School Owner Blog

Success Tour

Have you ever visited another martial art school? If not, I highly recommend it. I'm not referring to a competitor. I'm referring to a different school in a completely different city or even state. You'll be surprised by how much you can learn.

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Sign Up Students by Making a Bigger Net

I remember being asked many years ago, "How do you sign up 20 students a month?" My response is simple, but I'm not going to talk about it just yet. Everyone is always looking for the homerun marketing campaign that is going to solve all their problems. Wait a minute... who said anything about problems? Common on... isn't that what drives us? I remember signing up 20 new students in 6 months and having 20 old students in 6 months quit. If you know what I'm talking about, you've got a problem, and the problem is not going to get better until you realize something needs to be done.

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Become a Fan of Your Own Program

I just finished listening to one of my old martial art association CD's from about 5 years ago. If you have old tapes and CD's I highly recommend you listen to them again. Here is the truth, good material is timeless.

I was enjoying the CD up until the speaker was discussing how to get someone signed up on a contract. I have come along way in my business career, and I've learned quite a bit about selling. In fact, selling was something I taught when I was a representative for Zig Ziglar. One of the things I taught was how to sell a contract. If you know anything about selling, you're not actually selling the contract, you're selling the benefits. If you portray the benefits well enough, you've got a signed contract.

Before anyone ever adopts a contract, they should ask themselves one question. Why do I need a contract? If a student agreed to stay in your program for 1 year, and pay your tuition rate, would you still ask him to sign a contract for a year? What if most of your students stayed in your program for 1 year or more, and agreed to stay longer? Would you feel there was still a need for a contract?

We adopted contracts several years back, mainly because it was becoming the norm. A couple of years ago I decided to test something. I wanted to know if students were staying in our program for 1 year (minimum) because they enjoyed it, or because they were on a contract. So, we eliminated the 1 year contract and began analyzing our drop out rate. Guess how much it changed? ZERO!!!

Here's the important point to consider- If your program lives up to what you say it will, your instructors teach from the heart like you do, then you don't need a contract. The only reason some schools NEED contracts is because their programs cannot retain the student. Remember when I mentioned, selling the benefits above? The only time your students will want to quit is when you're finished selling the benefits. Selling the benefits is something you do in every class, not just in the enrollment conference. Your program, your instructors, your systems should retain the students, not the contract.

If you need the contract to retain the student, you've got a drop out problem after one year. Schools that don't have contracts and can retain students past one year have extraordinary 2 year retention rates.

Now... if you've got a contract and you're retaining students well after 1 year, and you don't mind signing students up on a contract- more power to you. We were this school at one time. I simply decided to test contracts vs. no contracts, and never went back. I do know of many successful schools that have contracts and great students going all the way to Black Belt. My belief is that you must choose those systems that make you feel good about yourself and your program at the end of the day.

Respectfully,

Master Richardson

Become Your Own Fan of Your Program

I'm currently in the process of developing 3 condo's. I was chatting with my realtor and we were discussing driveways and garages. Our condo's currently have plans for a single car garage, with a single car driveway. My realtor, skeptical of the plans, told me a conversation he just had with another one of his clients. His client said, "I don't care what goes in it, because I'm not buying it." My realtor said, "If you wouldn't buy it, why would anyone else?"

It's a great martial arts business lesson. Let me politely ask you, how is your weight right now? How is your flexibility? How is your endurance? Can you protect yourself- I mean really protect yourself? If you have kids, are they in your program? We all want to have successful martial art schools and enjoy the pleasures life has to offer when running our own businesses.

Here is where it all starts... this is where the keys to success begin... would you buy it? Would you buy your program? If you're not in shape, have poor endurance, poor flexibility, don't feel confident in self defense and wouldn't enroll your own kids in your program, then you've got issues. You obviously haven't bought into what you're selling.

Want that nice car? Nice home? Financial freedom? Start by becoming your own number 1 fan of your martial arts curriculum. Live it and breathe it, and you'll develop a strong foundation for a thriving martial arts business.

Respectfully,

Master Richardson

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