Posts Tagged ‘martial arts business’

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 »

“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 »

…And It’s When You’re On Top Of Your Martial Arts School Marketing!

It’s a fact: in martial arts business, competition doesn’t matter if you’re marketing-savvy.

I have clients who have schools right across the street from them, or down the block, etc. Many times these styles and schools are very similar in what they teach.

However, if style mattered, then it would also follow that all the businesses in other industries that sell exactly the same thing would be putting each other out of business.

Think about it – when you have a McDonald’s on one corner, a Burger King on another, and a Jack in the Box on the third, why don’t they all fail?

It’s because competition can actually be a good thing. When the big chain school down the street advertises all over town, they are raising the awareness of your product in the community. And if you can ride on that wave, it can help you tremendously. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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

Think you have some powerful sales kung fu? Put away those slick tricks. Honesty and convenience are better than tricks, any day of the week.

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

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

Do you have your basics down? Not your martial arts basics, but your business basics. Find out by reading this article.

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 »

Being Consistent Will Pay Off In Huge Dividends for Your School’s Success

Just as it took consistency in training to reach an advanced level of skill, it takes consistency in your business activities to achieve the financial success you desire.

How important is consistency in your martial arts business? I believe it is of the utmost importance.

Honestly, this is your financial future we are talking about – how could anything less than consistent daily action toward your goals be acceptable?

Yet, more often than not I find martial arts school owners are highly inconsistent in their management and marketing activities. And, it’s not just their consistency in taking action that is in question; it’s also the type of actions they take.

You see, both are extremely important to your success, because taking the wrong actions consistently can be just as devastating to your business as taking no action at all. You must understand first what the right actions are to take, and then take those actions on a consistent and daily basis to succeed.

Let’s examine what this looks like “in action” so we can have a better understanding of what proper consistent actions are, as well as the sort of impact they can have on your business. Read the rest of this entry »

The Holy Grail of Martial Arts Marketing – Group Enrollments

Group enrollments are easy to do when you know how.

When I bring up doing group enrollments to most of my martial arts business coaching clients, they typically nod their heads and tell me what a great idea it is…

Then they do nothing to implement what I’ve just shared with them. Why? Because most instructors struggle so much to get just one student, enrolling 10 or more at once seems like a pipe dream to them.

It’s Possible – If You Know How!

Well, it’s not a pipe dream. I actually started doing them way back when I first started my school, and refined and perfected the formula after observing how other successful school owners conducted their own group enrollments. Yes, it takes planning, and yes, you have to lay some groundwork to reap the rewards, but honestly -

If you could enroll as many students in a single hour as you typically do all month long, would you be willing to do a little legwork to make that happen?

Sure you would – and here’s how to do it:
Read the rest of this entry »

Martial Arts Business Marketing Challenge

All right – I’m throwing down the gauntlet… all in the name of good fun and seeing some school owners achieve massive martial arts success during the final quarter of this year.

So, I’m having a contest for MASAI members during the month of October 2010. Click here to join MASAI The goal? Simple… get participants to challenge themselves to enroll 30 students in 30 days or as close to it as possible (well, really in 31 days… but “30 students in 31 days” just doesn’t have the same ring to it). The reward? This is the fun part – I’ll be rewarding any school owner who can document their progress toward enrolling 30 students in 30 days with the following prizes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Three Trends School Owners Need to Be Aware of When Marketing Online in 2010-2011

Google is changing the face of search... again. Are you prepared for what's coming?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should be aware that online marketing is of the utmost importance to your business in the coming decade.

As I’ve mentioned and discussed many times in recent years, the landscape of marketing small businesses locally has changed drastically since 2005.

Print is dead. Yellow pages are useless. Newspapers are the dinosaurs of our media. Better than 90% of the population turns to online media to research buying decisions. We’ve been through all this before on this site and my martial arts business blog.

But the marketing landscape changes at a breakneck pace in the new information age, and it seems to change ever faster as technology progresses. I spend a considerable amount of my time studying these trends and analyzing what they mean to small business owners, so I can advise my clients on how to best leverage new marketing technologies and opportunities.

If you follow the trends and know how to take advantage, there has never been a better time to market your business. But, you have to know the trends to take advantage of them. Here are three trends that you need to know about for marketing your business online in 2010 and 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

Once You Fill Your School, You Have to Work to Keep It Full

There are easier ways to keep students in your school than joint-locking them in the parking lot.

As I’ve said many times, when you’re starting a new martial art school (or any business) your first priority is building revenue. Cash flow is what runs a business and what keeps it running. Without cash flow your business simply will not grow.

Now, building cash flow is a function of marketing and sales. We market to attract new prospective clients, and then use effective sales tactics to enroll them in our programs. Simple, right?

