Annual fee plans and operating, etc.

[powerof0ne]

Since my overhead is relatively low compared to a commercial dojo. I run my dojo out of a university and pay a monthly fee of $50 for the space, as soon as the insurance starts. Insurance is $465 a year x $9.25 per student a year.

What I'm getting at is, I'm offering my university students an academic year offer for $150 that goes from now until the normal academic school year is over, which is sometime in June.

I will be come up with a 12 month plan that I'm thinking of $175, $250 for non students and military/law enforcement get the same deal of $175, too.

If not, someone can pay month to month for uni student/law enforcement/military: $20 a month, non any of the above: $30 a month plus $9.25 annual insurance fee .

I think my rates can't be beat, at least not by anybody I know, unless they're teaching for free! Just wondering if any of you offer your students an option for paying an entire year, etc. all at once? I'll also charge a $3 a lesson drop in fee for anybody that only wants to come to one lesson, etc.

If somebody wants private lessons they can approach me about it, but haven't even came up with those prices yet. When I was going through my instructor apprenticeship in Muay Thai I was told to charge a minimum of $50 an hour for private lessons, though..that was 8-9 years ago, I think I'd probably only charge $25 today LOL! If I had a student that I thought has potential to fight I'm going to offer them fighter training for free, why? Well, because I'm obviously not doing this to get rich off of and if I have a student that I think will do well in a fight they represent the dojo.

Any extra money I have left that doesn't go into paying my overhead of the $50 a month plus insurance goes into buying more gear, hopefully in buying airfare for a few people I've spoken to about doing seminars in the future...and if I'm very lucky, maybe some of that will pay my gas money to drive to teach LOL. Seriously, I'm doing this as cheap as possible in advertising, word of mouth, etc. I already have a few students that are very active in spreading the word of this.

Where I was lucky is that I took over a student "Muay Thai" club, and when I came into it, I said look, I can teach you guys this, do you want to learn or just hang out and play that you know some martial arts? They more or less said they all wanted to learn, so I took it from a hang out club to a structured setting and am changing it to a club that has some fees, but very low fees, the lowest I can feasibly come up with.

If a student truly can't afford to train, they just need to talk to me privately and I'll work something out. However, if I hear they have the money to go to clubs, concerts, etc. they can at that point quit training with me.

If any of you want to talk about it, what are some of your overhead and fee plans that you have set up?
Osu!

[Kurisu]

Po1, I'm not sure what your current enrollment is but under that scenario you'd need about 6 college students to enroll to break even. What's your current enrollment and how much equipment do you have? How often are the classes?

We're currently doing month-to-month billing but I'm considering offering quarterly billing. We might do $50 / month or $135 / quarter. Around here it might be a little challenging to ask people to fork out that much money for quarterly fees but we'll see how it goes.

[powerof0ne]

I have 6 right now I have 52 signed up to show up Monday for an information meeting...I only expect half of them to show up but I'm being told to expect more, but we'll see.

For a commercial dojo I know it needs to be quite a bit more. I'm being very open with everybody about the costs and my argument is, "I'm not going to pay to teach you!" They all get it at that point and most don't argue it. When I explained this, three of them immediately said they'd pay..so tomorrow and Monday I'm expecting at least three checks. I'll be paying for the insurance some time this week if all goes well.

At that point I'll be letting everybody and their Mother know (figure of speech) that isn't a university student they can now join!

I offer the classes Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday. 2 hours each session. I have a few pairs of Thai pads, focus mitts, one big mitt, a "gedan mawashi pad" shield, and one Thai suitcase which has 2 handles. I actually showed a picture of the latter on this forum a month or so ago, it has 2 handles.

The way I figure it is for about every 10 active students I get, I'll get another pair of Thai pads, big mitt, etc.

I like to run circuits some times and make 3-4 different lines each student can rotate through. Unfortunately, since I teach at a university I can't have a permanent structure such as heavy bags set up or I'd go buy a banana bag and a normal heavy bag tomorrow!

Basically offering the best training for the least amount of money as I can. I'm also going to get access to the wrestling team's mats sometime soon...hopefully! *crossing my fingers*

I'm also considering adding children's classes 2-3 times a week, as well. However, that may not be possible, but we'll see. I'd also be competing with a long established commercial martial art school only about a mile away if I do choose to do that. However, it wouldn't be the first time I've done that..I used to compete with a TKD dojang in the same business park and stole a lot of kids from that dojang LOL!
Osu!

