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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Martial Arts Business Fundamentals You Dare Not Ignore

I don’t care how much marketing you do…how much you spend…or how many martial arts marketing associations you belong to, at the end of the day, you still have to have offer great service, have incredible passion and contagious enthusiasm to build a school that people want to be around.

Not only that, but you also need to demonstrate great kindness and sincere appreciation to your students so they know you truly care about them.

This helps with not only recruitment but with retention.

When you do these things, your business will begin to change.

It will begin to transform itself into a place that people desperately want to be a part of and one they can’t wait to tell their friends about.

I remind myself of these things each and every day and gets me in the proper mindset to build a great martial arts business.

It is all easier said than done, I realize.

However, without doubt, it ALL has to be genuine.

You can’t fake any one of these things or your prospects and students will know.

If your business is struggling, you might want to consider the reasons as to why.

Perhaps one or more of these fundamentals might be the missing piece to the puzzle.

What other martial arts business fundamentals would you add and why?

Popularity: 7%

Martial Arts Business Success in 2010

2009 was a brutal year for many martial arts school owners. To help you spring into 2010 with a little more juice, here is my top 10 list of martial arts business and marketing tips to help your martial arts school become even more successful in the New Year.

1. If you haven’t already done so, implement everything I talked about in Make Your Martial Arts School More Successful in 2009.
2. Start doing online videos. You can do martial arts commercials, demonstrations, interviews..whatever. Host them on YouTube.com for free then pipe them into your website.
3. Create a Facebook Fan Page. In the age of social media, it’s time to set up a Facebook Fan page. This is a great tool for retention as as well as prospecting. I get interaction from my students on virtually every post I make.
4. Test Twitter. You’ll definitely want to experiment with this one. It might work for you and it might not. I don’t personally have a lot of students interacting on Twitter but still use it to get out information pertaining to my martial arts school. As this becomes even more mainstream, you will be ahead of the curve if you start using this now as you build your legion of faithful followers.
5. Test paid search. Paid search is the sponsored advertising you see in the search engines like Google. You pay for clicks on a keyword basis.  The more you’re willing to pay, the higher up in the ads you are. I highly recommend you start with Google. It’s the easiest and most effective system there is where you can send targeted prospects to your martial arts schools website in a relatively cost effective manner.
6. Create a member’s area on your website. This is a great tool for retention. Some say you shouldn’t restrict this area (it can help with recruitment) while other’s say make it password protected (makes it more exclusive). I personally have mine behind a password protected area as it is a competitive advantage. Whichever way you choose, you can house a private forum… how to videos… curriculum downloads… training tips… and more. The important thing is to make it worth visiting often and that it becomes a valuable supplement to your students training.
7. Build a list. This is one of the best things you can do for your martial arts school. Segment your students vs. prospects and send them different messages.
8. Show your students you care. Don’t just do this once and think you’re covered. It’s something you need to do often in conjunction with offering remarkable classes in order to maximize retention.
9. Create irresistible offers. This will help you to attract and sign up new students.  Learn How to Create an Irresistible Offer Your Prospects Can’t Refuse and 10 Types of Irresistible Offers You Can Make to Prospects.
10. Ask yourself 10 essential martial arts business questions for 2010.

I hope this helps and wish you great success in 2010! I look forward to hearing how you’re doing to build and grow your school.

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10 Essential Martial Arts Business Questions for 2010

Like any good martial arts instructor, sometimes it best to ask questions rather than give answers all the time. This way, you might uncover things more critical to your operation and business and it will mean more when it’s your idea.

Here are 10 questions to help your martial arts business grow in 2010:

