Posts Tagged ‘marketing budget’

Unrealistic Expectations…

I often receive emails or field messages on the forums asking me how long it takes to grow a martial arts school to “x” number of students.

In addition, I sometimes receive similar messages from new and would-be school owners who are ready to quit because they think their school isn’t growing fast enough…

Sadly, this is an all-too-common occurrence which I blame in part on the mainstream industry magazines, who are more than willing to print story after story about Master XYZ’s overnight martial arts school successes.

Unfortunately, this sort of irresponsible journalism creates unrealistic expectations in the minds of those who are unfamiliar with the way business growth typically works in the real world.

Reality Versus Confabulation

Certainly, such wild stories sell consulting packages… but what you’re not reading in those articles is how Master XYZ already had a substantial business in place in a neighboring community, or how they had an extensive marketing budget and experience in martial arts school promotion to help them get off the ground fast. Granted, I’ve personally coached school owners and showed them how to enroll large amounts of students in a relatively short period of time. But, they were, Read the rest of this entry »

The biggest challenge new and established school owners face is getting new students. The thing most martial arts instructors fail to realize is that, once they open their doors, they are no longer just in the business of teaching martial arts. Now that they’ve decided to open a studio, they have an added responsibility to keep their doors open by attracting new business.

Although many instructors fail miserably in their marketing efforts, it’s often more due to a lack of planning than a pure lack of marketing know-how. Instead of going over the basics of marketing (you can read that by picking up any good marketing book), instead I am going to tell you how to plan your efforts so you get the most from your hard work and money. Here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the hardest things about starting a new studio is finding ways to market before you are making any profit. It’s a real catch-22; you know you need to market to attract students, but you don’t have much money to spend to do it. So what do you do?

Actually, there are a number of low-cost and moderate-cost methods you can use to attract new students. The first thing I would suggest is to Read the rest of this entry »