Success Key #3
The final key I want to share with you for a successful martial arts school is to have…
A Good Record Keeping System!
I realized as soon as I got 20 students that trying to keep good records of who had paid, when they trained, their personal details, etc. was going to be a nightmare if I was going to keep paper records, or even electronically with MS Excel. Files accidentally get overwritten, lost, names get mispelt, computers crash, yikes!
That’s why I went and built the Dojo Organizer that runs my dojo. It’s simple to use and keeps everything organized, secure in one place, accessible from anywhere 24/7, and is backed up daily.
Warning!! It doesn’t play happy birthday when your students arrive at the club, nor does it teach class for you!
It does the basics like student data tracking, student grading certificates, attendance tracking, emailing of receipts, etc. and it does them well to free up your time, and relieve your frustration.
Plus if you use some kind of credit card processor/merchant gateway/recurring billing company, the Dojo Organizer can now interface with them and insert your payments directly into the Dojo Organizer system (that means no more manual data entry for you), woohoo!
There are of course other products on the market that are great, like JackRabbit starting at $45/month. These programs are fantastic and can schedule instructors, keep inventory, etc, and of course you’ll pay for those added features (more than double the price for the service).
These kinds of programs have everything you can imagine and they charge accordingly. Also be aware that many companies like JackRabbit charge you based on the number of TOTAL students, not ACTIVE students you have in there system. If you’re like me and like to keep your old student data, then it can get pricey quickly. For me to use their system it would cost me $155/month. With the Dojo Organizer there are no restrictions on student count and you can get started for less than $20.
If you’re a small school owner and don’t need to schedule instructors, don’t need to keep masses of inventory, or have happy birthday played when you’re students arrive for class, but are looking for a solid program to reduce your headaches then I might just have what you’re looking for.
Of course I’d love you to use my system, however the mesage I’m trying to get across is that good record keeping can be easy and is a critical factor if you’re looking to reduce your administrative tasks and grow your school.
Failure to get organized will lead you nowhere… yet so many instructors refuse to change their bad habits, yet expect to be successful and have a great karate school.
It reminds me of that famous Albert Einstein quote about the definition of insanity…
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”
Isn’t it time for you to get organized?
– Jason
