Archive for the 'Mike Massie' Category

When Opportunity Knocks…

Published on February 10, 2010 in Mike Massie, Small Dojo Big Profits and teaching karate. 0 Comments

Five years ago I was teaching karate part time at the local community center.

My student numbers were growing and my program was expanding, to the point where I had classes running there every day for 3 to 4 hours. One day one of the parents of my junior students approached me and said, “Hey, have you ever thought about opening your own place?”

“Yeah, but rent’s expensive and I really don’t know how to get started”, I responded.

“Well rent doesn’t have to be that expensive. We manage a small business park and have a vacancy. We know the landlord well and can get you in there… if you want?”, John said. “Why don’t you come look at it?”

I was hesitant but thought, “What have I got to lose?”, so John showed me the vacant unit.

It was small.

It was nasty.

It was in a bad part of town.

And it was cheap… around $700 / month.

It was also in really bad shape and needed a lot of work before we could even imagine teaching out of there. John told me not to worry, and that he’d help me get up and running. He told me he’d help with the construction, trash removal, and getting my business set up.

BEFORE

After some consideration, I accepted his proposal and have never looked back. John did everything he said and we worked hard to transform that place into somewhere where I could teach. And that decision allowed us to grow my student base even more.

AFTER

My club wasn’t an overnight success. It took effort. It took persistence. And it took patience. I didn’t instantly quit my job and open a school… it was a gradual transition, a sliding scale if you will. I worked my day job until my first school was successful enough that I could let go of it.

However, that first dungeon dojo was the stepping stone to the fantastic dojo we have now. And had I not answered the door when opportunity knocked, I’d still probably be teaching out of the community center. But instead that decision changed my life and led me to more and more opportunities. In fact we’ve moved our dojo twice since to bigger and better places.

I wanted to share this with you to show you that all it takes is one good decision that can change your life. I went from teaching part time (and getting a part time paycheck) to owning and running a full time karate school.

And there’s no reason why you can’t too…

Sure you’ll be nervous…

Sure you’ll have doubts…

But if you’ve built your student base to where it can cover your expenses (including paying yourself) and you offer great service, the only thing that is stopping you is the story you’re telling yourself.

When opportunity knocks on your door will you an answer it? Or will you let someone else get it?

Until next time…

- Jason

P.S. If I was starting all over again, there are many things I’d do differently to avoid all the mistakes and pain. Had I known about it at the time I would have instantly grabbed a copy of Mike Massie’s martial arts business strategy guide, Small Dojo Big Profits. Read more about it by clicking here…

The second step to going full time…

Published on October 12, 2009 in karate instructors, martial arts instructor, Mike Massie, Small Dojo Big Profits and starting a martial arts school. 0 Comments
First off my apologies for no post last week…
Today I want to share with you the story of how I made the step from being part time instructor teaching out of the local community center, to having my own full time karate dojo. My hope is that it sheds a little light of what’s ahead of you if you’re thinking about opening your own karate school…
 
In 2004 when I was thinking about going full time I saw the EXACT location where I wanted to have my school. It was a grand location, on the corner of a main road with a huge curved glass walls. It was 2,500 square feet. It was awesome! I imagined my sign on the outside and the building packed full of students. This was my dream…
Suddenly my dream was shattered like tempered glass as soon as I found out the cost!
The rent was $3,600 per month. 
Yikes!

Right then I simply realized that I didn’t have the financial capacity to take on something like that, so I lowered my expectations for my first full time dojo.
I ended up taking something far less glamorous! Sure it was smaller (like 1180 square feet), sure the location wasn’t great (back street in the industrial part of town), sure parking was horrible (2 spaces only), but the rent was cheap! It was only about $700 per month.

Problem was I was only earning about $900 per month teaching karate part time, 4 days per week out of the local community center.
The solution?
*** Pay attetention – this is KEY  ***

I wrote a letter to my students and asked them if they’d like a full time place. I listed the benefits and explained that with better facilities, an expanded training schedule and a full time dojo that the tuition would have to go up also. So I proposed to raise the tuition 50% and asked them if they’d support it.

95% said YES!

So I signed the lease on the new place, and was up and running within 3 weeks. Since I no longer had to give up profits to the community center for rent, I was now better off. I had a full time school, a supporting student base, and financially I was making about the same as before.

