Posted by Mike Massie on June 29, 2010
The Only Job Security For Martial Art School Owners
Even the youngest students expect a level of professionalism from their instructors. Remember, children will express their views and opinions to their parents, and such conversations often influence parent's buying decisions.
Here’s a question for you…
How professional is your school?
This is an area that is typically ignored or taken for granted in martial arts schools, yet I have observed it to be a pivotal factor in the success of many, many schools.
So, here are some areas where you may consider evaluating and improving the level of professionalism in your school.
Doing so could very well pay off for you in increased enrollments and word-of-mouth referrals.
Facilities
The next time you walk into your school, make a point of looking at it with fresh eyes. Look at it from the perspective of someone who is walking in for the first time evaluating the facility as a potential customer. What would they think?
In my experience, few school owners pay particular attention to the cleanliness and orderliness of their schools. This is a huge mistake. The way your school looks (and smells) is a big part of how people perceive your facility.
In my first school, it was admittedly not in the best location. We had no external doors or windows, it was at the end of a long hallway, and the space was more or less a warehouse facility. Also, I had fixed the place up using a lot of secondhand and bargain basement building materials, which resulted in mismatched floor tiles, and a “DIY” appearance on the fit and finish of the interior.
So, we took great pains to keep the place as clean as possible. I’ll never forget the time when we had a female guest instructor teaching, and she walked out of the restroom with a surprised look on her face. “That’s the cleanest bathroom I have ever seen in a martial arts school,” she stated.
The point here is that, even if you don’t have the best facilities, you can still make a good impression by keeping them as clean as possible. Also, a fresh coat of paint on the walls once or twice a year and replacing old and worn equipment is a must. If it’s dirty, clean it. If it’s old and worn, replace it. Look at everything in your school with fresh eyes at least once a week, make a list of what needs cleaned, repaired, and replaced, and knock it out immediately.
Procedures
Do you answer the phone professionally… every time you answer? Are visitors promptly welcomed as they walk in the door? Do you return phone calls promptly the same day you receive a voice message? Do you even have a list of procedures to follow that outline how to take a new student from their first contact with the school through the entire enrollment process?
Having protocols and procedures in place are what make the difference between amateurs and professionals. Amateurs wing it, while professionals know exactly what to do at every step of the way, because they have a procedure, protocols, and contingency plans in place that they’ve memorized and practiced until they become second nature.
Customers can tell when you’re winging it. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been calling martial arts schools in my area while performing a competitive analysis in certain areas of my city. And, I’m amazed at the fact that 50% of the schools I call don’t answer their phones, while the other 50% do not have any basic phone sales training at all. That’s right – NONE of the schools I have called knew a thing about setting appointments and selling over the phone.
So, imagine what would happen if just one of them put professional protocols and procedures in place. I can assure you, they’d quickly outdistance their competition and increase their market share dramatically.
Be professional. Have professional procedures and protocols in place that cover everything from answering the phones to handling students professionally who are withdrawing from classes. All other things being equal, what separates you from your competitors is how professionally your clients are treated. Over time, this WILL make a huge difference in the volume of your referrals in your community.
Policies
How well do you treat your clients? Do you have posted policies regarding membership agreements, late fees, cancellations, and attendance? Are you of your word when it comes to enforcing those policies equally across the board? Do you treat every student fairly and without bias or preference based on your posted company policies?
Your company’s policies are part of the agreement you make with your customers that says, “I’ll provide ‘x’ service for you, you’ll pay me ‘y’ in return, and if ‘z’ comes up this is how you can expect us to handle it.” Having such policies in place assures the client that you intend to treat them fairly should things go awry, and it also lets them know what they can expect when the unexpected occurs.
Ask yourself, for instance:
- Is it fair to make someone pay the balance on their membership if they move to another town due to a change of employment?
- Would you want to continue paying for martial arts lessons if you were permanently disabled due to illness or injury?
- If you were the student, would you like to have the option to make up classes missed due to illness or vacation by attending extra classes during the weeks following the missed classes?
- Were you the student, would you appreciate having a three-day grace period before late fees were incurred on late tuition payments?
- If you were the student, would you appreciate having the NSF fees waived on the first occurrence of a check or EFT payment being returned or rejected for non-sufficient funds?
Such policies give the student the benefit of the doubt. In addition, having policies such as these posted in your school conveys the message that, while you do have policies in place to prevent unethical customers taking advantage of the school, you also have the customer’s well-being in mind. “Firm but fair” is a good attitude to have when it comes to drafting and implementing your company’s policies.
In Closing
Professionalism is the result of expertise, experience, competence, caring, and consistency in action.
