Letter of Introduction from Easypay, the Top Martial Arts Billing Company in the United States.
Dear School Owner:
Over the years there have been many "business systems" introduced to the Martial Arts. The earliest that I know of came from Ed Parker. He wrote it in about 1956. His "operations manual" was about 150 pages long and covered such topics as telephone procedures, enrollment procedures, advertising, class schedules, staffing, etc. He gave me a copy of that manual to use as a guide for writing my one of my own. If you had a copy of that manual, you could use it today very effectively.
About 25 years ago, Grand Master Jhoon Rhee began doing business seminars that taught school owners to use a business system to operate their schools. If you attended those seminars you know that if you followed his advise, you could not help but be financially successful.
Grand Master Rhee had a protégée named Jose Santamaria. Jose's seminars were called the "Work Smart Not Harder" series. If you attended those seminars you also gained enough information to change your life and the way you operated your martial arts business.
Over 20 years ago I developed an operations manual for my own schools that was patterned after the Ed Parker manual and supplemented with the knowledge I gained from Grand Master Rhee and Master Santamaria. For about 10 years I shared that business system with many of you and it helped many of you implement a working business system in your own schools. In fact, a lot of that material is now found in the more recent systems being provided to school owners.
Over the last few years there have been several martial arts business leaders who have introduced various systems for operating a successful school. They include such notables as Andrew Wood and John Graden. All of them provided valuable information on studio management and if you followed their plans you would be successful.
As in any industry there have also been some who have taught business plans that would only work for a limited time and could very easily get the business owner in a lot of trouble. I believe that those "greed" driven systems only hurt our industry.
A friend of mine named Tom Gohring is using the most recent adaptation of all of these materials to train school owners to be more successful in their business practices. He is also a client and I have seen his studio grow by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Take the time to read this web brochure and call Tom for more information. I know for a fact that if you implement even 50% of what he has to teach you, your school will grow and the martial arts will become more financially rewarding for you and your families.
Thanks for your time,
Larry Doke
President of EasyPay Financial Services
Martial Art Industry Prophecy:
Professional business principles are moving in on the martial arts industry.
It will become more and more difficult for single part time schools to compete with the more professional schools because of the co-op power of marketing, advertising, training, etc.
Big business systems are entering the Martial Arts. Schools that do not Go Pro, and do not have business systems that are as strong as their Martial Art systems, will either be out of business or continue to struggle. Where as, schools with less martial art experience, but with more professional business systems, training and support will prosper.
It has been proven that schools DO NOT need auxiliary programs such as Cardio Karate, After School Programs, Yoga, etc. Traditional, disciplined Martial Arts are where schools can find their greatest success.
Why most Martial Arts schools do not succeed.
Owner's lack of talent.
Owner's lack of hard work.
Lack of deliberate business systems for managing and staff training.
Most failures are because of number 3; lack of deliberate business systems. If you have no talent and are not willing to work hard, no one can help you.
Questions to ask yourself as a small business owner:
Do I own a business or do I just own a job?
In other words, if I left for a month, will my business survive?
Are my staff members assets or liabilities?
In other words, does my staff bring in new revenue (either recruiting new students or retaining existing students) into my academy or do they just cost me money for working. Or even worse, are they unpaid or bartered employees with little or no interest in the success of the studio?
Am I creating the income I deserve for my family by devoting myself to the training of others? In other words do I have more money at the end of the month or more month at the end of the money?
Do I have a business mentor just like I have a martial art mentor? Is he or she successful? Am I taking financial advice from a poor person?
Do I have clear and written long and short-term goals? What does my business look like at a high success level?
1 st example: 3 professionally run schools grossing $80,000 per month with a net of $30,000 per month. Each school fully staffed as I focus on managing the instructors and cash flow.
2 nd example : Get my current school to gross $35,000 per month with a net of $14,000 (usually 35-40% if the owner is the chief instructor, although this number varies depending on the school's overhead).
Tuition
Am I charging fees standard in the industry or am I selling myself short?
Schools that go through this consulting charge an average of $150-$200 per month per student. Family programs average $300-400 per family per month.
