MASuccess Magazine

by Dave Kovar

In my 40-plus years of running a martial arts school, I have seen many people come and go. I’ve also seen a handful of organizations that have continued to grow and thrive, decade after decade. In my effort to find out what has kept those schools in the game for so long, I’ve stumbled across what I refer to as the “four quadrants.” Although they might not use this terminology, the schools that excel have these in common.

The four quadrants consist of the individual and the team when viewed from an internal and an external perspective. They’re loosely based on my studies of Ken Wilber’s program on Integral Business.

1 — Individual Internal                                          2 — Team Internal

Meaning and...

By Elite Consultant Jason Flame

Making a sale and providing excellent service go hand-in-hand. This has been on my mind a lot lately, and I’ve had many staff meetings focused around building this mindset. If we place just a little more focus on providing first-class service, we will not only generate sales now but also promote future sales through repeat business and referrals.

This is a challenge in any business. It’s easy to get caught up in the sales numbers alone. But if you take good care of your students, they will take care of you.

Here are five simple reasons this mindset is essential:

1. You’ll Attract New Students

This one is obvious! If you teach awesome classes, recognize and treat every student as an individual, pay attention to small details and genuinely take interest in your students, they will be happy to refer new business to you. When your students experience results, they will tell people. When they learn something of value, they...

What if I told you that there was a system that you could implement in your school to generate tens of thousands of dollars in sales in only four hours on a weekend? What if I also said that some schools have used this system and made over $100,000 in those four hours? These results are not an anomaly. The Championship Martial Arts system of holiday sales has helped many schools turn a slow season into the year’s most profitable month!

By Michael A. Perri Jr.

There is a common belief among martial arts school owners that there are two times during the year when your school has to brace for a struggle. The first is during the middle of the summer. The second is during the holiday season in December.

For the latter, the winter’s cold and holiday parties, coupled with the excitement of boys and girls unwrapping their gifts, all play a part in creating a challenging — albeit festive — month for school owners. School owners have found it hard to...

By Dave Kovar

In 1958, Vince Lombardi took over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers pro football team. The Packers had not done well since 1944. In a press conference, Mr. Lombardi was asked what he was going to do to turn around this bunch of mediocre players.

He responded by saying, “I’m not going to change anything. I’m just going to make them brilliant in the basics.”

From there the legend grew and, by 1967, the Packers had won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls.

The concept of being “brilliant in the basics“ is pretty universal and certainly applies to running a martial arts school and teaching great classes. I recently had a conversation with one of my clients who was contemplating closing his second location because his attendance was dwindling and he was losing money. We discussed a few strategies that he could implement to help him get turned around, and then he got to work.

A couple of months...

By Sarah Lobban

Jiu-Jitsu Roots

In July 2018, Century Martial Arts and Gameness, the Dallas, Texas-based martial arts company renowned for its high-quality Brazilian jiu-jitsu gis, announced they had formed a joint venture. Beyond benefitting the companies, the new partnership will predictably have a positive impact on both their customer bases.

“Gameness is one of the largest jiu-jitsu brands in the world,” explains Kris Horner, owner of Gameness for the past eight years. “It’s also one of the oldest jiu-jitsu brands in the world.”

To fully appreciate what it means for Gameness to have reached the level of success it has today, you have to understand the evolution of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) within the United States. It didn’t always have the status it does today. In fact, before the 1980s, the sport was virtually unknown.

Rorion Gracie, son of the legendary Helio Gracie, one of BJJ’s founders, brought the art...

Last month, we discussed the first three mindsets of a successful martial arts school.

They were:

1. We are the friendliest place in town.

2. We are the cleanest place in town.

3. We only teach great classes, never just good ones.

This month, we’ll address mindsets four and five.

4. We are excellent at student/parent communication. It has been great to see how the level of professionalism has improved in our industry over the last 40 years. Clearly, we have learned a lot about running a friendly, clean school with great classes.

With that said, if there’s one area that we are still weak in as an industry, it is student/parent communication.

What I’m referring to here is the importance of giving consistent, quality feedback to all of our students and their parents on their progress. We do this by sharing with them what they are doing well and how they can become better. As simple as this may sound, it’s extremely...

This month, let’s discuss levity and its role in leadership and teams.

“Levity” is “cheerfulness” or “enjoyment.” As we work and try to manage successful businesses, it’s easy to lose sight of just having fun. Honestly, there are some days when we fight just to get out of bed.

However, there are always moments when some joyfulness and laughter can be found. Even when things seem hard or crazy, you have to be intentional in finding levity. Allow me to share a wild but true story.

In my previous column series, “Pop’s Pearls of Wisdom,” I stated that my parents owned liquor stores and then motels. One day, my dad and I were working the front desk at the motel when he received a call from a customer. The client complained that there was a rat in his room.

We were quite thorough about pest control and cleanliness. My dad was tired from several days of rowdy customers and the previous...

by Dave Kovar

Forty years ago this November, I opened up my first school in North Highlands, CA, a suburb of Sacramento. It was a tiny school in a mediocre area, and I had no idea what I was doing. What I did have was cheap rent and a lot of enthusiasm.

The school grew relatively quickly in the first year. But I couldn’t tell you how many students I had because I didn’t keep any stats. Based on my memory, I’d say I had between 80 and 100. At the time, very few children were training in the program. As a matter fact, I only offered kid’s classes Monday and Wednesday nights at 5 o’clock. I think I had the largest youth program in the area and I only had about 12 kids enrolled!

Over time, I successfully identified lots of things that didn’t work and I struggled a lot up into the mid-1980s. Then, something interesting happened.

There was this movie, let me...