And while any amateur can hang out a shingle and start a school, the professional instructor is one who emphasizes excellence in every aspect of their school’s operations. Elevating your school to the level of such excellence will take you a long way toward securing your financial future as an instructor.
Be excellent at what you do, because professionalism is job security for martial art school owners.
Posted by Mike Massie on March 5, 2010
Facing Down Hard Times In Your School?
If you're facing hard times in your martial art school, you're not alone. Here are some tips to help you make it through until things improve.
Facing down hard times? You’re not alone. I’ve heard from more than a few school owners who are feeling the crunch during this recession.
Here are some tips for those of you who may be struggling to keep your school open in the down economy.
The Mental Side – Survival Strategies
First off, focus on the positives – it’s the only way you’ll get through. Just keep doing that – your attitude is what will bring people into your school.
People are attracted to upbeat personalities. If you’re happy and energetic, it will really make you stand out and people will be drawn to it. Remember, your energy drives your school.
The Financial Side – Making It Through
First off, cut back on everything EXCEPT your marketing budget. Anything you don’t need to operate or survive should be cut from your budget.
However, it is imperative that you step-up your marketing activities, rather than slow them down. Those school owners that I coach who are growing in this economy are not doing so because they are lucky, located in “good” areas, or because they are martial arts superstars…
They are growing because they spend 80% of their work hours outside of class on their marketing – and they do this consistently, every single month.
Even so, you still need to make sure you’re spending your marketing dollars wisely. So, go through your marketing expenditures with a fine-tooth comb. If any marketing method is costing you more than it’s bringing in, cancel it and shift those funds to something that is actually giving you a good return on your investment.
A good rule of thumb here is that every dollar you spend on marketing should return $1 in revenue during the same marketing cycle (in out industry, 30 days).
However, I like to get $2 back on every dollar I spend within a 30-day time frame. You need those fast profits and high rates of return on your marketing dollars, because a martial arts school relies on cash flow for survival. So, your every marketing promotion should bring back a return of 200% within 30 days of running it.
Focus your efforts and resources only on those promotions that meet that criteria. And if you’re broke, focus on low-cost and high-return marketing activities like online marketing and door-to-door flier distribution. They take more time to implement, but they’re cheap and effective when done properly.
Keep Your Head In The Game
Finally, be present! If you check out on your school and students because things are not going so well, guess what? They’ll sense it and you’ll only be making the situation worse.
Remain fully invested in your students, regardless of what happens. Loyalty breeds loyalty, and you’ll be surprised at how many of them will be cheering for you and will stick with you, even if things don’t work out…
The Longview – What If Things Don’t Work Out?
“A mistake is a future benefit, the full value of which is yet to be realized.”
- Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera
First off, it’s not the end of the world if you have to go back to teaching part-time. So, don’t be ashamed of finding a part-time teaching location, ending your lease, and moving your classes somewhere without all the overhead and high rent.
Also, know when to call it quits on having a full-time location. Is it worth it to force yourself into major debt or bankruptcy, just so you don’t feel like a failure?
Well, guess what? All entrepreneurs fail at some point in their careers as business owners. It’s part and parcel for the game. Don’t feel bad if things don’t work out this time around. Just roll with it, regroup, and the next time around you’ll be wiser for your experience.
Remember, there’s ALWAYS another opportunity waiting just around the corner. The past is just a memory, and come tomorrow today will be the past.
You will recover and you will be able to start over again. So, stay positive and just keep looking for those opportunities as you move forward.
Posted by Mike Massie on November 5, 2009
Know Thy Image
I fully expect some clown to start offering martial arts for pets or some such nonsense at some point - which would be an extreme case of trying to offer something for everyone... or every-pet, in this case.
Trying to be all things to all people is a sure-fire way to become nothing to no one. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t diversify into having multiple programs for multiple age demographics. Not at all… in fact, for most school owners and in most locations I think it’s a mistake to just go after a single demographic.
Know What Pays Thy Bills
However, I do think you need to know what pays the bills, and be practical about pursuing that demographic and making it the priority in your school. For example…
In my first school, I built the entire school on kids programs. That was my whole image, and even though I taught adult classes, fitness classes, and so on, my entire image was tied up in being a kid-friendly school.
But in my most recent school, I focused more on presenting the message that we had programs for the whole family. Still, I wanted to teach more adults, so I focused more on that.
The thing is, getting kids in your school is usually the easiest task. It’s the adults that are much harder to attract. That’s why I always go for the kid’s market first, then go after the adults once the kid’s programs are paying the bills.
Know Thy Demographic
What’s that have to do with image?
