MASuccess Magazine

We encourage you to frequently assess your business for potential safety hazards and risks. Some areas may require daily assessment, while others may require weekly, monthly, or yearly assessments. Record your assessments, establish procedures for correcting hazards, and keep a well-documented file of your efforts related to risk management. Here are a few key checkpoint areas to consider when performing your assessment.

• Do you have a formal safety inspection process to routinely examine your school and equipment? Does this process include inspecting bathrooms, external walkways, parking lots, and parent waiting areas for potential hazards?

• Does your equipment safety check include checking sources like the Consumer Product Safety Commission (cpsc.gov) for potential equipment recalls?
• Is someone responsible for inspection of your facility?
• Is someone that is trained in both CPR and first aid available during each class?
• Do you have a plan in place for handling emergency injuries...

What do you think of when you hear the word "summer"?

• Do you think of traveling?
• Vacations?
• Time at the beach or the pool?

Unfortunately for some school owners, when they hear the word summer, they think:

• Low revenue
• Tons of freezes
• Empty mats

If that’s you, this blog was perfectly crafted with you in mind.

When I first started working with Mr. Metzger, he taught me some marketing gold.

He said, “There are 3 times a year in your school where you have to increase your
marketing efforts."

Those times are:

• Going into summer
• Coming out of summer
• And going into the new year

Why is it you might ask that those 3 specific times are when you should go pedal to the metal with your marketing?

It’s because during those times, people are making transitions that affect their day-to-day lives.

When it’s summer time, school is ending, vacation time is taken, new activities are booked, and our typical...

by Adam Parman

As martial arts school owners look for opportunities to generate much needed revenue while mediating risk of COVID in order to ensure customers feel safe, hosting an outdoor spring break camp can be great option.  Working parents need trusted solutions for their children where they know their child will be safe and have fun.  Often, these parents look to businesses that provide camps where they have already developed a relationship with the staff – like your martial arts school.  Offering camp services allows school owners the opportunity to diversify their business while providing additional revenue streams.  Many schools in our industry found summer camps and digital learning camps essential to their survival when opening back-up after months of being shut down.  Whether it’s a single day camp or a week-long camp, here’s a few steps to ensure...

When we first started martial arts, we never thought we would be where we are: full-fledged entrepreneurs making an impact on our communities. But here we are!

Many of us had to learn on-the-fly how to run a business. We spent long nights trying to figure out how to grow our schools into businesses.

Sometimes, we were moving so fast we barely knew what we knew, or more importantly — what we didn’t.

Do you know what a lead is? Truly? We know we want them, but what is the difference between a lead, a prospect, or a customer?

That’s why I want to stop and take a second to slow down and really talk about it.

Let’s start with the basics: your Customer Journey

[See video above] 

Lead

Before your prospect is — well — a prospect, they are a lead. A lead is someone who has a one-way interaction with your school or your brand.

During this stage of the Customer Journey, your Lead will be determining if they are interested or not and will likely need...

by Kathy Olevsky

I’ve operated a martial arts school full time for 45 years. I may have made every mistake that can be made in this business. The reason I’m still in business, I believe, is I asked for help. I learned quickly that others before me had already found solutions. In this column, I’ll point out key mistakes I made in my career, which are common errors among school owners, both large and small, throughout our industry. And I’ll share the solutions I used to overcome them.

Near the end of 2020, one of our locations was contacted by a fellow martial arts school owner looking to rent some space. He’d been forced to close his school because of COVID and was trying to restart his program while keeping costs as low as possible.

This is just one of many ways that we martial arts instructors can consider helping each other. Those of us who have managed to stay afloat and continue to teach in our commercial space might benefit from some extra...

by Herb Borkland

As a 10^th-degree black belt under Pat Burleson, Richard M. Morris is one of the seminal figures in the modern American martial arts. His longtime admirer Jhoon Rhee, before his death, officially entrusted the future of American taekwondo to Burleson and Morris. Morris retired in 2014 after nearly 36 years with the Fort Worth Police Department, where he was a living legend. He has not missed a week of martial arts training since 1971, and today he conducts seminars in his reality-based shizen-na karate (“natural way of fighting”) for police departments, federal law-enforcement agencies and the U.S. military. Morris is also the exclusive personal safety coach for the Zig Ziglar Corporation and a certified Ziglar legacy speaker, trainer and consultant. Currently, he is collaborating with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman on a book titled On Fighting.

MASuccess: Where did you grow up, and what did your dad do?

Richard Morris: I grew up in Fort Worth,...

by Melissa Torres, MAIA Division Manager 

I have a confession to make. I know it’s not the best way to begin this column, but I have to get it off my chest. I’m not a school owner. I’m not an instructor. My role at MAIA is to work with our coaches who are school owners. Which is good because I’m not the person you want to call when you’re trying to execute your first summer camp or afterschool program. But I know how to get you in touch with the experts who can help.

Even though I’m not a school owner, I’ve come to know many over the three and a half years I’ve had this position. I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to visit their schools, listen to their stories, and hear about their successes and struggles. I have a good idea of what our owners and instructors want and need to grow their schools.

But so much has changed in the past year. Schools now operate in a drastically different manner because of COVID. Most...

by Beth A. Block

Mats, bags, video gear, audio systems, oh my! Many of us transport our equipment to other locations. We might be traveling for a test or a graduation, or maybe we’re moving to a new studio space. Some of us might even be using a trailer as a permanent storage unit. Surely, there are more reasons for moving our things than those, but you get the point.

What none of us thinks about while we’re doing this is insurance for all our “stuff,” whether we plan to store it or move it. Be honest — does insurance ever come to mind unless you have a claim? I’ve got a quarter that says it doesn’t. (I’m smiling as I type. Please don’t contact me with serious quarter claims.)

A few months ago, I received a call from a studio owner. She said that during the summer of 2020, she would work out in the park and take her equipment with her every day. In the evening, she would clean the equipment and drive the...

by Karen Eden

In 1975, a man named Gary Dahl decided to design the “perfect pet” as a joke after listening to friends complain about their real pets. It was a mere rock in a cardboard box. Little did Mr. Dahl know that in six months’ time, he would become a millionaire from of his over-the-top sense of humor.

I remember being in elementary school when my classmates began bringing their pet rocks to school. The “no pets allowed” rule was overridden by kids everywhere who would take out their rocks after finishing their classwork. They somehow took comfort in their own personal rocks being present with them, as they petted and coddled them before putting their beloved “pets” back in their crates.

Each pet rock came with an owner’s manual on how to care for the rock and even teach it tricks (of course, the rock just sat there, regardless). I can only imagine what a kid would think today if he or she opened a gift, only to find a...

by Dave Kovar 

It has been my experience that you share with others what you most need to hear yourself. Today, I’m going to share with you what I call “teacher’s mindsets.” These are specific mindsets that I have made a conscious effort to adopt, especially when I’m interacting with students. Although I still have a long way to go, they have enabled me to make great strides with my students.

We all have a series of beliefs about how a classroom works and how we work within it. Unfortunately, most of us don’t consciously choose our mindsets. They come to us. We pick them up from the environment we were brought up in, the education we received and the experiences we’ve had.

Let’s imagine that in third grade, you ran a foot race with two kids from your class. Unbeknownst to you, these kids were the fastest sprinters in all of third grade. You gave it your best shot and still trailed behind them. Your perception of your...