Posts Tagged ‘Martial Art School’

How to Train and Hire Staff for Your Martial Arts Studio

Hiring and training staff for your martial art studio is a vital component of my overall martial arts business success system.

For one, you need to have people on your staff who can take over to help you get more done.

Also, as your school grows it becomes essential to have staff in place to help you handle that growth.

But, where do you find these people, and how do you train them? Also, what positions should they fill in your martial art school?

In this article I’m going to answer those questions for you, and help you understand why and how you hire and train staff. Read the rest of this entry »

The Top Things Successful School Owners Do To Achieve Financial Success

When you think about successful school owners, do you ever wonder how they get to where they are? You see, everyone wants to enjoy success, but the reason so few do is because so few people are willing to do the work to get there. Every successful school owner understands this. As millions of people have learned from Stephen Covey’s books, successful people tend to follow the same success habits in their daily lives to achieve and maintain that success. And, starting and running a martial art school is no different. There are things every successful school owner does on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in order to achieve success. And if you want to be a successful school owner, you need to do those things. Here’s my list of the success habits that successful school owners follow. I suggest you make each one of these habits part of your daily routine for the next month, until they become a habit for you as well.

Success Habit #1: Showing Up

Successful school owners show up to work each day. And, that doesn’t mean showing up 5 minutes before class – it means they invest long hours outside of teaching classes into their business. For every hour you spend on the floor, you should be spending two productive hours working on your business. This includes time you spend doing strategic planning, on marketing, on staff development, on planning events, on public relations, on curriculum, and yes, even on personal and professional development.

Success Habit #2: Being Present

Successful school owners are present with their students, staff, Read the rest of this entry »

How To Use Trade Shows and Fairs To Get Students

With warm weather arriving and spring in full swing, chances are good that the local community events calendar in your city is filling up with trade shows and festivals.

In fact, you may have even been invited to do a demonstration or have a table at one of these events.

And that’s a good thing. Even though you may dread doing these events (I know I do), lead generation from trade shows, local community events, health fairs, and school festivals remains one of the best ways to increase your community profile and to generate lots of leads quickly.

However, if you fail to do this lead generation method properly, you’ll just be wasting your time and missing out on a ton of great leads. So, follow my tips for successfully leveraging trade show and fair appearances to the greatest result in marketing your martial art school. Read the rest of this entry »

A Quick Guide To Using Review Sites To Market Your Studio

Online review site have become all the rage over the last few years, and should be an integral part of your overall online marketing profile for your martial art school.

However, using these sites can be tricky, if you follow some of the sleazier advice being tossed around online about how to “game” these sites.

Using strategies such as posting multiple fake reviews to boost your own ratings can end up backfiring on you, potentially getting you black-listed from some online review communities.

But used properly, review sites can be a great source of online traffic, phone leads, and new potential students for your studio. So for those of you who aren’t up to speed on this yet, here’s my quick guide to using review sites for martial arts marketing.

A List of Review Sites – Where To Post Your Business Info

Here’s a list of all the major online review sites and business directories you can advertise your business on: Read the rest of this entry »

“Work” – The Dirty Word in Martial Arts Marketing

Work.

It’s that dirty little four-letter word associated with martial arts marketing in all its varied forms. There’s no avoiding it, and no denying it.

Marketing your studio takes work.

Yet, without marketing you’re dead in the water. Just as a fisherman can’t catch fish without casting a net or line, you can’t expect to get leads and clients without doing any marketing.

And, just because it takes time and effort to market your school, that doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore or avoid it. In fact, if anything it should be the first thing you knock out every day, since it’s often the most time-intensive activity each day.

Why I Look Forward To Doing My Marketing

Yes, I actually look forward to doing the marketing for my martial arts business. Why? Because I’ve invested enough time and effort into it that I’m good at it, and because of that I know there’s a reward at the end of every successful campaign I invest my time and effort into.

Notice, I didn’t say, “Invest money into.” That’s because with today’s technology, it actually costs very little to market a small business… if you know what you’re doing.

