, get your leadership team out on a Saturday morning and make an event out of it… offer a prize for the first team to distribute 100 fliers on doors (send them out by twos, make sure an adult is in each team). Take them all out for an inexpensive meal after.
2. Banner Sign: Put your 3 foot by 8 foot banner sign in front of your school… Read the rest of this entry »
The Simplified Enrollment Process
A Confused Mind Never Buys…
Handing out unnecessary information just for the sake of doing it can actually hinder the enrollment process by creating confusion in the mind of the prospective student.
Recently, a MASAI member asked me how many sheets of information he should hand out to his new students and prospects.
Apparently he’d been told by an “expert” that he needed to hand out a ton of information to new students, ostensibly to increase the likelihood that his prospects would enroll…
Well, if you’ve been reading my materials for any length of time, you know that I hold a strong dislike for unnecessary complexity in any shape or form in any process – be it in business systems, martial arts technique, or teaching methods.
And, the above situation is no exception. Let me explain why I think overloading new prospects with information is a mistake, and allow me to show you how to make your enrollment process much, much simpler.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (4) Posts How To Successfully Promote Your Special Events
If You Schedule It Without Promoting It, They Probably Won’t Come
Most intelligent and thinking school owners know that the more services they offer their clients, the more opportunities it creates to increase their school’s income.
Think about it… your students are going to spend money on “extras” each month, anyway. They may as well be spending that money at your school.
The thing is, it can be quite frustrating to plan, schedule, and host a special event, only to have a poor turnout. And, it’s even worse when you lose money. However, there’s a simple way to make certain every special event you host makes a profit… Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts How To Set Up And Promote A Black Belt Club Program In Your School
A Built In Retention Program
While black belt is the pinnacle of achievement for most students, black belt club can be a way to reward your most dedicated students and improve retention.
While some schools are resistant to the idea of having an elite membership in their studio, the fact remains that many of your students will jump at the chance to belong to such a program.
The reason is that you already have students who are extremely dedicated and motivated to train… so why not offer them a program that recognizes and rewards them for their commitment?
Black belt club is a perfect way to do this. And, before you get worked up into a tizzy, let me clarify by saying that the way I set up my BBC has nothing to do with selling belts. Instead, it’s all about keeping the program quality high and rewarding good students.
Here’s how I do it: Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts How To Write A Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan? What The Heck’s A Lesson Plan?
The most common response I get from instructors when I ask whether they use lesson plans is:
“Naw, not really… mostly I just wing it.”
Winging it may seem like the thing to do when you’re an experienced instructor, or when the thought of one more weekly chore seems as daunting as squaring off against Fedor with both hands tied behind your back. (What do they feed that guy, anyway? Oh, that’s right – other MMA fighters…)
But, a return to the venerable, oft-maligned lesson plan can greatly improve your ability to teach more effectively… and to do so on a consistent basis.
Let’s look at some reasons why lesson plans are a must if you want to grow your school: Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts Low Cost Lead Generation In The Internet Age
How to Create a Lead Generating Machine In Under 90 Days… (Almost) For Free!
Most everyone asks me about martial arts marketing; or more specifically, how to get more students into their school. This seems to be a universal problem for school owners across the country.
For the majority of school owners, the main challenge with regards to getting more students is getting your programs in front of enough people (in other words, lead generation).
This is typically due to one of two issues:
- A lack of or inadequate amount of marketing -
- Ineffective marketing -
More often than not, with new school owners they aren’t marketing enough due to lack of funds with which to do so. Ten years ago, I’d have told any such school owner to get out and do some flyering and door hangers, an extremely time-intensive (but usually very effective) task.
Thankfully, we now live in an internet age where everyone has a world of potential customers at their fingertips. The question is, how do you reach them?
Well, that’s what this article is going to explain. Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts Member’s Only Startup Videos
Welcome to the Member’s Only startup video content page. Select a video from among the topics below, and click the link to begin viewing.
You will need to have the Adobe Flash Player plugin installed in your browser to view some of these videos. Click here to visit the Adobe site to get the browser plugin.
Startup Videos
Interview With Jim Mahan Part IIIb
Martial Art School Startup Interview with Jim Mahan This is the final part of the martial art school startup interview I did with Jim Mahan. Pay attention to how he’s followed the Small Dojo Big Profits business system and the lessons taught on this site to the “T” and then look at what it’s done for Read the rest of this entry »
Interview With Jim Mahan Part IIIa
Martial Art School Startup Interview with Jim Mahan This is the interview that proves you can either do a lot with a little, or a little with a lot! Thankfully, Jim chose the former and man has he done a lot… Pay attention to how he’s followed the Small Dojo Big Profits business system and the Read the rest of this entry »
Martial Art School Startup Interview With Jim Mahan Part II
Part II of “Doing A Lot With A Little, Or A Little With A Lot!”
This is the second part of my martial art school startup interview with Jim Mahan. In this section of the interview, Jim explains how he is starting a martial art school despite some very unique challenges. Also, you can check out Part I of Read the rest of this entry »
Martial Art School Startup Interview With Jim Mahan
Proof You Can Either Do A Lot With A Little… Or A Little With A Lot!
This is the first part of my martial arts business interview with Jim Mahan, a MASAI member who is doing amazing things by following my coaching advice. If you’ve ever said “I can’t” about starting a martial art school, you MUST see this! (Note: The Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts Recession-Proof Martial Arts Success
Do Your Enrollment Numbers Look This Good?
I don't promise you that money will fall from the sky when you join MASAI... but you will discover how to get (and keep) new students.
