Getting Students

[Shifu Steve]

I know a good number of members in the forum teach and have dedicated, commercially viable training spaces. My question is more geared towards those that teach from their home or something similar; In your experience how did you attract students?

 

[HerbM]

Wish I knew the answer to this one, as we just formed a (free) AMOK! study group in Austin, TX dedicated to learning to survive violent criminal assaults.

We meet outdoors (for now) and don't charge. We even try to adjust our schedule (some) for new members.

The base group formed out of people from Central Texas who already belonged to the WarriorTalk AMOK! sub-forum.

Also, some of the group found us because they had trained with our brother group form Killeen.

We are small, and really need to grow a bit to continue that we will have a steady group for the long run.

--
HerbM
Keep fighting -- God will tell you when you are dead.

 

[geezer]

I know a good number of members in the forum teach and have dedicated, commercially viable training spaces. My question is more geared towards those that teach from their home or something similar; In your experience how did you attract students?

Shifu Steve-- I'd say your website is a good start. Also, people tell me that it's important to charge a fair fee, but never teach for free. They must be right, because I teach at a YMCA, and also a free class at a city park. Though, I personally volunteer my time at the Y, the students have to pay a fee (in addition to joining the Y). That class is running along OK, but the park class is poorly attended! I just announced that going to start charging this month and not one of my regulars complained.. Just my 2-cents. Also, I gotta say you've got a great name there! --Sifu Steve in Phoenix.

BTW, Herb, are you guys connected in any way to Michael Blackgrave's Seamok group?

 

[bushidomartialarts]

For adults, I do lots of word of mouth. Also, I offer my class through the local parks and recreation. For a while I also taught beginning level stuff at a local health club, but taught intermediate and advanced at my house only. About half those who stayed long enough to graduate through the health club class continued on.

For kids, do seminars and after school classes in the local schools. You won't get many, percentage wise, but done well you'll end up getting a small percentage of several hundred students.

Those are what worked for me. Best of luck.

 

[Drac]

For adults, I do lots of word of mouth. Also, I offer my class through the local parks and recreation. For a while I also taught beginning level stuff at a local health club,

Yeah, ya cant beat word-of-mouth..Maybe some flyers at a local spa or health club..With alot of focus being placed on personal protection maybe one of the local news stations can do a human interest story..Hey, nothing ventured nothing gained..

 

[yak sao]

I've been teaching from my home for several years now. With no overhead I don't need to charge as much as I did when teaching commercially, however, people tend to have the attitude of "you get what you pay for', so I charge a reasonable fee. Over the years, it's been my experience when you give it away or charge little, then people do not feel the need to commit.
Word of mouth has been the best way for me It keeps the group more close knit as the students only mention it to those they want to train with.

 

[HerbM]

Shifu Steve-- ...Also, people tell me that it's important to charge a fair fee, but never teach for free. They must be right, because I teach at a YMCA, and also a free class at a city park. ...

BTW, Herb, are you guys connected in any way to Michael Blackgrave's Seamok group?

No, not connected to Seamok (as far as I know).

AMOK! was developed by Tom Sotis. Although it is not limited to knife work (e.g., includes gun, empty hand, stick, etc) it starts from knife and builds from there.

I believe I agree about charging, but have been putting off this decision, hoping we would bet a stable group without that.

Even though I am an advanced web developer, I have also delayed building a dedicated web site since we already have Tom's site, the WarriorTalk AMOK! forum, and a couple of FaceBook pages.

--
HerbM

 

[wushuguy]

I know a good number of members in the forum teach and have dedicated, commercially viable training spaces. My question is more geared towards those that teach from their home or something similar; In your experience how did you attract students?

Word of mouth firstly, private demonstration secondly, and most important is to treat the students well, like I treat my students like my own brothers and sisters, I have few students but those are the students who stay. Some drop by to check out, but usually those don't stay long cuz they're like floaters just tasting all different kinds of classes but making no real commitment and not staying long enough to establish a relationship with the class.