Help needed

[tntma]

Hey there all. just wondering if anyone has any ideas. I have recently open a martial arts school in a small town and am having problems getting recognized or getting people in the doors. I have 6 students right now after 4 weeks, is that good, or should i be worried.
Thanks for your comments
Tim

[akio123]

ahh tntma i just want to ask if where do you place ur school or what country and what style u teach^^ thats all thank u^_^

[tntma]

i teach in New Brunswick Canada. the style i teach is called jui do kai. It is a mixture of aikido, juijitsu, kyokushinkai, tea kwon do, oyhama, and kickboxing. it is a great art, just trying to get my name out there.
tim

[ddrive]

From Experience

Hey there all. just wondering if anyone has any ideas. I have recently open a martial arts school in a small town and am having problems getting recognized or getting people in the doors. I have 6 students right now after 4 weeks, is that good, or should i be worried.
Thanks for your comments. Tim

The key word is "small town" Tim. From my experiences, small towns take a while to warm up to anything new. Do your best to provide your current students with good training and word of mouth will be the big factor in building up your dojo. If you start really big, it will flop in a few weeks. Start small and work your way up. Good luck and keep me posted on your progress.

[tntma]

thanks

thanks for the advise. i will definatly keep you posted.
Tim

[pressureguy]

Are there any local baseball or hockey games going on in your area for kids?
If there are, go to the event (which will have hundreds of potential students) and hand out fliers and business cards (make sure the business cards have location and details on it). Always offer about two weeks free on the literature you hand out.

You could put fliers under the windshield wipers of parked cars, but that is a bit tacky.

By the way, you can get 1,000 business cards for $16 at raisedlettercards.com that look very professional (not like those ones you make on your printer). If you do cards, put the rates and location on the cards with your contact info.

Another cheap but effective idea is use your local trade newspaper and put a small ad in the sports wquipment section that advertise your class. This is FAR cheaper than running an ad in a newspaper. To give you an idea of the comparism, in my area, it is $180 to run a quarter page ad on one day of our newspaper, but to run a listing in the weekly trade paper, it is about $4 per week. Even if you get one student, that $4-5 per week is worth it, and you can run it when you want, and not every single week.

Also, there are some trade papers put in the lobbies of grocery stores and gas stations that will let you put your listing for free in the community event section. If it is not free, give a one time free self defense course. The trade papers will list that in the community event section free. When the people come in for their free self defense class, send them home with lots of fliers and literature.

Also, think about comic book geeks. See if your local comic book store will let you post a flier on the window for your class. All of those teenagers and 25 year olds living in the mom's basements that like Yu-Gio (spelling?) and are convinced that the fights in Dragonball Z are real or ripe for the picking. If you can find a local science fiction convention (Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, etc.), hit it hard with fliers and business cards.

Do you have a website? If not, Yahoo is offering one year for $2.99 A YEAR to register your .com and give you one page of webspace, which is enough for you to list directions, general info, and pricing. That is more than enough for now. That will look good on your cards and fliers.

pressureguy

[blitz]

Advertising is your friend. And I have to agree with ddrive, train your students well enough and it will spread. Try and make demos or something, that might work, thats how my arnis instructor spread his name.

[tntma]

Thanks so much for the advise guys. The school is going ok, i have 8 students after 2 months, not too bad for now. But the name is getting out there, due to flyers, business cards, and word of mouth. I will try to keep you all informed on the progress. Once again thanks

[Scott Bolinger]

just continue to improve your style and teachings. Word of mouth will continue to expand.

Usually when you start a business the papers might do some free advertising for you.

And if the school has a paper, you could put a advertisement there.

something to think about is. that spring break is comeing up. you could do some sort of siminar or training camp during that time.

[eXcessiveForce]

Are you in trouble?


Depends on overhead and cash reserves vs. income.

I remember one of the saddest things I ever saw was driving past a new martial arts school. Nice place big glass windows all across the front. 1 lonely looking guy sitting with his back to the windows playing on the computer.

I only drove by 1 time a week or so. But I never saw movement, just this poor guy sitting at his computer waiting for students to show up. He closed about 5 weeks after opening.

Get some demonstrations set up, try to hook up with local schools, church groups, boy scouts. reward your current students from bringing new people in.

Since my overhead is around 4K a month, 6 students would be trouble. But if you are just teaching out of someone elses building you might actually be making a few bucks.

In the end though you need new students flowing through all the time. Otherwise one day you wake up to find you don't have any students. Any month without new whitebelts is a bad month.

[Danny Flucke]

You need to define your target market -

Then reach out to business owners who already have established access to that market.

Example:

If you want to fill your school with 10 to 15 year olds -

You would approach Dentists, Hair Salons, etc to cross market your training services.

The best businesses to contact are already advertising in your local papers/radio/television/direct mail, etc -

They are already spending money to grow their business -

And will be more open to partnering with you...

There is no need to create your own market -

It's already out there.

You just need to figure out what it is...

Thanks, Danny