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MASuccess Magazine

The Martial Arts Industry Association's MASuccess Magazine exists to help grow martial arts participation by helping school owners succeed.

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Reaching Your Audience Online. For FREE.

Let’s face it, online advertising works awesome, but it costs money. 

It’s a pay-to-play platform. 

And it’s one that requires skills and strategy — two things that many martial arts school owners have when they are on the mat — but put them in front of the Facebook Ads Manager, and they are tying on a white belt. 

When times are tough and your marketing budget is low, leaders adapt and overcome. 

And while paid advertising is the fastest way to gain new students, it’s not the only way. 

Smart school owners leverage the power of Social Media and the Internet every single day. 

And while you might not have a large marketing budget, that doesn’t mean you are out for the count. 

This is why I put together 7 ways for you to reach your audience online…for free. 

That’s right. 

These techniques and strategies won’t cost you a dime. 

So what’s the catch? 

It will cost...

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Does Running Your School Cause You to Have Anxiety?

Being that this is a very male-dominated industry, sometimes more vulnerable topics don’t often get spoken about.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t have a degree in psychology, and I am definitely not a psychiatrist.

But stress and anxiety often go hand-in-hand with owning a small business, especially with the past year and a half that we've gone through.

So I wanted to share my mantra for when I am feeling anxious.

And that is: Action Alleviates Anxiety

I have been through quite a lot in my 10 years of being an entrepreneur.

And 2015 was almost the year that broke me.

First, I was audited by the IRS.

It was almost an entire year of having my accountant on speed dial, my employees being interviewed, and every financial document in my business under a
microscope.

I took action and made sure that my accountant and auditor had everything they needed at the exact time they needed it.

You’ll never believe what the final resolution...

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Pathway to Success

There is no shortage of knowledge in our industry.

There are great coaches and consultants out there (and some not so great ones too) that will give you all of their knowledge.

Information is plentiful thanks to Google and YouTube (I joke all the time that I built a 7 figure business off of using those two platforms as resources).

So the issue isn’t information and knowledge. The information is WHERE DO I START?

All of us are in unique places in our martial arts schools.

Some of us are just getting started.  Some of us have been at this for decades.
Some of us are struggling with recruiting, others with retention.

So where do you START?

I think why most coaching and consulting programs fail is because they word vomit all of their knowledge onto a school owner without providing them with a timeline of what they should implement based on where they are in their business.

This is why MAIA is a step above the rest. Our model provides a Pathway...

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5 Simple Steps to an EPIC Back-2-School Season

With many school owners in the industry seeing record enrollment months this year post-pandemic, it’s making for a very exciting Back to School Season.

The kids are going back to school, the masks are coming off, and people are ready to be back to their regularly scheduled programming.

While some kids go back to school after Labor Day, many states and counties go back to school in August, so we figured it’s perfect timing to break down 5 simple steps so you can have an EPIC back to school season.

Simplicity scales.

With there being so many things you CAN do during the back to school season, it’s imperative that you choose the RIGHT things to do.

Let’s break down the game-plan.

Step 1 - Schedule Important Dates
Jim Rohn said it best, “Plan your work. Work your plan.”

School owners who sit down and take time to plan out their Back 2 School efforts will be the ones who find the most success.

Fuzzy targets don’t get...

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Facebook Is Changing Forever β€” And You Had Better Be Ready!

by Cris Rodriguez

 

As I was thinking of a title for this article, I tried not to be overly dramatic, but I’m standing by my statement that “Facebook is changing forever.” It’s certainly a big deal, but it shouldn’t come as a shocker — with any technology, the one thing you can count on is that nothing is going to stay the same for long.

My goal in writing this is that by the end of the article, you’ll understand what’s taking place, why it’s happening, how it will impact your advertising and, most important, why you need to prepare for this.

As I write this in late March 2021, there are still many unknowns surrounding Apple’s next iOS 14 update for the iPhone and iPad, so much so that even Facebook is unsure of the impact it will have. With that being said, I’ll be transparent about what I’m unsure of, as well. Until the “ATT prompt” goes live, there will be much speculation.

Although Facebook...

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Surviving and Thriving as a β€œOne-Man Show:” How One School Did It β€” Even Through the Pandemic!

by Tu Le

 

In May 2018, my team at InCourage Martial Arts and I were preparing to open a brand-new martial arts studio in Fairfax, Virginia.

This studio was going to be in a new location, starting completely from scratch with no existing students. On top of that, as the owner, I would be off-site. We would need someone to handle the onsite operations.

Considering all these factors, I concluded that resources were limited and costs needed to be kept as low as possible.

The existing business model in most martial arts studios requires both a program director and an instructor to keep things running smoothly. For this new studio, however, our goal was to do it with just one full-time staff member.

Of course, running anything with just one person (at least, one full-time person) is challenging because there are so many things that need to be done: marketing for new students, keeping current students, coming up with fun and engaging class plans, recruiting and hiring part-time...

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5 Reasons Why You Should Attend Live Events

When looking back on 2020, there were so many lessons that were learned.

My mantra during Covid was pretty simple:

After every recession - there is a rebound.
After every recession - there IS a rebound.
After every recession - there IS a REBOUND.

And that’s where we are today. Many of you have your schools opened — some of
you with restrictions — and then there are places like Florida where we have absolutely no restrictions in our academy.

And it’s time to rebuild.
It’s time to RECRUIT.

Which means it’s time to go pedal to the metal with getting your school back to pre-COVID numbers and beyond. Which is what brings me to this blog today.

One of the things I missed most during 2020 was live events.  While virtual events like the Super Show and my 8-Hour Marketing Mastermind Course were amazing, there is nothing like being there in person.

Now that the pandemic is slowing down here in the states, we are seeing more live
events...

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Which summer is yours?

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...

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Customer vs. Lead: The Distinct Difference

 

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...

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Beyond Social Distance

business lesson learned Feb 21, 2021

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...

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