Posts Tagged ‘Successful Business’

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.

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Speed Kills…

Sometimes you're better off taking your bike instead of the express route... especially when it comes to growing your school. Move too fast, and the results can be disastrous.

In the past six months, out of the hundreds of site members we have, I’ve had just three site members contact me to tell me they were either closing their schools or scaling back on their operations…

Although this is an extremely low percentage of failure – especially during an extended recession – I believe that it will be instructive to examine reasons why these schools didn’t make it, in order that we can all avoid making the same mistakes.

In each case, these folks were new school owners or instructors who were in the early stages of launching a school. In two of the three cases, the instructors were teaching in part-time locations, yet they both cited a lack of cash-flow as the reason for their having to “close” their schools. (Note: In the third case, the instructor lost his lease and couldn’t find another suitable location within his budget – a reason totally beyond his control.)

What went wrong here? Upon further probing, the reason in each case was made plain. In their impatience with starting a new business, they just moved ahead too fast and it killed their schools – a very common mistake. This is something I’ve had experience with in the past myself, and which led to my developing the Small Dojo Big Profits method of starting a martial arts school.

Now, before I go on here let me state that there’s no shame in making mistakes when you’re starting a business. Believe me, every successful business owner can rattle off a least two or three major mistakes they made when they were first starting out. The only shame is in not learning from your own mistakes or from those of someone else, which is why you should read this article carefully to avoid these very common mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

In the business world, secrets are funny things. Many times, successful business owners will spend a great deal of time, money, and effort guarding information that is seemingly insignificant… to the uninformed. And this strikes at the heart of what this tip is about today. For those who don’t know any better, the way a successful school owner operates their school may seem virtually identical to the way someone operates who is just getting by. However, it’s the often the little things that make all the difference in whether someone fails or succeeds in business. That’s because Read the rest of this entry »