Posts Tagged ‘Martial Art’

A Good Graduation Ceremony Both Attracts And Keeps Students

Making your martial arts promotion ceremonies meaningful and memorable is an effective way to both keep and attract students.

Graduation night is a concept I picked up from observing successful school owners from around the country. When I started my first school, I tried to network with and visit as many successful school owners as I could, both to exchange ideas and to observe their “best practices” in action.

One thing I observed was that, in many of the most successful schools, they used belt promotions as a means of both increasing their retention and to promote their programs. For retention purposes, nothing beats getting the family members of your students involved and giving them an opportunity to see their loved one in action.

In addition, this is also a powerful incentive for your students to perform well and stay committed to their training, because they want to be able to “show” their family how they are progressing in their martial arts training.

Likewise when it comes to attracting new students, there are few things more powerful than third-party endorsements. And, the best third-party endorsements are those people can witness with their own eyes. As they say, “Seeing is believing”. Well, when friends of your students see them getting recognition for their hard work, and enjoying doing their martial art, it is a powerful recruiting tool for your school.

Holding regular scheduled graduation celebration events where students are ENCOURAGED to invite their friends is a great way to achieve both of the above objectives. Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »

If you’d like to understand what starting and running your own martial arts school takes, the following is a good solid overview of the process. Before I get into the steps involved in starting a karate school (or other martial art), I’d like to be frank in telling you that starting any business is hard work… probably harder than any other undertaking you’ve ever attempted in your life. There will be setbacks, disappointments, and hardships along the way, but if you stay positive and focused on your goal, take a proactive stance and seek a solution or workaround whenever you face challenges, and stay the course – the payoff will be tremendous. Okay, enough with the pep talk… let’s get on to discussing what you need to do to start a martial arts school… Planning The very first thing you need to do when you are starting out is to write a martial arts business plan. There are two very good reasons for this: 1. If you are going to seek outside funding, there isn’t a lender in the world that will consider giving a prospective entrepreneur a loan if they don’t have a solid business plan. 2. More importantly, you need to have a clear picture of the steps you will take to successfully launch your martial arts school, from start-up through the first Read the rest of this entry »