Question on Finding a Good Location
Posted by Mike Massie on March 25, 2009
Q&A On Finding a Good Location for a Martial Arts School
Jason wrote in recently to ask the following:
Q: “What factors should I consider with location? Do I need to be in the most perfect retail space out there, or could I consider 3rd place and if marketed correctly, can I get students? I don’t have the luxury of being the only guy in town. So, my other question would be what do I need to be concerned about with my competition?”
Finding a good location for your martial arts school can be a confusing process
A: Competition is a fact of life. I once ran a martial art school in a town where there was virtually no competition for the first few years I was in business. Then, I had 3 schools open in a very short period of time.
What I found was that it actually improved my business, because of the increased awareness their marketing created, as well as the fact that it forced me to improve my game. Suddenly, I had to be better than someone else, and it forced me to step things up.
Just make sure you don’t open right around the corner from a competitor. Those situations never turn out well for either party.
Factors that are important to consider when choosing a location include
- How much money there is in the area,
- And how many people there are in that are willing to spend it.
Look for locations within a few miles of at least 2 or 3 elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, and that are very close to heavily populated residential areas with a higher median income than is typical for your area.
Remember that you want your martial arts school to be located in an area where people have discretionary income, and where there are a lot of kids and families.
You don’t necessarily need to be in the best location, but if you can find a good deal on a prime storefront location that has a lot of foot traffic or a good anchor tenant that brings in a lot of cars and customers, take it.
Bottom line… finding a location is always a process of weighing pros and cons, and then finding the optimum compromise between the two.
