10 Red Flags Your Martial Arts School is in Trouble

Are you having doubts if you’re going to be able to keep the doors open at your martial arts school much longer?

Do you invest your time and energy into your martial arts school and pour everything you’ve got into it but you’re still not making much, if any, money teaching martial arts?

While there is no magic formula to determine whether you’re going to make a living off of martial arts or if you’re going to have to shut your doors, there are certain things you can look at to tell you the overall health of your martial arts business.

Here are 10 warning signs that your martial arts school might be in trouble:

1. You’re unprofitable.
   Having money come in isn’t the same thing as turning a profit. In other words, what you bill each month isn’t as important as how much you make over and above your expenses each month. Many say a successful business is a profitable business. While profitability is only one measure of a business, it is certainly an important one.
2. You dread going in to teach.
   If you aren’t motivated and genuinely excited to show up each day, Houston we have a problem. If you’re not motivated, believe me, your students know it. And, if you’re not excited, they aren’t going to be and your chances of losing them as student increases. It’s just that simple.
3. You can’t take negative feedback.
   When a member or a prospect gives you some constructive feedback, what is your reaction? Do you freak out or think they’re stupid? Take a moment a listen and take their feedback to heart. Believe me, they’re telling you important things you need to address in your business. In short, you have to be open to change to make a change.
4. You don’t get many, if any, referrals.
   Wow. This is a big one. If your students aren’t excited enough to tell their friends, they probably have notice your lack of enthusiasm during class. Your classes need to be exciting and fun. You need to get people so pumped up that and feel they learned so much that they can’t help but tell their friends. Break up your routine! I know this is easier said than done. However, without making your classes worth talking about, you’re not likely to improve your lack of referrals. Another thing to increase the likelihood of referrals is to have a referral marketing system in place. Just remember, your classes first need to be worth referring for those to work.
5. You are the cheapest in town.
   This is the easiest way to go out of business. By being cheap, you’re not getting rewarded for the value you truly offer. Many martial artists struggle with asking for money let alone enough to be profitable. If you struggle with charging what you’re worth, you probably shouldn’t open up a martial arts school in the first place. Remember, the less you charge, the more students you need to make a profit. That’s a long, hard road to travel and most don’t make it with this approach (unless you have low overhead).
6. You hate to delegate.
   If you insist on doing everything yourself, you’re further behind than you realize. I know it may be hard to believe, but other people can do the job just as well as you can, if not better. Find out what your students do for a living and see if you can work out a trade or discounted service in return for their help. You might be surprised how many good resources you already have in your school you can use to help get your martial arts business back on track.
7. You don’t have the right systems in place.
   Having systems in place takes a lot of work. However, it will pay you back ten-fold. You should consider several different systems for your including operations, marketing, accounting, teaching, retention, prospecting, student intake and more. The more systems you have in place, the more efficient your operation becomes.
8. You’re not using EFT.
   I transformed my martial arts school the day I started using electronic funds transfer.  I no longer had to be a bill collector or the bad guy when someone didn’t pay. Now every month, the money is in my account and I don’t have to worry about it. And, you don’t have to be a large school to start using EFT. Every business no matter how big or small can benefit from it. If you’re still letting people pay you manually, you really should reconsider.
9. You’re the only one teaching.
   Having your students teach or assist is actually a great retention device and will also help free up your time to be on your business instead of in it. Start having your intermediate students help assist in your next class. You can have them run the stretching and warmups just to get them started. This allows you to be more attentive to your students and gives you a different perspective you don’t get from leading the entire class all the time. Once I started doing this,  I had more help than I knew what to do with.
10. You lose more students than you get each month.
    What is your retention rate? Do you even know? Keep your eye on the back door as that is as important for long term success as how many students are coming in the front door. The reasons for people leaving can likely be traced to one of the 9 things listed above. Whenever possible, see if you can find out the real reason why someone left. That can help you button things up even tighter.

Take a good look and see if your martial arts school is suffering from any of these red flags. Then set out to change them, one by one, as fast as you can.

What other red flags would you add to this list? Share you thoughts in the form of a comment!

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