Posts Tagged ‘Stuff’

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 »

Lesson Plan? What The Heck’s A Lesson Plan?

The most common response I get from instructors when I ask whether they use lesson plans is:

“Naw, not really… mostly I just wing it.”

Winging it may seem like the thing to do when you’re an experienced instructor, or when the thought of one more weekly chore seems as daunting as squaring off against Fedor with both hands tied behind your back. (What do they feed that guy, anyway? Oh, that’s right – other MMA fighters…)

But, a return to the venerable, oft-maligned lesson plan can greatly improve your ability to teach more effectively… and to do so on a consistent basis.

Let’s look at some reasons why lesson plans are a must if you want to grow your school: Read the rest of this entry »

How to Create a Lead Generating Machine In Under 90 Days… (Almost) For Free!

Most everyone asks me about martial arts marketing; or more specifically, how to get more students into their school. This seems to be a universal problem for school owners across the country.

For the majority of school owners, the main challenge with regards to getting more students is getting your programs in front of enough people (in other words, lead generation).

This is typically due to one of two issues:

1. A lack of or inadequate amount of marketing -
2. Ineffective marketing -

More often than not, with new school owners they aren’t marketing enough due to lack of funds with which to do so. Ten years ago, I’d have told any such school owner to get out and do some flyering and door hangers, an extremely time-intensive (but usually very effective) task.

Thankfully, we now live in an internet age where everyone has a world of potential customers at their fingertips. The question is, how do you reach them?

Well, that’s what this article is going to explain. Read the rest of this entry »