Posts Tagged ‘Short Period’

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.
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Don’t Get Too Comfortable With Your Success – A Small Amount of Worry Is A Healthy Thing

"Do it now!" is Brian Tracy's favorite maxim, and mine as well. And, I would also add, "Plan for it now!" - read this article to find out why.

One of the most difficult truths to convey to instructors is the fact that complacency will destroy your business.

I very nearly learned this lesson the hard way a few years after opening my first school. When I opened that school, the main challenge I faced was overcoming the negative impressions previous schools had left on the local community.

However, after about six months I was able to develop a positive reputation as an honest school that provided quality martial arts instruction. I enjoyed a period of a few years in which I was the sole full-time school in the area.

Yet, this period was to be short-lived as two chains (one local, one national) opened branch locations in my town in the following years. And, it caught me completely by surprise.

Ah, complacency. It can sneak up and hamstring you if you’re not careful. Let’s examine what we need to do to stay on our toes without going crazy with worry.
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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 »