Yet, I have coaching clients who are anything but marketing geniuses who are successfully using technologies like blogging, social media, and email to market their schools and studios – and to great effect.

In fact, if you check out the MASAI site updates that appear later in this article, you’ll find out how to market your school for around $60 a month. Seriously. Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding Lead Capture and Autoresponders for Online Marketing of Your Martial Art School

Martial arts marketing using autoresponders, email, and lead capture is easy when you understand how to use technology to get the most from your marketing. But what exactly is an autoresponder? And what is lead capture? For those of you who are new to online marketing for local businesses, “lead capture” refers to using an online form that provides an incentive for site visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or email list. And, an autoresponder is an automated service that uses a web-based software program to automatically send out follow-up messages to your captured leads (your email list). In addition to capturing leads and following up automatically, most paid email autoresponder services allow you to efficiently manage your contact lists and send out newsletters (called “broadcasts”) to your list with just a few clicks of the mouse. This is a useful and valuable feature that by itself makes paying $20 0r $30 a month for an autoresponder worthwhile.

Why Use Paid Services Instead of “Free” Solutions?

As I’ve often said, “free” isn’t free if it Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing Martial Arts to Adults

Most martial art school owners do a horrible job of marketing to adults… even the ones who offer programs geared toward the adult market.

The fact is, children’s martial arts has dominated the industry for so long, most of the industry has forgotten what it’s like to have a floor full of adults.

This, in turn, has led to instructors being out of touch with what the adult market wants. Further, even those school owners who focus on adult martial arts programs often get it wrong.

That’s because they are also out of touch with what the market wants, but for different reasons. These instructors are often so focused on what their needs and desires are, they forget or completely miss what the vast majority of people are looking for in a martial arts program.

So, the purpose of this month’s marketing tip is to review the basics of marketing martial arts to adults… read on and you might very well find you’ve been missing the mark in your own marketing efforts.

The Basics of Marketing Martial Arts to Adults

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Being On Your Game And How It Determines Your Martial Arts Business Success

Game is something a lot of people talk about in many different arenas:

• Professional athletes talk about being “on their game” -
• Guys and ladies who are in the dating scene refer to pickup lines and techniques as “running game” -
• Sales people might say they were “off their game” if they failed to close an important deal -
• Coaches will tell players to “keep their head in the game” to remind them about staying focused -
• And, motivational speakers have even written entire books about how to “master the inner game” -

But really, what does it mean to “be on your game”, and how does that relate to the art and craft of running a successful martial art school?

In my experience, discovering the inner game of business success was a major revelation. For starters, realizing that there even WAS a game made a huge difference in how I approached my business.

And, realizing that I had to keep my head in it and be on my game at all times was (if you’ll pardon the extension of the metaphor), a game changer for me.

Let’s get into this a little deeper so you can understand exactly what I’m referring to and how this affects every aspect of your business.

Read the rest of this entry »

Use Social Networking to Promote Your Website

It’s almost impossible to find someone these days that isn’t a member of at least one social network.

Why not use that to your advantage in promoting your business?

Social networking provides you with free ways to promote your business and increase your website traffic.

And the best part is, you can access and use all the most popular social networks to market your business for free.

Here’s how…

The Social Networking Craze, and How To Leverage It To Promote Your Martial Art School

Social networking is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to friends and family near and far. You can share pictures, stories and send instant messages when you are both logged in.

This way of keeping in touch has extended into the business world and become useful as a marketing tool. The great thing is, it’s free, and these sites bridge the gap across the miles better than simple email. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting The Most From Your Referrals

Valentine’s Day means a lot of different things to different people. For some, it’s time to start looking for a date for the 14th; for others, it’s time to book reservations for dinner with the significant other or spouse…

But for martial art school owners, it’s time to market your programs using guest pass referral cards.

It’s no secret that kids have to give out Valentine’s Day cards to their friends on Valentine’s Day. They’re in the mood to give stuff away anyway – why not give them a gift to place in their cards as well?