Recommend Pricing:
Basic Training $ 1545
Black Belt Training $ 7000
Certified Instructor Training (CIT) $ 7500
Masters Path $ 10000
Total $ 26045 (This does not include equipment, graduation fees, seminars, etc.)
Note: There must be deliberate, scripted and rehearsed upgrade systems to Black Belt Training, Masters Path and Certified Instructor Training.
Basic model we use to run a professional school
Chief Instructor full time
Assistant Instructor full or part time
1200 1800 square feet.
12-15 classes per week.
100-150 students.
20-30K gross revenue per month.
Graduate 25% of student body to Black Belt each year. (Yes, really)
Chief Instructor makes 50-100K per year.
Note: This is a general model. As consultants, we also work with schools that are 5000 SF and gross 60K per month with 250 students.
Staff Management
You can only manage what you can measure.
Staff Responsibilities:
Create Inspired White Belts
Graduate Qualified Black Belts
Certify Committed Instructors
Staff members must focus on these outcomes. But how do you judge their performance? You judge based on levels and revenue collected. Remember that you can only manage what you can measure. Do not run your business on emotion, run it on facts.
Levels:
Level 1 Flyers passed out in the community
Level 2 Collecting a name and number of someone interested in Martial Arts
Level 3 Booking an introductory lesson
Level 4 Giving an introductory lesson
Level 5 Signing up a new student on Basic Training
(This only counts as a level 5 when the $225 initial payment is collected and the contract signed for $120 / month for 11 months)
Level 6 A Basic Program PIF (paid in full). Student pays $1345 up front instead of making monthly payments.
There are also levels 7-16 that you must track. However, this is beyond the scope of this communication.
Teaching Martial Art Movement and Philosophy is the
PRIVILEGE you earn AFTER you learn to recruit and enroll.
Who else is going to fill the room? A staff member that does not recruit and enroll is a liability to the business. Teach students this during their CIT Program. Do not wait until they are staff members.
Hiring New Staff
We hire new staff on a 3-month trial. They must recruit and enroll 12 or more new students if their contract is to be extended. Most assistant instructors enroll 12 or more new students in their first month working part time.
Part Time Entry Level Salary Model:
$500 Base Pay (monthly)
$50 for each new student enrolled
$50 for each new student PIF (Pay-in-full)
Sample Assistant Instructor Outcome Sheet has the following:
Assistant Instructor Outcome Sheet
Assistant Instructor ___________
3-Month Time Period______ School ____________
Assistant Instructor 3-month Outcome Sheet (Running Totals)
Level Outcome Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 (Total) Hit Goal
L2 432 ______(144) ______(288) ______(432) YES/NO
L3 144 ______(48) ______(96) ______(144) YES/NO
L4 48 ______(16) ______(32) ______(48) YES/NO
L5 12 ______(4) ______(8) ______(12) YES/NO
L6 1 ______(1) ______(1) ______(1) YES/NO
By ______, did you enroll 12 New Students? YES/NO
If yes, Congratulations! You may apply for a full time Instructor Position at UMA
If no, Congratulations! Although this is clearly not the career for you, you now have a greater understanding of yourself to apply in your next endeavor.
These numbers are monitored daily. The above is a portion of their entire goal sheet. Chief Instructors have more detailed goal sheets that are also monitored daily.
Thank You
As a way of saying Thank You for reading through our material we are offering the following to your school :
Free School Evaluation Master Teacher Thomas Gohring.
A special discount on 3-months of martial arts business training.
If you go through the evaluation, we will give you our New Student Enrollment Manual FREE of charge .
We will need approx 60-90 minutes together for the evaluation. We will e-mail you a questionnaire to fill out before the evaluation.
Please e-mail Master Gohring at MasterGohring@gmail.com to set up your appointment. We look forward to your success.
Master Teacher Thomas Gohring
6th Degree Black Sash
512-422-4245
MasterGohring@gmail.com
www.MartialArtsBusinessConsulting.com
Free MP3/MOV Lectures:
How to go to from 12k from 35k $8500 Principle CIT Recruitment Our CIT Experience
Staff Training Guest Enrollment Conference with Rings