1. How can I make my students lives easier/better?
   Always put your students first. Thinking about this might help you to uncover a new service or program you didn’t have before or how to improve existing ones.  You could consider offering more convenient hours, DVD’s, curriculum manuals, etc.
2. What are the biggest opportunities right now for my martial arts school to grow?
   Determining this will help you attack the low hanging fruit you need to give your business a much needed shot in the arm. What is the simplest things you can do that will give you the biggest bang for your buck?
3. What information do my instructors need right now?
   This speaks to direction, motivation and purpose. Rally the troops to make sure you’re all on the same page for the New Year. Share with them your vision and teach them how to improve. The last thing you need is instructors making this all up as they go along.
4. What systems can I set up to make my business run more efficiently?
   If you don’t have any, now is a good time to start. This could be as simple as create a system for answering the phone, teaching a trial program, teaching a class, greeting prospective new students, scheduling appointments, etc.  The more systems you have in place, the more efficient your operation becomes.
5. How can I increase my bottom line?
   Evaluate how many revenue streams you have and determine if you can create any more relevant ones. You can even work on ideas of how to get more out of your existing sources. Look at possibly adding new programs, upsells, cross sells, merchandise, seminars, etc.
6. What business skills do I need to improve upon?
   You know where you’re strong and where you’re weak. Work on things that need the most help. For some this might be marketing. For others, networking. Whatever “it” is, take a class… read a blog … buy a book.. subscribe to a magazine… get a mentor. Whatever you can do to improve the desired skill set.
7. What can I do to make it easier to do business with me?
   You might be hard to do business with and not even know it. Look at things like you sign up process, if you accept credit cards, are you easy to contact, etc. How can you make it even easier?
8. What can I do to retain more students?
   First you need to keep track of your stats to know if this is even a problem.  If your back door is busier than your front door, you’ve got some serious problems to fix! The key is to keep your students excited and engaged in their training. Ideas to help keep more students includes offering free private lessons, adding new classes and programs as well as introducing new drills and class formats.
9. How can I get more referrals?
   This is the lifeblood of the most successful martial arts schools. If you don’t have a referral program in place, get on it! Learn more about referral programs here.
10. How can I get “on” my business instead of “in” it?
    Are you in the trenches everyday answering phones… greeting walk in’s… teaching every class… private lessons… or do you have the resources and staff to help you be the visionary for your martial arts school? Read “E-Myth” by Michael Gerber for more information on this subject. A must read (WARNING: he’s a bit of wind bag but makes some great points).

What questions would you add to this list?

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What is Your Prospects First Experience Like at your Martial Arts School?

I have been looking to get some mats at my martial arts school and a friend of mine invited me go to his MMA gym the other night to check out what they use.

As I walked in, my friend introduced me to one of the owners/instructors. We shook hands, said hi, and then he handed me a full color glossy postcard sized handout with the schedule, basic description of classes taught, and the rates on it. Then he immediately took off to teach a kickboxing class. My friend took me back to his Jiu Jitsu class and after about 10 minutes the other instructor came over and introduced himself then went back to teaching his class.

I enjoyed watching their classes. It was a good time and gave me great insight. It also helped me to determine what I should do with my mats at my martial arts school. Overall, I had a great experience.

However, I left that place without anyone asking me for my phone number, email, or if I wanted to sign up for the free trial (which they offer).

If it were your school, how would you have interacted with me? I’d really like to hear your thoughts and reactions to this and promise to read every response. Please do me the favor of sharing your ideas below and thanks in advance.

Popularity: 5%

Poll: What martial arts billing company do you use?

Recently I was emailing a fellow martial arts school owner and they mentioned they use electronic funds transfer (EFT) in place of contracts.

And, it got me thinking…

Which one do you use and why? Vote then share your reasons in the form of a comment below!

Popularity: 6%

Poll: Do you Require Contracts at your Martial Arts School?

Many martial arts schools across the country use contracts with their students. I know many marketing and business gurus say without a doubt use them while others won’t touch them with a ten foot poll.

So, I wanted to ask:

Agree or disagree with the use of contracts? Share your thoughts in the form of a comment below!

Popularity: 7%

All Professional Martial Arts Schools are McDojos

If you are in business and accept money for martial arts lessons then you are a McDojo. After all, you are taking money in exchange for teaching the martial arts and, as a for profit business, you are putting profits ahead of the art(s) you teach. Read more

Popularity: 13%

How to Make a Living Teaching Martial Arts (Part 2)

As we discussed in part one of How to Make a Living Teaching Martial Arts, there are many things you need to master in order to make a living teaching martial arts.

Here are eight more essentials before you can really make a sustainable living teaching the martial arts.

Read more

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How to Make a Living Teaching Martial Arts

Slap of reality: Making a living teaching the martial arts is hard as hell. There is a lot you have to learn in order to be successful. Not only do you have to be a decent martial artists, you also have to be good at instructing, business, scheduling, marketing, finances, and more.

Are you up to it? Read more

Popularity: 6%

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