Posts Tagged ‘group classes’

Prepping For Summer….

You can download this summer kids martial arts ad in multiples sizes and formats in the member's download area.

When summer rolls around, some school owners rejoice while other wait in grim preparation for what is often their worst months of the year.

So what makes the difference? For the most part, it’s planning ahead and adapting to the circumstances.

And, this involves nothing more than making sure you have some extra income generators running over the summer months, and also having some killer summer specials going to attract new students all summer long.

Summer Income Generators

By far, the best summer income generators are summer camps. That’s the good news.

The bad news? They are a ton of work! Even so, without them you may find yourself in dire straits come the end of summer. That’s why I suggest school owners knuckle under and learn to enjoy running summer camps each year.

The key to running successful summer camps is having a proven plan to follow. Planning and organization are key, and will make the difference between making tons of extra cash over the summer or working your fingers to the bone for little extra gain.

If you have no idea how to run a summer camp, I suggest you get my summer camp system and read it through. Then, follow that simple system to success this summer and add several thousand dollars to your bottom line each month to boot. Read the rest of this entry »

Keeping Them After They First Step In The Door…

I do the same intro course process that I learned from Jim Mather 15 years ago. I’ve tried many other ways to do intros, and I always go back to this one because it has never failed me… Plus, we enroll 90% of the people who show up for their first lesson with this process. Here’s the skinny on what it entails – it’s pretty basic, but I’d rather do something simple that works than something complicated that doesn’t:

• 1Week for $19.95, including a free uniform, a 20 minute private or semi-private classes (I’ll schedule up to 3 at a time) and two group classes.

The private lesson is done either right before their first group class or the day before. Office staff catches the parents Read the rest of this entry »

Occasionally I get asked whether an instructor should teach out of their home. Since roughly one-half of the schools I’ve trained at have been located either in or on the grounds of private residences, I can relate to this issue.

My first bit of advice with regards to this issue of teaching out of your home is that you speak to an attorney about these matters. Since I’m not an attorney, any advice I can offer is pure conjecture based on my own experiences running a business. Only an attorney that is licensed to practice in your area can give you a definitive opinion in these matters. Read the rest of this entry »

Pricing Strategy #1: Applying the Law of Supply and Demand

You should be aware that when a service is not a commodity (easily copied and mass-produced), it is naturally in higher demand and worth more. Our services are unique because very few people make it to black belt and even fewer decide to teach. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, one of our readers wanted to know what I thought about the Tracy’s Karate business system, founded by the Tracy brothers of Kenpo fame. He prefers to teach adults rather than children, and wanted to know if I thought he could earn a decent living following their model.

I respect the Tracys a lot. I don’t know them personally, but I know they have turned out a lot of good black belts through their studios, and that many of their instructors have achieved success using their system. Plus, they are martial arts business pioneers, and were running successful studios when most of us were still in diapers.

Having said that, with regards to the Tracy method I think it is a good business system, with one exception – it focuses on a business model that is labor-intensive. That is to say, you will work a lot harder in your studio if your main business is giving private lessons.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at the following scenario: Read the rest of this entry »