Retention is about relationships.
Relationship is about building rapport with people.
Rapport is about being a good leader to your students.
Being a good leader is knowing how to communicate with your students.
Being a good student is you are always a student in the martial arts.

I should make this a Dojo Sign.

I hope to transition to new storefront by summertime pending start-up of school year.

Respectfully,
Derrick Bostic

Yeah, I hear you regarding the tiny tots classes. Also, things have changed a lot since I wrote this. I stopped teaching kids for a while because I got tired of dealing with their parents. I started again a few years back, and found that I no longer enjoyed it, because I do not like working with today’s children. In the decade between when I stopped teaching them (in the late oughts) and when I started again (early 2019) kids had changed drastically in behavior and attention span. Whereas in the past I’d have one or two kids out of twenty that couldn’t focus, now the numbers are flipped. Also, kids became way more sensitive and emotionally fragile in that timespan. I blame it all on social media and mobile devices, 100%. Dr. Jean Twenge predicted it, and she has tracked the trend since around 2010. If you haven’t seen her work, it’s worth checking out. Bottom line is that I’d rather run an adults-focused school now, and this is coming from a guy who made it his life’s work to teach children when he opened his first dojo. Go figure.

Back to what others think. Those who speak negatively they’re always going to be some. Stay true to you. Also people whom I considered friends ghosted me for opening my classes, and guess what I don’t miss them.

Do what you love and yes I agree 3 to 5 year olds I wish I could do it, because the dojo I volunteered at. That was their biggest class and were desperate for help. Sorry Mike I rather make less and keep my sanity.

Read the entire series of articles. It explains what you need to do to find a price for your studio. That said, selling a studio that has only 65 students seems a bit premature.

Master Steve

Good tips, Michael. Thanks for sharing!

1. Facebook ads. This is where i primarily get my leads. If you get your audience right, just $100 over two days will get you some interest
2. Advertising budget. We run a 4 weeks for $49.95 with a uniform trial. Uniform cost $20 so we make $29.95 per trial sign up. This goes straight back into advertising
3. Get a good CRM (This one saved me a heap of time but it is a bit pricey). I got on Spark early on. It is $200 a month but i found the automations were like having your own office administrator. The site sends email and SMS throughout their initial interest.
4. Find ways to save you having to do work and chase people up. For instance when people sign up for the 4 week trial we make sure they know that they are in an Opt out system meaning if they don’t want to continue after the trial they have to let us know. This works 2 ways. One they don’t just ghost you after the trial, they actually have to contact you to cancel the payments. And two you don’t have to chase up payment details. (Spark helps as it can automatically send out a SMS and email reminding them that payments are about to come out). We have not had any complaints about this as people are used to it from Netflix subscriptions and the likes.
5. Pay for a GOOD business mentor (Like Mike Massie) They will stop you from making espensive mistakes befor you do it. And will be able to help with just about everything (Yes again pricey when just starting out and low on funds but sooooo worth it)
6. Listen to your business mentor
7. Most important “Have GREAT lessons”

If i think of anything else I will add to it later. Hope I have been of some help

https://www.dojosuccesscoach.com/martial-arts-business-coaching