growing the bidnez

[meguro]

I thought this vid might be of interest to dojo operators.
In a few short words, have faith, a support group, and sell, sell, sell.

[GJEC]

Well we've got to try something.

We've not advertised for years, but 'word of mouth' and 'recommendation' isn't cutting it any more.

Change of venue would help. The school where we are has some very dodgy characters hovering around.

Press on!

Gary

[curlbroscience]

One thing that I got from "The Talent Code" is that the quality of the first instructor technique was a non-issue in the success of their students down the road. It was the love that the first instructor put into the heart of the student that carried further. Most of the genius polled said that their first teacher was close by and generally had average or below average technique. (Don't know how deep their polling was)

I am happy with the group of people we have at the moment.

There are a lot of new ways to reach people via online channels Facebook, Twitter, etc.

[GJEC]

I don't know really. I'm pretty sure the youngsters in my group don't model themselves on me, so my level of talent isn't the biggest factor.

Recruiting is a problem. Loughborough is a small (50,000) market town with two full-time martial arts schools. One is run by a good friend of mine and he seems to make a good living. The other is run by a chap I've never met, but a casual glance through the door when they trained at the local leisure centre left me distinctly underwhelmed.

Both clubs offer a range of martial disciplines, though I suspect club two is more fantasy than reality based. The fact remains though that this second club has recently taken over a huge premises right in the centre of town. Knowing property rents here are expensive, that's an awful lot of kids paying a fortune.

By contrast, we offer a club teaching knockdown karate. The training is hard but safe and the appeal is pretty narrow. I can live with that as I don't choose to re-invent myself (club two has the same instructor claiming to teach multiple disciplines) and I enjoy what I teach.

I suppose 'small but hard-working' will have to do. I'll cope.



Gary

[meguro]

Sept 18, 2012 13:02:39 GMT -5 GJEC said:

I suppose 'small but hard-working' will have to do. I'll cope.



Gary

Come now, Gary. That's ugly duckling talk. ;D

There's a niche you may have overlooked. With the popularity of Boot-camp style workouts, you can offer similarly hard training along with skills beyond burpees and bench presses.

[monty]

One of the annoying things about where we train is, in reception, they have flyers for another karate club!

So if someone did turn up on spec, manage to negotiate the 'football' crowd but couldn't raise anyone at the locked door they might pick up a leaflet and try that club instead.

I certainly like the idea of moving to Woodbrook, if it were possible. There we have an age range of pupils who might be more interested in joining a good karate club. (the down side is those bloody huge steps that I'm sure you'd have us running up and down )

[GJEC]

I'm at that tipping point at the moment.

The other users are a pain in the arse, but on the other hand moving to Woodbrook might mean changing nights / times. Always a danger then that a few 'can't make it' and we're suddenly back in the doldrums.

But we need to get a few more, no question.

Gary

[meguro]

In terms of marketing, it's a YouTube, Twitter and fb world. I am in the process of moving, so a google search is what I'm employing to find training opportunities. I have to say a few YT vids and a website are what I use to compile a short list, especially if I know nothing about a new area.

[curlbroscience]

My wife is growing her photog business and she is using SEO (search engine optimization) to become a google search leader for certain keywords that describe her business.

[meguro]

Good idea sotacram. Mrs. sotacram takes great kids's pics.

[curlbroscience]

Thank you very much. If you are ever in our area and need a family freeze frame, KDfighters.com discount ;D

[powerof0ne]

The problem that I see is, many successful, commercial schools, water down and more or less, hand out rank like candy, at least in the area where I live .

I do know one way of being successful of having a commercial school, to pay the bills, make a profit. Have a reasonably sized children's class. I even know of a way to have a "after school daycare program" that can be funded by "welfare funds" over here. I was an instructor at a school that started to go through the motions of this, but the owner couldn't pass the background check due to his pass.

I've "fortunately" been at some schools that I have seen go out of business, or close down for various reasons. I have enough common sense to learn from these school's mistakes, instead of repeating them.

One lesson, over the last couple years I have really learned is, don't teach for free, especially if you're paying insurance, for space, gear, etc. Your time is money, and your experience to learn what you're teaching is money. I have unfortunately taught for free, and later came to regret it, because the students didn't truly appreciate it, when they had money, they never gave me a penny (bought video games, went out, etc.) I even told these students that, I expect them to "chip in" financially when they got jobs, money, etc.

It makes no sense, to pay out of your own pocket, to teach others for free.

Unfortunately, I don't think many students understand the "big picture" of everything that goes into running a school. I, understand, times can be tough, but guess what, martial arts is a luxury, not a necessity. I personally will also cut breaks with students I know that will pay me, when they can, I'm very reasonable, but teaching for free, never again.

Honestly, I think I'll just build a "private dojo" of my own in a big garage, have a private group of a handful of people, train, and teach.

I admire any of you running commercial dojos, but it's near impossible to do, without losing money, over here. "Seattle" has about the best set up I know Teaches at a university that pays for everything, for his dojo, wish I could say the same!
Osu!

[meguro]

Regarding rank, I think we ought to borrow a page from yoga studios, which around my area are bursting at the seems with business. Rank, for the most part is a revenue making racket, important for motivating kids, but entirely unnecessary for adults (yoga model). If you can motivate adults by getting them in fighting shape and fight capable, you have done your job. If you can get adults to return to class without the promise of a higher rank, you have done a great job. Yoga does this. Karate instructors should help their students find joy and satisfaction in what their doing now, to be present, in the moment.

[GJEC]

Sept 21, 2012 8:28:31 GMT -5 meguro said:

If you can get adults to return to class without the promise of a higher rank, you have done a great job.

Exalted.

One of the reasons I've gone back to plain black belts. If they continue training (which of course I hope they do) it's because they enjoy / get benefit from hard exercise.

NOT because they think there are some higher level 'secrets' revealed only to the chosen ones.



Gary

[meguro]

Thank you, kind sir.