Well, all my ads are pretty much middle of the road as far as raciness goes. The raciest thing I’ve ever run was for my boot camp, and that’s because the model showed midriff and had a belly piercing (it looked good, though – the ads performed well).
Mostly, I’ve stuck with mom-friendly stuff, because in the areas I operated in most of my clients and decision-makers were moms.
Know Thy Target Market
Here’s something to consider, though…
Say you run a gym that’s MMA oriented, and your enrollment is mostly made up of the 20- and 30-something, tatted up, Affiliction-wearing guys.
Chances are good that your kids classes are going to be made up of kids from those households.
So, you’ll still get some “contact” enrollments just by virtue of farming your existing clientele – it’s just going to fall out that way.
But, that “bad boy” image isn’t going to go over well with families who just walk in off the street. Your average soccer mom is going to be turned off by it, and she’ll take her kids down the street to the plain-vanilla-typical-suburban-family-image school down the street.
This is just one example, and I think you can see the converse also applies. If your school is viewed as a “kiddie” school, chances are good that will work against you if you are marketing hard core MMA or adult self-defense programs.
Know Thy Image As It Applies To Thy Demographic
This is why it’s important to understand the demographics of your area… so you can make sure you don’t have an image disconnect between the image your marketing projects and your local market.
In more densely populated urban areas, it may be possible to pick and choose your ideal student by targeting a particular demographic. This is what you see advertisers doing in mass media marketing – the audience is broad enough to allow the advertiser’s to pick and choose their market to a certain extent.
However, your market reach is effectively only 5-10 miles from your location (ten being on the extreme edges of your market).
So, the demographic found in that geographical area absolutely dictates what your marketing image should be.
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Questions? Comments?
Let Mike know! Post your comments below…
Posted by Mike Massie on February 17, 2009
Honestly... are you being serious? For $500 an hour, I'd expect better...
I’d like to elaborate on something I wrote in yesterday’s post…
Namely, that I think martial arts business consulting is a farce.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I think it’s actually advisable that you seek good solid business information from reliable and proven sources when starting a martial arts school.
And, you should continue to educate yourself and expand your business knowledge and acumen for as long as you operate your dojo…
However, that doesn’t mean you need to hire some hotshot “consultant” to show you how it’s done. In fact, that can be a huge mistake on your part.
Allow me to illustrate with a just a few real-life stories regarding close calls with that most dangerous of species, martialis bidness know notus, a.k.a., the “martial arts business consultant”.
Exhibit “A” – One of our members at Starting-a-Martial-Arts-School.com recently related to us how he hired a big-time martial arts business consultant for advice on starting a school. The advice he received? “Finance your school on credit cards, and then come back and talk to me when you can afford my more expensive consulting package.” Seriously, that was the advice he was given.
Exhibit “B” – Some friends of mine got hooked up with a martial arts billing company that also offered consulting services (it was how they justified the “vig” of 10% on collecting your own money for you). They were advised to flat out lie to their customers by telling them their registration fee was for insurance, even though the only insurance they had was liability that protected the school, not the student. My friends, of course, never actually implemented the advice…
Exhibit “C” – Back when I was availing myself of the services of a similar organization (how do you think I formed my opinions?) I was advised that a good way to find people to teach your classes was to hire high school coaches and personal trainers off the street… even if they had zero martial arts experience. Apparently, the idea was to give them a crash course on “coaching martial arts”, have them “coach” your students, and then the black belts would come in to test the students for rank and collect the cash.
Needless to say, I never acted on this advice.
Moronic Advice Isn’t The Only Reason You Don’t Need Them…
Granted, some of the advice you may get from these consulting companies is solid advice – I don’t argue that point. As with any service business, you have some bad companies, and some good ones. I think that’s just common sense.
However, the thing is you don’t need to pay $500 an hour for some person 1,000 miles away to tell you how to run your business.
In fact, your best option is often to simply do your own research, and then follow what your research and your gut tell you to do.
Nobody knows your business and market like you do. Sure, you need to learn and follow industry “best practices” in order to hedge your bets in your favor. But, you can get that information from inexpensive, reliable sources for much, much less than what an expensive “consultant” will charge you.
That’s Where M.A.S.A.I. Can Help…
And that’s where The Martial Art School Alliance International can help – by providing you a place where you can get solid, reliable business information, education, training, and resources, and at a price that won’t break the bank.
At just $149 a year (yes, that’s correct – I said “one-hundred-forty-nine dollars a year”) you can’t beat the price. Compare that to programs that are in excess of $200 – $1,000 a month and I think you’ll see that M.A.S.A.I. membership just makes sense for your school.
Now, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, because I am going to explain the details of how M.A.S.A.I. membership will help you and your martial arts school.
Until next time,
