Build Your Own Manual to Success

by Melissa Torres, MAIA Division Manager

I’ve worked for the Martial Arts Industry Association for some time now. I’ve learned a lot, especially since I became Division Manager. When you spend time speaking with dozens, if not hundreds, of martial artists and school owners, you can’t help but start to notice patterns. One thing that really stands out to me is that school owners choose their career because they love martial arts. They have a passion for teaching and want to spread the benefits.

On one hand, this is great. On the other, it means that almost none of them considered the business side of the venture when they opened their schools.

This ties in with another pattern I’ve noticed: Many school owners don’t know the first thing about running a successful business. They get bogged down in daily tasks like teaching, answering phones, cleaning mats and taking out the trash — all important jobs, to be certain — but they tend to avoid the business side that will really impact their lives.

One of the first things we in the Martial Arts Industry Association teach school owners is that they must have a manual in place that includes all their enrollment procedures, operational systems, required software proficiencies, marketing strategies, lead-generation tools and human-resources information.

You may have no idea how important this is, but if you don’t have such a manual, how do you train new members? You have no procedure to follow. How do you improve your school? It’s difficult because you’ve never set a standard for your academy. These points are crucial.

Cris Rodriguez, who now serves as MAIA’s Digital Marketing Specialist, faced those same challenges as a school owner. Then she realized the importance of creating a manual so she would have the tools all instructors need to be organized and set up for success. She discovered that if she wanted to grow her team, she would need to train them on her processes. If she had such a manual, she could simply hand it to a new employee and dramatically cut the learning time.

So Rodriguez built a complete systems manual for her school. Knowing how important a tool this was, she devised a training course to help others create their own manuals. It’s called the Black Belt in Business Blueprint, and she is making it available to you. With it, you will learn firsthand how to formulate this mission-critical document for your school. Here’s what it includes:

• 10 video training modules that will walk you step-by-step through creating each section of your complete systems manual
• Your own complete systems manual template, into which you can plug your current systems to form an organized and structured manual
• Weekly homework assignments to keep you accountable so you get the manual completed on time
• Unlimited e-mail support from Rodriguez herself.

You can check out the program now on MAIAHub.com, where you will get access to additional details, pricing and answers to frequently asked questions. We are confident that you will see this is a great way to become not just a better martial artist but also a better business owner.

Take the necessary steps now to improve how you work on your business to make it grow — and not just in your business to perform daily tasks.

To contact Melissa Torres, send an email to [email protected].