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6 Simple Steps To Success In the Martial Arts BusinessBy: Michael Dolpies Michael Dolpies started his first school in
1998 when he was just 18 years old. He is the creator of many top
selling martial arts business resources including: Quick Karate
Sales Letters and The Magic Intro Program. He is the
co-founder of The MA-Biz Secret Society. To get a
FREE MP3- In this article I’m going to facilitate one of those “Aha” moments for you! When ever you simplify anything you tend to have one of those moments. A lot of the times you ask yourself- “Why have I been doing things the hard way all this time?” So read on if want to make things a little simplier…. I would think it’d be a safe bet to assume that all professional martial artists want to make more money. If you don’t; you are either lying, or, you are already independently wealthy? If the later were true you would not be reading this article! So let’s get the money thing out of the way quickly for those reading that have some mental block about making very, very good money as a professional martial artists! Notice I say “professional martial artist” and not “school owner.” Yes, I believe that instructors and program directors, who are responsible for results and at the school everyday should make very good money if they produce! Ok, now let’s simplify… Simple step number one of any professional martial-school is to teach high quality, high content, entertaining and educational classes that match exactly what their target market demands and wants! I don’t care if you are teaching only kids or you are getting fighters ready for the UFC. You need to give them what they want! But before you do this you need to establish an identity… Simple step number two is who! Who do you want to teach? The word ‘who’ is the most important word in marketing. If you don’t know who you want to teach or you are too fuzzy about it then your school will have no identity. Who would you rather deal with the generalist or the specialist? I guess it depends on the situation, right? Here’s an example… One thing I know for certain is that the kids and family market is “evergreen.” It is not going anywhere that’s why my school’s main focus is this market. BUT, we also offer a sperate MMA and Kickboxing program for adults taught by my partner who is a full contact kickboxer and Mixed Martial Artist. We balanced our ‘who’ by simply being very clear on the fact that we are not here to produce UFC Fighters. Therefore our kids and family program did not suffer at all because we didn’t go through the identity crisis that many schools go through! Please decide who you want to teach! Then go after them with all of your resources! Be sure they exist before you commit too many resources to them! This leads us to… Simple step number three- You need to cost effectively market your school using “direct response marketing.” There are two kinds of marketing- Brand building and Direct Response. You can only brand build if your school is bringing in more than one billion dollars per year! Meaning… You can’t fly your school’s logo next to the Good Year Blimp hoping that when people think of lessons they think of you. Every activity you do and every piece of marketing you pay for must be measurable very quickly. At the very least it should help you get more information about the person you’re marketing to. That is what Direct Response marketing is, that’s it! Now here’s the good news… You can easily apply direct response marketing to everything you do (paid or un-paid). Let’s quickly define paid as direct mail, space ads, fliers, etc. Let’s define un-paid as demos, b-day parties and things like that. Here’s a couple examples from the “un-paid” department…If we do an outreach program and teach somewhere in the community we have a simple way to get the participants back to our school. If there is a birthday party at our school a percentage of the guests will be back at the school the following week because we offer them the opportunity in a way that makes it simple and easy to comeback. If we send out a mail piece, do a space ad or put a website it’s gonna have a strong offer and a deadline to respond! After cost effectively marketing your school you can now move to simple step number 4… Simple step number four- You’ve got to have a low pressure, simple way to convert all of the leads you get from your marketing efforts. If you don’t, all of your time an money has gone to waste! Here’s the truth…Anyone can enroll students; it does not take a lot of sales skills. It does take some sales skills though, don’t ever forget that! But it’s really about following a proven script and process! Here’s the good news too, a good process will work regardless of how much you charge for you lessons. And real quick, you should be charging at least $149 per month! Ok, we’ve got two more steps to go… Simple step number six- Have a simple low pressure way to elevate your students’ commitment and tuition levels early on in their training. This is easier than you think and is really predicated on following rule number 1 “Give them what they want!” If you deliver what you promised and more it is really easy to get someone to commit for the long term. Of course there are a few details that go beyond the scope of this article but you get the idea! Simple step number six- Build an iron cage around your students then repeat steps 1 – 5! Get to know your people, make sure they know how much you care about them and get involved in their lives. Make them feel special and give them recognition at every opportunity you get. Be sure you are adding an entertainment component to your program! There are numerous ways to systemize and do this too. Follow these steps and your martial arts career will be very rewarding and productive!
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