You know I have had my school for over 20 year and at no time have I ever had 100 people so my question is simple what makes a good TKD school? How can I enroll alot of people and make some money from my art?
My school has been successful in that people truely learn TKD and compete at a high level, butat this time in my life without being employed any longer it would help to have all that extra cash come in.
I know some of you will tell me it is not about the money but to be honest it is now, I have suffered enough over all these year and looking for full proof ways of bringing in people.
Thanks for understanding my delima.
Firstly, as soon as organizations that ask for fees, gain IOC recognition and corporate partnerships enter the picture, there is a business/money element.
I think that there is definitely room for both a passion for your art and financial success. Look at Paul Reed Smith, Martin and Taylor guitars. Those companies stay in business in large part because they are passionate about their art (making instruments) and make a quality product that will enable people who are passionate about their music to sound better. Those companies have found success because people who are passionate about their music are attracted to that.
Sales are all about creating need in the customer's mind, learning your customer's needs and desires, and matching your product's features and benefits to your customers' needs and desires.
In order to do that effectively, you need to know what those needs and desires are and then you need to be able to effectively communicate how those features and benefits will meet those needs and desires.
What are people looking for when they walk into a martial arts studio, or when they do a search for martial arts schools on the web? You have been in the biz long enough to probably know the vast majority of reasons.
Just as musicians don't all play the same style of music, all people looking at an MA school don't have the same reasons. You need to identify the reasons that are most applicable to your school and idenitify the types of people that go with those reasons.
Your school has physical benefits: location, size, equipment, etc.
Your school has personel benefits: a knowledgeable and capable staff that knows what they're doing.
Your school has the benefit of a quality product: Taekwondo.
And that last one is where you narrow your field a bit. Who is most interested in taekwondo? What are the reasons that people want to take taekwondo? Since you teach both the art and the sport, you can actually hit the child/athletics crowd and the traditional/SD crowd.
Also, all of the martial arts studios are competing, to some extent, for much of the same pie, mainly because most people don't know the difference between karate, hapkido, aikido, taekwondo, taijutsu and tai chi, let alone the variants within each art.
But people tend to gravitate towards certain arts because the environment meets their needs. Taekwondo tends to have a very broad appeal and a very strong appeal with families, which puts you in a good position. Take a look at what other, successful taekwondo studios in your area are doing with regards to marketing.
Lastly, set very specific goals as to the degree of financial success that you are trying to achieve. Do you want to be the nationwide household name for taekwondo? Or be able to make enough to pay your bills with a little extra? Look at you monthly sales numbers, set sales goals, and make concrete plans to meet those goals.
Chances are, you have a great deal of what customers are looking for and with the economy being in the tank, quality is what sets you apart. Also, if your prices are reasonable and the quality is there, you will be another leg up.
Daniel