[Kurisu]

Sounds like you'll do well then. Just make sure you allocate some money for your time & effort. I understand that you're doing this for love of the art but running a dojo is a labor intensive task and you should be compensated for it. Keeping the dojo thoroughly equipped is important too.

Kids class is a great way to boost enrollment. We have a very strong children's program. It helps keep our dojo open and the equipment coming in. It is A LOT harder than teaching teens and adults but I enjoy seeing the progress they make. Our kids class is 45 minutes. It's enough time to do a very basic kihon, basic ido geko and to play some skill building games or kumite.

[powerof0ne]

After trials and errors, my minimum operation costs, not counting gear is about $1700 (not counting pads, seminars, my gas of driving their and back) a year which isn't bad, but now it's a logistics night mare. Just contacted that the time we were told is no longer good due to a "spring weekend P.E. class."

Now I'm going back and forth trying to switch some stuff around. I will not be having a class at 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Sunday due to my own schedule. I also can't imagine many of my students wanting to be training til' 11:30 at night..or even doing it.

Last night we also had some other club playing some "games" in the area we have scheduled for us, they didn't schedule it. I was about to cuss them out and throw them out but I knew better and had another student tell them to leave.

Honestly, I'm getting a bit frustrated at the administration of the university I'm teaching at.

It is a very low cost compared to a commercial operation but with that comes bad administration of scheduling, and not having the facts straight for how much my cost to rent the space from the university is. I've had to go back and forth 7 times to get a price set in stone...the more I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised when I get this agreement penned in the next 24 hours if the price changes again. I'm now coming to expect everything to be screwed up.

Yes, you could say I'm frustrated . I envy Seattle and anybody else that teaches at a university that pays the insurance and collects tuition so the instructor just instructs...doesn't have to go back and forth with a university that doesn't seem to understand they could actually have another "club sport" that students would join.
Osu!

[GJEC]

I think this is common to University hire. They're just too big with too many things competing for time and space.

By contrast a little church hall somewhere - opened up by a little old lady - is often a better bet.

Gary

[powerof0ne]

Nov 29, 2011 15:56:37 GMT -5 GJEC said:

I think this is common to University hire. They're just too big with too many things competing for time and space.

By contrast a little church hall somewhere - opened up by a little old lady - is often a better bet.

Gary

Will look into this option next.
Osu!

[GJEC]

The most important thing is to find somewhere your students see as 'home'. It often doesn't matter if it's a bit rough around the edges as that adds to the character. As long as the floors good, you're set.

By contrast 'nice' places where you're given hassle or booted out to make way for other events never have that secure 'dojo' feeling.

Gary

[powerof0ne]

Nov 30, 2011 1:51:32 GMT -5 GJEC said:

The most important thing is to find somewhere your students see as 'home'. It often doesn't matter if it's a bit rough around the edges as that adds to the character. As long as the floors good, you're set.

By contrast 'nice' places where you're given hassle or booted out to make way for other events never have that secure 'dojo' feeling.

Gary

The issue I see with many of these students is they want a place that's walking distance from their dorms. What I'm preemptively planning in a few years (if I get someone reliable to at least brown belt) is to have somebody else run most of the classes with me occasionally coming in, having oversight, running gradings, etc. I would then start up another one at a church, community hall, or may even go the commercial dojo route just to avoid the hassle and lack of organization.

I'm not going to just pack up and leave, and leave these students without a place to train, some of them are putting forth the effort, so I'll go that extra mile to make sure they can further progress.
Osu!

[GJEC]

I understand your concerns.

I suppose what I mean is that the dojo has to become the fixed point as university students come and go. One minute they're swearing they want to compete, get their black belt etc, then exams come up or they get a new girlfriend and they may never be seen again.

I'm just offering my experiences here, but of course yours may be different.

Gary

[powerof0ne]

Actually had a great turn of events that happened today which makes me think that the administration of the university has Alzheimers.

Signed the contract, $0 for space rental confirmed it, too...went back and forth 15 times in email today, had to have the insurance policy changed to say the universities name on it in b&w (even though it had the university address).

The other good news is students are paying, so this means the extra money goes towards seminars, more gear, mats, etc. Hopefully I don't jinx myself with this post and all of a sudden tomrorow I get quoted $1400 a session to rent the space (that actually happened in one of the buildings!).
Osu!