However, one thing many school owners overlook is retention systems. Retention systems allow you to keep the cash flow that you have, so you aren’t spinning your wheels by taking one step forward and two steps back in growing your school.

I’ve seen this happen many times with new school owners as well as with experienced but under-performing school owners who begin implementing my recommended marketing practices in their business. If they don’t have quality-control and retention systems in place to handle the sudden influx of students, they’ll have a very hard time keeping those students they worked so very hard to get, and that’s a crying shame. Read the rest of this entry »

After Marketing Comes Selling – Where The Real Fun Begins…

While the phone may seem initimidating to you at first, the sooner you start seeing it as your friend, the faster you will be able to grow your school.

Many would-be school owners and aspiring full-time instructors have convinced themselves that they don’t need to know how to sell to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Accept this now – you have to be a good salesman (or “sales person” if you prefer) in order to run a successful school. However, this doesn’t mean you have to use sneaky tactics or adopt a hard sell approach to enrollments.

On the contrary, these tactics will work against you as you grow your school. Tricking or manipulating potential students into signing up often creates problems down the road, especially if your programs and customer service are substandard.

Instead, learning to be a good salesman as a martial art school owner requires learning how to treat people right, and selling by demonstrating the value of your programs. Remember – telling informs, but showing convinces. And, only the truly convinced will invest both their money and their time into becoming a long-term member of your school.

Treat ‘Em Right, And They’ll Stay – But First, You Have to Get Them To Try It Out

The thing is, demonstrating value requires that you actually get the prospective student (hereafter referred to as a “prospect”) to try your school out. The introductory course is where the real convincing occurs (this is sometimes called a “trial course” – language you should avoid, since it suggest a lack of commitment on the student’s part). But in most cases, a bit of selling is required to convince a complete stranger to try your school.

So, how do you do it? It’s simple really, if you follow a few basic principles. And while I can’t really go over the complete sales process in a short article, I will go over the basic principles here to get you started. Read the rest of this entry »

Martial Arts Business Success Step #1 – Get Your Marketing And Lead Generation Down Pat

Follow my steps to martial arts business success and you'll soon become a martial arts business "master".

Until a student walks in the door and you collect a check, you aren’t in business.

You can get business cards printed up, tell everyone you’re starting a martial art school, and even sign a lease on a building, but not one of those things really mark the transition from “wannabe” to bona fide school owner.

The only thing that does is getting paid – that’s it. And, you cannot and will not get paid without marketing your school and services effectively. Period.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve counseled struggling school owners who gave little if any consideration to marketing when launching their school. And by the same token, I’ve also counseled school owners who wasted considerable time, effort, and resources on highly ineffective and grossly inefficient marketing methods.

If you want to launch and run a successful school, start with becoming an expert marketer. This article will teach you the fundamentals of marketing and lead generation, which marketing and advertising methods are best suited to small businesses, and how to best implement those methods for the greatest effect. Read the rest of this entry »

Why It’s Not Always Good Idea To Try To Build A Better Mousetrap

Learning the business of martial arts is a lot like working your way up through the ranks. You take things in sequence, learning new skills that build on those you learned in previous stages.

One thing I’ve observed since I started offering business coaching to martial art school owners is that we have a tendency to want to do our own thing.

Take for example the numerous styles and systems that exist today. There are as many styles and systems as there are instructors who believe they have something unique to offer. As one of my students once put it, “It seems like every instructor reaches a certain level, then they want to create their own system.”

In similar fashion, I’ve observed that martial arts instructors seem to want to create their own systems for starting and running their businesses as well…

Creating a unique expression that bears the mark of one’s individual personality and preferences is fine in the context of artistic expression. But in the context of running a martial art school, this often has disastrous results.

Mastery In Martial Arts Does Not Translate Into Martial Arts Business Mastery…

Think about it… by the time an instructor decides to codify their unique expression of a martial art style or system, they typically have decades of martial arts experience, study, and training under their belt. Thus, their unique approach is based on decades of trial, error, and experimentation. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to know how to make sure your martial art school fails miserably?

Want to know how to tank your martial art school? Here's how, in just ten easy steps...

If you ever wanted to know how to tank a martial arts school, here’s a list of the top ten ways to fail in your martial arts business…

The Top Ten Ways To Tank Your Martial Arts School

1. Start Your School By The Seat Of Your Pants – Business plans? Business mentors? Business education? Who needs ‘em? Just wing it and you’ll be sure to end your career as a professional martial arts instructor before it even begins.
2. Put Pride And Ego Before Profits - If you want to fail big and fail fast, let your ego make all your business decisions instead of your common sense. This will lead you to rent a facility before you have any students, and you’ll also be likely to rent a lot more space than you really need. Sure, you’ll have the biggest nicest facility in town, but you’ll likely only have bragging rights until the first month’s rent is due…

Read the rest of this entry »