Posts Tagged ‘Bottom Line’

After 8 years of coaching people on how to start and run martial arts schools (12 if you count the time I spent doing it for free for my friends) I’ve heard just about every excuse for failure imaginable. The other day, I was telling a client that I was starting another studio. He asked me if I’d been out of it long, and I explained that I sold a studio in ’09, and that I am re-entering the market because I believe now is a great time to be a school owner. Read the rest of this entry »

Simple Honesty And Convenience Can Really Make A Difference In Your Bottom Line

So, think you have some powerful “sales kung fu”?

If so, you likely are aware that your customers see the enrollment process as a buying process. They are shopping you along with your competitors, and will likely make their buying decision based on how good you are at convincing them to join your school.

Now, having said that, you should know that I am not a fan AT ALL of sneaky tricks and hard sell tactics.

So, before we go on let me present you with the number one rule I want you to live and die by in your sales process:

Massie-ism #674:

“When you have the truth, you don’t need tricks. Always tell the truth to your customers.”

No matter what you’ve been told, and no matter who told you – slick tricks work against you and not for you when you are building your enrollment.

Growing a school over the long-term is about building trust and a reputation for honesty in your community. Being known as the local used car salesman of martial arts instructors is not the best way to achieve that goal.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few key areas where you can use honesty and common sense courtesy to your best advantage to increase your sales and conversions.
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When You Start a Martial Art School There Are Things You Should Know…

Most instructors start a martial arts school knowing they are going to need 100 students or more to support themselves at a living wage while paying the overhead on their facility. However, there are some other things you should know when you start a school that no one likes to talk about…

For example, your two greatest enemies – space and time.

Now, I’m not talking about space and time in the sense that say, a quantum physicist might refer to them… and not in the Rod Serling sense either (if you don’t know who he is, it’s before your time). No, I’m talking about it in the “square footage and hours in the day” sense. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer Intensive Kids Camps

It seems that school owners in some areas are experiencing difficulties in filling their summer camps this year. Whether this is due to the current economic conditions in those areas, or due to waiting too long to start advertising their camps (I suspect the latter), there’s always a way to salvage these situations to make the best of things.

Back in 2006 at around this time of the year, I was facing a major crisis in my school. Sky-high fuel costs were causing a major budget crunch for most families in my area, and as it turns out our community was one of the first to show signs of the mortgage fallout. Bottom line was, only about half of my after-school karate kids were staying through the summer, and I was facing a major budget crisis of my own if I didn’t make up that income fast.

So, I borrowed an idea from another instructor and decided to hold “Summer Intensive Training Camps” in my school. I posted a description of how this works in the forums last week. Here’s how you do it: Read the rest of this entry »

Traditionally, summer has been one of the most difficult times of year for most martial arts schools. Thankfully, however, savvy studio owners have developed new ways to actually generate more income over the summer months than they do during the other months of the year.

Testimonial: “This is awsome. I can’t put it down. I have read many articles and books on MA school ops and they mostly say the same thing, “BIGGER IS BETTER”. But you have opened my eyes to new ideas. Great book!” Pete DeCarlo Pennsylvania, USA

How, you ask? For those of you who don’t mind teaching kids, the answer is “Summer Camps.” Now, I’ve heard from a lot of instructors before that they don’t want to teach kids. All I can say to that is, before you opened your school Read the rest of this entry »

When most martial arts school owners think of special events, they probably envision Ninja Nights, sleepovers, and other lock-in type events for children. Rarely, however, do such school owners consider hosting special events for their adult students. The school owner may believe that their adult students are too busy or too broke to attend such an event, or that they have to bring in a “big-name” martial artist to teach in order to get anyone to come. And, we all know how much those “name” martial artists charge for their services (and rightly so; they have bills Read the rest of this entry »