Posts Tagged ‘black belt club’

Easy Ways To Implement An Added-Value Membership Program

Weapons training is an excellent training theme for a black belt club program.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, upgrade programs fill a vital need in the program offerings in most successful martial arts schools.

For students, they provide increased training opportunities they would not normally get in regular classes. And, for school owners they represent an opportunity for increased income and improved customer service.

Whether you call your membership upgrade a “black belt club”, an “elite membership”, a “gold level membership”, or some other nomenclature, the fact remains that having one available is a benefit for your students and your school as well.

If you’ve struggled with the concept of creating an added-value membership, I’m here to tell you that implementing one is as simple as offering “more” and charging a bit more for it.

So, here are 10 super-simple ideas for how to start a black belt club in your school: Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

So, What’s Next?

Knowing what comes after black belt can be a great way of keeping students' interest once they reach 1st dan.

For new school owners, this may not seem like it’s even worth worrying about yet… but I’m here to tell you it’s something you need to consider if you’re past your first year in business.

You might think it’s only important to have a strong program up to black belt, because that’s what most of your students are after, but that’s a dangerous misconception that can hurt your school’s long-term growth.

Now, some martial arts systems already have tons of curriculum in place for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree black belts (Note: Just having a new form to teach them isn’t going to cut it).

And in other systems (like BJJ, for example), the road to black belt is so long, the main challenge you face is keeping students until black belt. However, if you fall into either of these categories, you still should read this article because there are still pitfalls to keeping students long-term you may not be aware of.

So, sit tight and take notes while I tell what works in keeping students through black belt and beyond.

Read the rest of this entry »

Black Belt Club, Shmack Belt Club…

A lot of people in the industry make a big deal out of Black Belt Club upgrades – in fact, some business systems that are being taught revolve around upgrading students to BBC after only a few weeks.

To me, this is like the old illegal “bait-and-switch” sales tactic, where a business advertises a product or service at an extremely low price to get people in their store and then tells the customer they are sold out (or gives some other excuse) and offers to sell them a similar product at the regular price. Shame on those schools that line their pockets by upgrading all their students to a BBC program right off the bat!

Because of the widespread use of these types of tactics, I suggest you find other names to use for your upgraded memberships. For example, I recently spent some time with an Israeli martial arts instructor, and suggested he call his upgraded memberships “Krav Club.”

You could also use the terms “regular” membership, then “Gold” and “Platinum” level for the elite/upgraded programs you offer. The possibilities are endless; the object is to choose a name that is unique and that separates your elite memberships from your typical run-of-the-mill martial arts school.

Okay, enough with the soapbox lecture. Here’s what I recommend you do to make your BBC something your school can be proud of -

Benefits – What Your Elite Program Will Provide

It’s common sense – if you’re charging more, you need to offer more. Typically, you’ll want to offer the students in your upgraded programs something you don’t offer in your basic programs.

You can do this in one of three ways: Read the rest of this entry »