Occam’s Razor For Martial Arts Schools

By Mike Dolpies

Inside this article…

  • How to schedule for success and sanity!
  • How to be more productive so you can get more students
  • How to get attention for your school and stand out in a cluttered market

Occam’s Razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century English Philosopher and Francisican Friar, William of Ockum.

In Latin it is expressed as Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate. It basically means: “Law of Simplicity”

It boils down to all things being equal. The simple solution is best!

In this two part article we’re gonna reveal simple secrets and strategies that will help boost your school to the next level while making your life a whole lot easier!

I’m gonna move from the general to the specific. I’m gonna talk about life and of course, The Martial Arts Business.

Let’s get started….

Remember this simple (Yet often overlooked) marketing maxim; “Give people what they want not what they need.” More importantly…

Sell people what THEY want not what you think they want. And….

Never, ever catch yourself trying to sell people what they need! Worse yet….

Never, every try selling people what you feel or think they need!

OK, sorry for all of those negatives!

Remember the “Platinum Rule” by Tony Allesandro, “Do unto others as they want to be done unto.” The platinum rule stands above the Golden Rule and was written to be followed by ALL business owners.

Find out what your students want by asking them. This may sound overly simple, but study their guest questionnaires about which benefits they are seeking.

Since we’ll be talking simplicity I wanted to start off…well…Simple!

Count your blessings that the Martial Arts are still largely un-regulated. This simple fact saves us all a TON of headaches, so be sure to take full advantage of this reality.

As we move to specifics I encourage you to take a long, hard look at your school with your silent thinking cap on. Try to find areas that would benefit from being less complicated.

Look at student service issues….

Do you get the same questions over and over?

Do you lose people more at a certain belt or level than at other levels or belts?

Are you keeping any employees around just for the sake of it? I spoke with a woman last week who had four employees with only 130 students! Ouch, I know one man bands that manage 150 students and are putting the 7k per month that they’d be paying out to employees in their pockets!

A little simple time management
We’re gonna dive into a little time management and then give you a simple definition of “Self-Discipline.” (Pretty gutsy to talk self-discipline with martial arts school owners, huh?)

“You should concentrate on doing the right things, rather than doing things right!”
Peter Drucker.

FYI- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was a student of Drucker.

And to paraphrase Robert Ringer, (you should read everything he has ever written).
We all have a choice, we can spend our time editing commas and wrapping packages or we can spend our time on important, creative projects. The latter produces financial results; the former only produces high blood pressure and twitching.

As school owners, it’s easy to find yourself at the office supply store three to four days per week. It’s easy to impulsively unpack the box of gear immediately after you hand the UPS guy (or girl, at my NJ school, it’s a women driver) back that fancy signing gizmo.

The question you must ask yourself constantly-

“What should I be doing right now that will bring me the best results at my school?” The answers should comeback…

I can call past prospects.

I can call and check in with my current students. 

I can brainstorm and qualify my current 12 month students for the upgrade and set appointments to talk to them.

I can think of ways to work with my fellow merchants in my area or at least go drop off some passes to them.

I can flip through my local chamber of commerce directory and find ten businesses like day cares, music schools, art schools, dance schools, etc and go network with them and see how I can help them.

I can drop in and introduce myself to the office personnel at the local elementary schools with a box of Dunkin Donuts Joe in hand.

I can really keep going with the list and I’ll add more for you in the future.

I want you to think of the letters S.T.P.

NO, not the motor oil!

It stands for: See The People! If you need to go to the auto store and pick up a quart and put it where you can see it to remind you to get out there and see the people by all means do it!

Self-Discipline- Acting on your intellect, rather and your emotions. Making every decision based on the long term ramifications rather than the short term pleasure or discomfort!

Let’s talk scheduling that will keep you sane!
I’ve been juggling my own martial arts school schedules for the past 10 years. Over the last 24 months I’ve been helping other school owners with their schedule concerns. Here’s what I’ve found to work best from a “simplicity” and “not drive your self crazy” point of view…

Of course, starting with the end mind, as in your active count goal, is needed to begin your schedule adjustments. But the main thing to look at right away is your current student base and what they are used to.

One thing I’ve learned while training to receive my black belt at “The Martial Arts School of Hard Knocks” is that students, parents and clients HATE change. Actually it is just human nature to resist it, funny too, because one thing that we can all be certain of is change. I guess that is why only small percentages of people are successful: They embrace change while the majority does not! Sorry, don’t mean to get off on a rant here!

