Posts Tagged ‘summer camps’

Prepping For Summer….

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When summer rolls around, some school owners rejoice while other wait in grim preparation for what is often their worst months of the year.

So what makes the difference? For the most part, it’s planning ahead and adapting to the circumstances.

And, this involves nothing more than making sure you have some extra income generators running over the summer months, and also having some killer summer specials going to attract new students all summer long.

Summer Income Generators

By far, the best summer income generators are summer camps. That’s the good news.

The bad news? They are a ton of work! Even so, without them you may find yourself in dire straits come the end of summer. That’s why I suggest school owners knuckle under and learn to enjoy running summer camps each year.

The key to running successful summer camps is having a proven plan to follow. Planning and organization are key, and will make the difference between making tons of extra cash over the summer or working your fingers to the bone for little extra gain.

If you have no idea how to run a summer camp, I suggest you get my summer camp system and read it through. Then, follow that simple system to success this summer and add several thousand dollars to your bottom line each month to boot. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer Intensive Kids Camps

It seems that school owners in some areas are experiencing difficulties in filling their summer camps this year. Whether this is due to the current economic conditions in those areas, or due to waiting too long to start advertising their camps (I suspect the latter), there’s always a way to salvage these situations to make the best of things.

Back in 2006 at around this time of the year, I was facing a major crisis in my school. Sky-high fuel costs were causing a major budget crunch for most families in my area, and as it turns out our community was one of the first to show signs of the mortgage fallout. Bottom line was, only about half of my after-school karate kids were staying through the summer, and I was facing a major budget crisis of my own if I didn’t make up that income fast.

So, I borrowed an idea from another instructor and decided to hold “Summer Intensive Training Camps” in my school. I posted a description of how this works in the forums last week. Here’s how you do it: Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing Summer Programs

Although it’s a commonly accepted fact in the martial arts industry that schools often experience a slump in business during the summer months, let me make one point clear to you:

Slumps are for school owners who don’t plan ahead.

This is something I wised up to early on in my career of starting and running martial arts schools. Whether we’re talking summer slumps, holiday dry spells, or spring break blues… if you plan ahead you’ll often find hidden opportunities that you never knew existed. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting and Running A Summer Camp: My Own Experience

The first summer camp I ever ran was back around 2000, the summer after I got married. Oh, I had done some piddly little day camps and a Spring Break or Christmas Break camp or two, but nothing on the scale of what we were about to attempt. In preparation for this momentous event, we had just flown in to spend four days with a very successful school owner who ran after-school and summer camps at 3 schools in a large city in Florida, and I had seen for myself how successful his camps were. Read the rest of this entry »

Traditionally, summer has been one of the most difficult times of year for most martial arts schools. Thankfully, however, savvy studio owners have developed new ways to actually generate more income over the summer months than they do during the other months of the year.

Testimonial: “This is awsome. I can’t put it down. I have read many articles and books on MA school ops and they mostly say the same thing, “BIGGER IS BETTER”. But you have opened my eyes to new ideas. Great book!” Pete DeCarlo Pennsylvania, USA

How, you ask? For those of you who don’t mind teaching kids, the answer is “Summer Camps.” Now, I’ve heard from a lot of instructors before that they don’t want to teach kids. All I can say to that is, before you opened your school Read the rest of this entry »