Schools to Population - Good ratios?

[GouRonin]

Thinking about it today I looked into the local phone book and counted 30 listed schools. Now I know there are at least 10 more untilsted that I know of, maybe more, but for purposes of this we'll leave the number of established schools in town at 40.

Now our town has 330,001 people. That leaves a pool of about 8250 people to draw from per school. The actual number of people who would actually attend a school whittles that down even less. It seems that on every corner there is a martial arts school somewhere in the city.

What kind of ratio is that compared to other cities? When I go visiting other places the first thing I do is look through the phone book to see what they have in the way of martial arts. They all seem to have less compared to their population.

 

[Rich Parsons]

In the Flint, Genesee County area there are at least 30 schools between what I know of and in the phone books. The population of Flint Metro area is around 300,000 plus. This means about 10,000 per school. With the ration of 1 in one hundred stay to black belt than means about one hundred serious
students if the whole population was counted.

HMMMM, how do people stay in business?

 

[GouRonin]

Originally posted by Rich Parsons
HMMMM, how do people staying in business?

No kidding! I have friends who own their own school. Those that are opening their own school, and those that have had a school and closed it.

It must be a nightmare at times. Was it easier in the old days with less schools? I don't know. There were less people in the arts to draw from. What is the answer? Orgainzations like NAPMA help I am sure. But can they hurt as well? Perhaps each school has to draw their own lines in the sand.

 

[tshadowchaser]

My town only has 12-1500 in it the same for the town next door.
The center of both towns is only maybe 8 - 10miles apart, with the towns spreading out east-west, north-south. In the two twons ther are 3 established schools with 4 other small home schools, that i know of.
That may not sound to bad but then lets consider that 50% of the population is over 50 in both towns and the graduating classes had 88 and 140 students respectivly. Thats not a lot of young people to pull from.
After graduating over have the students leave town every year.

are these numbers normal for larger areas most likely not but how do they compare with the smaller towns?
Shadow

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by Rich Parsons

HMMMM, how do people stay in business?

What's the failure rate? How many were listed five years ago? Maybe half of them stay in business, and the other half are in for a year or two, fail, and disappear.

Also just because it's listed doesn't mean the instructor is making a full-time living from it. On the other hand, add in college clubs, YMCA clubs, etc., and it may be even higher than one thinks.

I imagine NAPMA has data on this.

 

[theneuhauser]

i believe the failure rate is the same as the general success to failure ratio for all small business startups. 1 in 10 make it to the five year mark. but thats really not too bad, youve got to figure on the fact that if you do it right, the odds are in your favor. the population factor is not as important that it might seem, why? because martial arts training is not a neccessity to the general population, so what will you offer the public? is it attractive enough to draw in the general public frequently enough to sustain your costs? some of you know that im not a fan of turning a kwoon into a profit venture, but if your in business with one, you have to act like a business person. kids classes(daycare)-excercise equipment(yuppie gym), trendy magazine courses etc.

most of us hate the idea of this stuff, but im sure it could be somewhat fun and interesting, and defenitely makes your school more marketable to the public. remember, economics is the science of using limited resources to satisfy unlimited demand. if its attractive enough, people will buy it.

so i would ask myself, am i limiting my potential customer base, by not expanding my menu?

 

[arnisador]

That's a good point about it being a luxury, not a necessity, so that the market for it is somewhat elastic. Indeed, if you offer what people want--exercise along with self-defense, e.g., look at the great growth of Tae-Bo (which I assume is not considered a martial art for the purposes of this discussion)--you could expand your market. Hence all the focus in ads on the benefits on school grades for children studying the arts.

 

[theneuhauser]

arnisador wrote:

Hence all the focus in ads on the benefits on school grades for children studying the arts.

exactly, the question is who is your target market? theres no shame in the money game, as long as its for the right reasons.

we have access to a great facility in phoenix now, because my instructor, lijinheng was smart enough to start a kid's class and open a web supply store a couple of years back. now he went from a lease on a couple hundred square feet to a huge training hall ( i think he may have bought it ). now the students benefit from a great training environment and due to the web store, weve got a ton of useful stuff to borrow, or buy cheap! everybody wins!!!

 

[Roland]

that there is a lot of the population that is unable to train - age, health, diabilities.

Old days! the Overhead on a school was much less, cheaper rent, less utilites, less & cheaper advertising, insuranace was a joke.