How many people here operate a school full-time?
My city has many 'general' karate / Tae Kwon Do schools, but I was thinking of starting a school with more of a self-defense / personal protection flavor.
I have taught many classes on a part-time basis, but not sure if this will fly full-time. I am thinking of arts simaler to Krav Maga, kali, and more of a combat flavored karate blend.
Thanks again
Jeremy Bays
I run a part time program out of a Rec Center, but have been toying with the idea of starting a full time school for a couple of years now. So I kind of understand where your at.
FWIW
1) Unless you know all about running a school as a business or running a business then you need to educate yourself on operating a school as a business and not a hobby. So I would educate yourself first.
2) Search the web for the different martial art consulting companies and there are plenty of them and check them out. There are trail memberships available that give you access to their sites where you can down load various martial art business related articles and such to help educate you. There are plenty of seminars that these companies put out that you might be able to go to and get even more educated.
1 and 2 help get your mind started on the business process, then I would look into what really works in the MA business field.
3) Get certified in a program to teach so you have some backup and help with a curriculum. You mentioned Krav Maga, are you certified to teach it? If not do you understand what it takes to get certified? Cost? Commitments (possibly having to have the head instructors come out yearly for seminars, licensing fees, etc. etc.)?
4) Formulate a business plan on how you want to make money in your school, as in multiple streams of income instead of trying to put all of your eggs in one basket. For instance if you want to teach Krav maga what type of person are you searching for? Young, semi fit, individuals who enjoy hard work and contact. But what about the timid male or female that really could use what you have to offer, who is turned off by the hard contact? They need SD training more than any of the others and would probably stay longer as students, so you might have a class that teaches SD but without the heavy contact. But one of your students might have a child who is being bullied at school and they could use SD training as well, so you might want to have a class for kids etc. etc. so you can capture multiple segments of the population, more students can mean a more stable income.
Work out an upgrade program to include your weapons training (FMA) to allow your Krav people to cross train in and vice a versa for the FMA people to train in KM.
5) Have a workable method of progression with set goals that the student can meet and progress onto the next level. Work out a method for people to help instruct, these people can help with the expanding class schedule later on as the school grows.
6) Start collecting your gear now and try it out on your current students, get use to practicing your drills/skills and such NOW. So when you make your move it will be old hat. Again depending upon what you decide to teach shop around for DVDs ebooks etc. etc. that show different drills to do in class to keep things different so it is not the same old same old. (You'd be surprised how just doing that will help you to expand your knowledge and adjust the drills you currently do.)
I believe you can make any art or blended arts work as long as you are a competent instructor and you make the commitment that you are going to do whatever it takes to succeed, even if that means getting rid of the mindset of trying to run a full time school as a hobby run school.
Mark