At the time It was a very scary step…

There was a bunch I didn’t yet know, but somehow I bumbled and stumbled my way thanks to some common sense, a lot of help from friends and little bit of luck. At the time I didn’t know there was so much I didn’t know…

Things like:

  • I’d never signed a lease on a commercial building before…
  • Didn’t really know how to negotiate with the landlord
  • Was unsure what to look out for as far as a safe building structure
  • Didn’t know what should be included in the lease and what shouldn’t…
  • Didn’t have a business license…
  • Didn’t have a reseller’s permit…
  • Didn’t have a business bank account…
  • Didn’t have martial arts insurance…
  • Was unsure if the building I was about to rent was zoned correctly and if it was actually ok to teach martial arts from it…
  • Didn’t know that the City required that all new businesses must have a wheelchair accessible bathroom (which this building didn’t), and how to work around that…
  • Didn’t really know how to do the marketing…
  • Was unfamiliar with City rules and regulations on fire extinguishers, displaying of business licenses, how cleaning products must be stored, etc.
  • Didn’t know how to get or write a legal liability waiver, etc.

And that’s just for starters!

Each one of these, plus a hundred more are business/litigation pitfalls you can fall into and break a leg, or worse.

Fortunately for you, you won’t have to worry about this stuff because the pathway through the jungle has been paved for you to follow. I started documenting all this stuff plus more, ready to release it as a guide for anyone wanting to start their own full time school, only to be beaten to the punch by a friend of mine Mike Massie.

If you don’t know Mike, he’s the guy who wrote Small Dojo Big Profits that explains all this stuff in detail. It’s a complete A-Z guide of how to set up your successful full time school, how to avoid the traps and ensure good business practices that allow for growth and expansion.

When I read Small Dojo Big Profits I had mixed feelings. Firstly I wished I’d written it. Secondly I was relieved that someone else had done all the work, PLUS covered some things which I didn’t know either.

If you’re thinking about making the next step to going full time with your school, your next step is to get a copy of Small Dojo Big Profits and get educated. Then follow it and you’ll do great. It’s cheap insurance when you consider the mistakes you’ll probably make without it!

To learn more about SDBP click here

- Jason

P.S. Because I sorted through all those challenges listed above (plus a bunch more of them in Mike’s book), I was able to grow my student base which allowed us to move 18 months later to another dream location. This time the new place had plenty of parking in a nice part of town, 1800 square feet, good visibility… and I was able to negotiate a much better deal on the rent!

Get SDBP today and live your dream…


Starting a Summer Day Camp – Review

Published on April 29, 2009 in karate summer camp, Mike Massie and Starting a Summer Camp. 0 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that sometimes I’ll mention other sites and recommend other products, but only when I truly believe they contain real value and can help you.

Well, recently I read Mike Massie’s “Starting a Summer Day Camp”, and I’ve got to tell you that he’s done it again. This simple and concise package covers everything you need to know about filling your school over the scarce summer months with enthusiastic karate kids.

Why would you want to do this?

Well since most martial arts schools struggle over the summer months because they don’t offer any additional classes, running a summer day camp can seriously boost your bottom line during that tough time of the year.

Last year I had the same idea but hadn’t yet read Mike’s book, nor had I run a summer camp before. With last minute preparations and planning I ran a very short, Three Day Summer Camp with about 20 kids and made a healthy profit at $75 / child, and that was for a 3-day / 4 hour camp.

That seems like a drop in the ocean when you compare it to what Mike lays out in his ebook. He ran a 12 week long camp and brought in around $25,000 in EXTRA revenue! Think about this and do the math. Summer Camps for other sports charge can charge $100-$200 per week, so why not you?

You can quickly see that if you enroll 10 kids at $100 per week and just ran it for 1 month, your club would bring in an additional $4,000. Get 20 kids in it and you’re talking double that. Run it for 3 months and you can see how $25k is attainable.

Aren’t you excited by the potential of this?

Go here and read about Mike’s package. It’s got EVERYTHING you need to know about how to set up, advertise and manage your summer camp. He also explains the pitfalls and things NOT TO DO, and what age groups it works best for…

Mike’s included the “Starting a Summer Camp” ebook, a complete marketing strategy to make your camp a sell-out, included tons of karate games for kids plus a 60 minute MP3 audio for you to listen to that goes into deeper detail and also answers some questions not covered in the ebook.

WARNING! If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere you’ll want to jump on this right away as summer is just around the corner and parents are already planning their kid’s activities. Leave it another couple of weeks and you’ll have missed the boat. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, there’s no time like the present to get a head start on this and start planning this out for your summer months.

Go here to read more…

Enjoy!