Look at your current roster of students and how they are spread out among belts, levels and programs. I wouldn’t need my wife’s Cornell degree to figure out that I need the most classes for those belts and levels that make up the bulk of my school.

Next, you’ll need to forecast- When you set a very aggressive new student goal: Example- My buddy Brett more than doubled his active count from eighty to over two-hundred in less than 6 months. You’ll need to be sure you have plenty of room for beginner classes when you do the same!

However, do not build it before they come. Just be prepared to steal a little from somewhere else and minimize the negative affect when you do add the classes. It’s funny, in my Philly school we always made it a point to have our beginner classes around six or six-thirty figuring people were working. Then those same people who expressed concern about being on time for a six pm class were actually the ones who loved the five pm intermediate class a year later, Weird Stuff! So just add the classes as you need them.

To easily overcome the, “I can’t make it” objection at the enrollment you’ll want to have at least four times per week for beginners mixed between early and later times (5:30, 7, or 6:30).

When making a schedule overhaul the best thing you can do is make it to where you can see just about everyone in your school on a given day if they all choose to come in. Here’s what I mean; let’s say your school, looks like this. Basic, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Adults.

Your Monday may look like this- 4:30 Level 1, 5:30 Basic, 6:30 Level 2, 7:30 Level 3, 8:30 Adult. Then the next day you simply juggle it around.

When you think about keeping class sizes manageable you hedge your bet on this fact of life: Most people who come Monday will not come Tuesday so if you see an average of 22 people per class and you have 5 classes a day and see half of your students on Monday and half on Tuesday 22 X 5 = 110 X 2 = an active count of 220.

Of course, it is not an exact science! That’s why you can also do this; let’s say your enrollment push goes well and now the majority of your students are basic. Well, you look at your other levels and see where things are skimpy and you remove a class and add another basic class for the day.

As far as family classes go…

The two main reasons why parents don’t train are: 1) because they feel stupid and 2) because the schedule does not work for them to take an adult only class. The key is to make them feel comfortable and then show them how it can fit in. If they are just going to be sitting there anyway then you up your chances is you simply ask them to join.

Go after the low hanging fruit! You know which parents are ready to go and which ones would never do it even if you paid them. Make it as one sided as a plane crash and don’t let the negative ones kill the ones that want to get in and get going!

We’re still talking about simplicity, so we’ll continue our discussion by bringing up a very important simple yet complicated must do for every school owner…

There’s a very old marketing and sales formula that uses the letters A-I-D-A

Of course it stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. I’m not going go into it for the simple fact that you understand it already. I just want to talk about the first word and brain storm some ideas to get attention for your school.

The simple truth is Attention is what your school needs! If you can’t get the attention of the people qualified and interested in benefiting from your program than you really have nothing!

Knowing that you must get attention is simple. Ask yourself…How can I get attention for my school? How can I get attention in ways that guarantee I’ll be remembered and talked about?

The answers to these questions can be conventional or non-conventional. Here’s an example…

You can easily knock off some of my outrageous direct mail pieces. I know for a fact that when used in a market chances are great that the prospect has never, ever received something like it before.

Bottom line is that with all of the craziness out there we have no choice but to get attention in ways that are not the norm.

Here are some other ways to get attention to your school for any program, kids, adults, etc…

What about getting a DJ outside of your school for a night or a Saturday afternoon?

When the weather gets nice why not do classes outside? Take a few of your students that you can trust will be safe on a run down a popular road or street in your area? Think of a school in Philly running through the Italian Market like Rocky did?

What about hiring a guy to walk around your plaza on stilts wearing your martial arts uniform and a black belt?

What about (if you really target kids) getting a petting zoo to set up shop for a few hours outside of the school?

How about calling the local animal shelter and hosting a charity “adopt a stray animal day?”

You can always pull a PT Barnum and ride to your school on an elephant!

You laugh, but remember getting attention is the simple thing we all need to accomplish and the fact is that it is not easy these days!

Think Trump…Remember how much of a huge deal he made about his spat with Martha Stewart and Rosie??? All to get attention!

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-
“The Insider Secrets of Six-Figure School Owners” go to: www.MaBizSecretSociety.com 
To get a FREE email course-How to Master Direct Mail for Martial Arts Schools go to: www.quickkaratesalesletters.com