{"id":92,"date":"2009-10-12T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T18:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karateteaching.uploadmysite.com\/?p=92"},"modified":"2009-10-12T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T18:28:00","slug":"the-second-step-to-going-full-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/the-second-step-to-going-full-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The second step to going full time…"},"content":{"rendered":"
First off my apologies for no post last week…<\/span><\/div>\n
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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… <\/span><\/div>\n
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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…<\/span><\/div>\n
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Suddenly my dream was <\/span>shattered like tempered glass<\/span> as soon as I found out the cost!<\/span><\/div>\n
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The rent was $3,600 per month. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Yikes!<\/span><\/div>\n

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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.<\/span><\/div>\n
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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.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Problem was I was only earning about $900 per month teaching karate part time, 4 days per week out of the local community center.
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The solution?<\/span><\/div>\n
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*** Pay attetention – this is KEY  <\/span>***
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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.<\/i><\/p>\n

95% said YES!<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

At the time It was a very scary step…<\/i><\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

Things like:<\/p>\n