Posts Tagged ‘Profit Margins’

Is Bigger Better When It Comes To Martial Arts Schools?

Do you need a huge school and 500 students to be successful financially? Not by a long shot!

When it comes to running a martial arts school, size is an important consideration. Of course, everyone wants to have a lot of students and nice, spacious facilities. But how big is too big when it comes to running a martial art school?

To answer this question, first we have to determine exactly what our end goal is or starting our school. Then, once we can “begin with the end in mind”, we can determine how large we can get without hindering our progress toward our goal.

What Kind Of Lifestyle Do You Want?

This is perhaps the most important question to ask ourselves when we first set out to open a martial arts studio. You see, your lifestyle as an instructor will be largely determined by the size of your facility.

Now, this speaks not only to the amount of money you can potentially make, but also to the number of hours you will need to work to manage your school and staff. Obviously, the more students you enroll, the more gross income your school will generate.

However, at some point the law of diminishing returns will kick in; this is an economic principle that basically states that, when work output increases beyond a certain point, the relative return will begin to decrease. In other words, after a certain point in growth your profit margins will get more and more narrow.

That’s why size deserves careful consideration when you’re doing your initial business planning before opening your school. Let’s look at this topic in a bit more detail to see how size impacts profit margins in martial arts business. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s No Need To Be Afraid Of “FREE”

Let me ask you a question…

What have you given away for free lately?

Now, I’m not talking about giving away a bunch of free lessons – that’s not very wise, and if done too much it’ll cheapen the value of your service in the prospects eyes.

Think about it, you don’t see doctors giving away free surgeries, or attorneys advertising “First Case in Court Free!”

However, there are times when you can give away something for free and have it work in your favor. The trick is finding ways to do this while meeting two very important criteria:

1. First, the free offer must perform the function of enticing the prospect to give up something valuable – either their contact information, their commitment, or their time -
2. Second, the free offer must NOT be constructed in such a way that you are giving away too much value and thereby reducing the perceived value of your services (and I’ll explain how to determine whether this is so – read carefully because this is important!)

Meeting these two criteria is crucial to your free offer’s success. Fail to meet either one and you’ll end up on the losing end of the deal, every single time.

So, how do you do this? Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »