Major in the minor things
 Author: Sensei Nick Dougherty
Contact and Blog: www.SenseiNick.com
In this article, Sensei Nick shares some of the key ‘little things’ that helped his schools reach a new level of success in the past year.
1.
Front Door: Make sure the front door is spotless all day. Make sure instructors know that the front door is the first impression people will have of your school. Between classes the door should be cleaned. This demonstrates that you have pride, and that image is important to you, and in this business image is critical.
2. Front Desk: Have a front desk receptionist for all your classes. I recently went through four in the past five months. Our new receptionist has been a great find; she has wow factor. This is a requirement for any staff member at our school, and it should be at yours. The appearance you are showing is professionalism; don’t allow someone to bring their children or new born baby behind your counter. Have you ever seen that at Starbucks or McDonalds?
3. Front Line: The waiting area of your school should consist of a few things: greeting the students (someone with a dynamic personality); nice chairs (we recently upgraded ours); school newsletters and announcement boards that are updated every week; flat screen TV (it’s 2008, the quote boards are from the 90’s); good lighting and nice flooring (we’re going to hard wood and have custom made benches, shoe racks, and throw rugs with our logo).
4. Training Floor: This one is simple. They must be clean, clean, and clean.
5. Restrooms: To me this is the most difficult to keep clean, but the most important. It’s like the front door, between every class make sure to check on the bathroom.
1. Keep your word
2. Be You
3. Never stop training
4. Follow your heart
5. Love life
This is the most critical part of building a SUCCESSFUL school. Anyone can have a school, but it won’t be SUCCESSFUL unless there’s excellent Teamwork.
1. Make sure everyone has a defined role: Program Director, Front Desk, Instructor. Keep it simple.
2. Listen to people below you: everyone wants to be recognized and heard.
3. 20/70/10 Rule: 20% of the people on every team are 100% committed. 70% can go one of two ways - they can either make it into the top 20% or fall into the bottom 10%. 10% of every team should just be replaced today, because they are hurting the team. Now, take a look at your team. If you have 10 staff members, it’s more than likely that one should be replaced today.
4. Don’t do anything detrimental to the team. Simple and to the point.
5. Recognize greatness: Tell people when they do a great job.
This is what I gave to my staff for 2008. I took a lot of stuff from different leaders across the world. I recommend making a list of your own for your staff!
1. Shut up and do your job: Taken from the New England Patriots, you don’t hear anyone talking about themselves or complaining on that team.
2. Leave your Drama at the front door: Drama will kill a team, and mentally drain everyone. Let staff know when you hire them that everyone leaves their personal life at the front door.
3. We are obsessed with being the Best: Have the best classes, school appearance, birthday parties, cleaning, music for your classes, flyers, website, ideas, image, and everything else you can think of. We require everyone to hold themselves and everything that they touch in the school to same high standards.
4. You must work out and train at the school if you want to work here. People that exercise and train in the martial arts are more positive, focused and interested in improving than people that don’t work out or exercise.
5. Read books
6. Technology: You must be technology-literate and expanding your knowledge.
7. No text messaging during work hours. I finally put my foot down, and the production has been amazing.
8. Have fun!
9. Communicate: No sticky tabs or post it notes. Use MAS software to send messages and to make sure that task is professionally tracked.
10. If you’re ever going to be late - call or text message WAY in advance. No last minute notice.
Sensei Nick has been teaching Martial Arts for 15 years and owns two successful martial arts schools in New Jersey. He is one of our most popular webinar hosts and is preparing his 2008 webinar that will be called “Low Cost Marketing 2008”, in which he will be sharing his knowledge, passion and experience with everyone.
If you are interested in networking with Sensei Nick, go to www.SenseiNick.com, visit his blog and subscribe to his FREE “Martial Arts Network”. It has been set up for school owners who are interested in networking and learning from some of the best consultants in the business.
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Author: Sensei Nick Dougherty
Contact and Blog: www.SenseiNick.com
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