If you’ll look in the member’s download section, you’ll find a professionally designed card template that’s perfect for this purpose. Print them on full color card stock along with your school info, and provide them to parents to use in lieu of buying cards for Valentine’s Day for their kids.

So, now you know how to use those cards to get leads and trials… But how do you convert them and keep them coming back?

Here are some vital tips and tricks to make sure you get the most from your guest pass referrals – and not just during February, but all year long. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Turn Resolutions Into Enrollments

The New Year is a great time for adult enrollments if you’re a martial art school owner.

The reason? People are making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, and start a regular exercise plan.

Many of these people have tried the big box gyms, workout DVDs, dieting, and other popular ways to lose weight or get in shape in the past, often with mixed results.

That means many people are open to trying something new. Maybe in the past they got bored, lost interest, or needed someone to help them stay motivated to stick with their program.

And, that’s what makes martial arts training the perfect answer for people who want to stay active by doing an activity that will keep their interest.

Your job is to get that marketing message across to local consumers during the month of January. We’ve designed the ad for this month to be in lock-step with the message that martial arts training offers a great workout that is never dull. That means step #1 of marketing fitness in the New Year has already been done for you.

So what’s step number 2?
Read the rest of this entry »

Knowing and Doing the Basics is the Key to Martial Arts Business Success

Do you have your martial arts business basics down?

You know – those top priority concepts, skills, and tasks that are essential to running a successful martial art school?

Maybe you haven’t given much thought to what those are… but if you’ve read Small Dojo Big Profits, you know about the 80/20 rule (Pareto’s Principle).

Pareto believed that eighty percent of your results come from just twenty percent of your efforts, and I’ve found this to be true in my own businesses.

That’s why it’s so important to know what those “20% activities” are. Once you do, you can focus in on those activities, and cut out most of the extraneous stuff. By doing so, not only will you become more productive, but you’ll also have more time away from your school.

So, let’s examine the “basic foundation” of running a successful martial arts school, and then we can look at which daily tasks and goals we need to focus on to leverage our workday and maximize our effectiveness.
Read the rest of this entry »

How One Little Piece of Paper Changes the Whole Dynamic Between You And Your Students

Why use membership agreements?

This seems to be an ages-old controversy among martial art school owners, and it’s one that bears examining.

First, let’s examine why there is so much controversy surrounding the use of membership agreements in the first place.

If you’re against using membership agreements, I’ll bet it’s because of one of the following three reasons:

1. You’ve seen them used unethically in the past,
2. You’ve seen them used ineffectively in the past,
3. You’ve seen them used inconsistently in the past.

Can You Run A Successful School Without Them?

Everyone wants to know this, and here’s my honest answer after running schools for over 15 years and speaking to literally hundreds of school owners:
Read the rest of this entry »

Decide Now What Type of School You Want, Or You’ll Be The Proud Owner of Someone Else’s Ideal School

Seriously, have you ever really asked yourself that question? It’s an important one, because without knowing the answer and planning for it, you might very well end up with the kind of school you never wanted. This topic is really all about having a vision for your business – an overarching concept of what you desire your business ultimately to look like. Your “perfect” school, if you will. It’s not enough to just have your doors open and be enrolling students, because you ultimately are the person who shapes and molds your school into Read the rest of this entry »

Easy Online Martial Arts Marketing Methods You May Have Overlooked

There has never been a better time for martial arts marketing, because it’s never been easier to get the word out about your school. Online marketing and modern technology can take the grunt work out of promoting your programs.

Still, I know that many of you may not be leveraging the internet as well as you might to market your school. With all the different ways you can market your school online, it’s easy to get caught up with the more obvious marketing methods, and overlook the subtler and simpler ways to promote your school that are sitting right under your nose.

So, with that in mind here are several relatively quick and easy ways to boost your online marketing while barely lifting a finger (well, except to hit a few keys).
Read the rest of this entry »