MASuccess Magazine

By MAIA Executive Director Frank Silverman

As we approach summer, many people expect new-member sign-ups to come to a screeching halt. I suggest that if you expect it, that is exactly what you’ll get: A big zero, nada and nil leading into the summer season.

However, if you have a plan and expect better results, you can achieve them. I say with 100% confidence that the summertime norm is slower in terms of new-member sign-ups compared to most other times of year. That said, I’ve learned that many schools, though not the majority, understand how to make the summer not only successful with new members but financially as well.

To accomplish this, we need to shift gears in how we market. If we recognize that the public is off on vacation and not available to us, we must turn our marketing efforts to those who are present. As the old expression goes, we need to go after the “low-hanging fruit.”

So, what qualifies someone as low-hanging fruit?

First, they are “present.” How do we know...

By Mike Metzger

Now that we’re entering the new year, we should reflect on our business and ask how we can do things better. We should look to see how we can be better on the floor and on the business.

A frequent question that I get from school owners, specifically during this time of year, is how they can get more adults on their floor.

Most martial art facilities today have many more kids training than adults. Having more kids training is not a problem at all, but it’s always good to have adults training for several reasons.

Below are a three reasons why having more adults on your floor can be beneficial to your school.

1. Referrals. Adults will bring in more referrals than kids will. Adults like training with friends and/or family members. Adults also enjoy sharing their experiences with others and, therefore, are more than happy to invite prospects to try a class with them.

2. Easier to teach. Adults, for the most part, are easier to teach, for a few reasons
...

By Keith D. Yates

Coming to America

Adam Spicar (pronounced, spy’car) first came to the United States as a foreign exchange student in 1996 and went to high school in Arizona, where he graduated in 1997. He returned two years later to visit his host family and was able to travel and visit several other states in America. 

Lucie Stolkova and Adam were what she calls “middle-school sweethearts.” She says she first fell in love with Adam when she was just 12 years old and they met on the school bus. 

When Adam came back to America in 1999, she got permission from her parents to come with him. She was only 16 at the time. 

“My parents were suspicious of America, but they trusted Adam,” she remembers. 

She spent a couple of months attending high school in Arizona, but she admits she barely understood English.

Back in the Czech Republic, students often studied English, but she says it was mainly vocabulary. 

“I knew what was a table and a chair,” she says of her sparse grasp of En...

Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, legendary fighter Jeff Smith pulled off a dual goal unprecedented back then and extremely rare even today. He became a world kickboxing champion while simultaneously mastering the martial arts school business! Furthermore, he pioneered savvy business techniques still practiced by current school owners. Read Smith’s extraordinary story and prepare to come away inspired! 

By Herb Borkland

In the early 1960s, when Americans were first meeting the Beatles, Jhoon Rhee, the “Father of American Taekwondo,” owned four schools in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. He also regularly traveled around the country to a dozen taekwondo clubs, where he tested students trained by some of his black belts. One such club was located in Kingsville at Texas A&M University, where teenaged Jeff Smith’s mother worked and Jeff delivered daily newspapers.

“One day on my route, I noticed a sign for a karate demonstration at the student union ballroom,” Smith recalls. “I ...

As we exit the holiday season and enter the new year, the media is bombarding us about how the internet is seizing more and more sales from the standard brick-and-mortar businesses.

I am happy to say that my schools are somewhat internet-proof. A portion of our sales do compete with the internet: items like weapons, gear, uniforms, etc. But we have many ways to combat this.

For example, we offer the very best pricing, whenever possible, for purchasing products within the school. We cobrand anything and everything possible, and that becomes the “must-use” products for our students. We frequently offer new t-shirt designs for our student that are only available at the school. Most importantly, we program all product into our curriculum whenever possible.

All that said, my ways of combating internet sales is not the topic of this article. Changing with the times and adjusting to the environment is.

Over the holidays, I went shopping at a home-goods type store where they se...

Fitness icon Eric Fleishman (a.k.a. “Eric the Trainer”) has earned celebrity status among his pumping-iron peers and Hollywood’s elite with his unique training programs. Also a high-ranking black belt, Fleishman has combined his two biggest passions to create “Sleek Ninja,” a fitness program designed especially for martial artists and school owners.

 By Terry L. Wilson

CREATING NEW CLIENTS WITH SLEEK NINJA

After earning black belt status in multiple disciplines, Los Angeles’ Eric Fleishman (pronounced, fleesh’man) saw a way for schools of any style or system to upgrade their fitness program and make a profit in the process.

“My martial arts background spans nearly 40 years,” says Fleishman. “Combine that with my being a Hollywood physique expert, creating Sleek Ninja was a natural fit.

“When I heard that martial arts dojos across America were starting to feel a financial crunch because of the economy a few years ago, I wanted to find a way to help them.”

The acclaimed tr...

We’re about to kick off a new year, and can you believe it? It’s already almost 2019! I have always enjoyed the start of a new year. Last year’s in the rear-view mirror and only goals and opportunities lie ahead.

If you haven’t yet taken the time to decide what’s going to make 2019 worthwhile from a martial arts, teaching and business perspective, now is the time to do it before it’s too late. Get yourself and your team ready to avoid making this just a continuation of what has been done in the past. Instead, use it as a chance to do it the right way by clarifying your purpose and bringing your “A” game!

I remember back when I was competing in sport karate. The best scenario was to jump out front with a lead against your opponent. When I was able to start with the lead, I was able to “game-plan” the match on my terms. That means I wasn’t being forced by a time limit into being behind, which would require me to take risks. Though comebacks are fun, domination from the beginning ...

Over the last year, I have had the incredible experience of working with so many growing martial arts schools via the Martial Arts Industry

Association’s (MAIA’s) Small School Forum. The Forum is a dedicated Facebook group for school owners with 80 or fewer students. It provides tools and advice to help them grow and develop their schools.

One of the most common questions I have received is, “How do I grow my martial arts school with only a small budget?”

Here are five great ways to do just that!

1. Lead Boxes

This is an “old-school” form of marketing, but it always delivers results. Visit 10 local businesses that are community-owned and tell them that you have students and families who may be interested in their businesses. Do they have any materials that you could place on the front desk at your dojo?

If they have materials to share, ask if they would be able to reciprocate by allowing you to leave a lead box on their counter as well. On the box, feature a grea...

How To Generate Revenue With A Parents Night Out Glo-Chuk Seminar

Looking for a fun way to bring in extra revenue for your school? MAIA Executive Director, Frank Silverman, gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to hold a Parents Night Out Glo Chuck Seminar.

Step 1: Learn the basics of the nunchaku

• You can learn from a video or YouTube tutorial
• This is meant to be fun not a new curriculum for your school

Step 2: Set price between $35 to $50 depending on length of event and experience you provide

• $35 for just 1 hour seminar (retail price of nunchaku)
• Combine it with another event and food for 2 hour $50 session

Step 3: Order Glo-Chuks 2 weeks in advance

Step 4: Set curriculum for event. Test lighting to make sure it will be dark

• Weapons portion should last an hour
• Don’t let students break the glow sticks until you’re ready to do the weapons
• Make it educational (10 minutes)

* Talk about nunchaku and history of the weapon

• Have a safety talk (5 minutes)

* How t...

So, you’re running a part-time school and thinking of taking the leap to full time. I never ran a part-time school. But I applied 5 Laws of Success to launch a new school and build a sensible plan to grow to 100 students. Following these same laws can help you move forward into a professional career as a school owner.

If you’re running a part-time school today and pondering the jump to full-time ownership, you will want to pay strict attention to this article. I’m going to share with you what I call the “5 Laws of Success.” I faithfully applied these laws in 2012 to change careers and open a full-time martial arts school, Durham Modern Martial Arts in Whitby, Ontario, Canada. 

Further, those laws were part of my reasonable plan to reach 100 active students over a period of years. Today, in our sixth year of operation, we have exceeded my original goal of 100 students.

These laws worked for me, and I believe they can work for you, too. Admittedly, I did have one big advantage. I held...