How To Improve Your Website…
On with another simplicity tip….
By: Mike Dolpies
Let’s talk real quick about your web site.
Remember simple is better and here’s why.
Internet surfers have the attention span of a flea!
When you design your site you need to begin with these facts in mind…
They usually have multiple windows open.
Their email is pulled up so if they get an email or an IM there off to check it.
They are most likely at work while checking out your site.
The list of distractions goes on and on.
I spoke with two members this week whose sites where getting some traffic. I was able to tell by looking at one and the other member had his server logs. Neither of them was happy with their results.
Listen… I don’t claim that my site for the school http://www.karatesuccess.com/ is the best ever. There are sites that are laid out better. However one thing I know is that froma simplicity sake it works.
There have been many occasions when I got an email notifying me of an optin during normal hours. I called the person right away and got an intro, then an enrollment. Talk about simple. Sometimes you can’t get to them right away so the next day works too. In the worst case they end up in your prospect data base and you send them something in the mail.
The fastest way to build your search engine rankings without knowing how search engines works is to start a blog.
To get behind the scenes of “MA-Biz Secret Society” for 30 days and get all of the resources you need in the Martial Arts Business go to….
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© 2008 by Mike Dolpies
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Getting Attention For Your School
By: Mike Dolpies
We’re still talking about simplicity, so we’ll continue our discussion by bringing up a very important simple yet complicated must do for every school owner…
There’s a very old marketing and sales formula that uses the letters A-I-D-A
Of course it stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. I’m not going go into it for the simple fact that you understand it already. I just want to talk about the first word and brain storm some ideas to get Attention for your school.
The simple truth is Attention is what your school needs! If you can’t get the attention of the people qualified and interested in benefiting from your program than you really have nothing!
Knowing that you must get attention is simple. Ask yourself…How can I get attention to my school? How can I get attention in ways that guarantee I’ll be remembered and talked about?
The answers to these questions can be conventional or non-conventional. Here’s an example…
You can easily knock off my “Hand Written Yellow Letter.” Think about how that letter would get attention???? I know for a fact that when used in a market chances are great that the prospect has never, ever received something like it before.
Bottom line is that with all of the craziness out there we have no choice but to get attention in ways that are not the norm.
Here are some other ways to get attention to your school for any program, kids, adults, etc…
What about getting a DJ outside of your school for a night or a Saturday afternoon?
When the weather gets nice why not have class outside of your school or take a few of your students that you can trust will be safe on a run down a popular road or street in your area? Think of a school in Philly running through the Italian Market like Rocky did?
What about hiring a guy to walk around your plaza on stilts wearing your martial arts uniform and a black belt?
What about (if you really target kids) getting a petting zoo to set up shop for a few hours outside of the school?
How about calling the local spca and hosting a charity “adopt a stray animal day?”
You can always pull a PT Barnum and ride to your school on an Elephant!
You laugh, but remember getting attention is the simple thing we all need to accomplish and the fact is that it is not easy these days!
Think Trump…Remember how much of a huge deal he made about his spat with Martha Stewart and Rosie??? All to get attention!
To get behind the scenes of “MA-Biz Secret Society” for 30 days and get all of the resources you need in the Martial Arts Business go to….
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Simple Scheduling
Simple Scheduling for Your
By: Mike Dolpies
Here was the question that I received.
“I need to change my teaching schedule. Do you have any access for samples of schedules that might be good? My plan of course is to get to 220-275 students in the next year. I have 3 programs (basic,masters,leaders).
Specific concerns: how to make classes manageable for one instructor and an assistant on the floor; and to make them so parents can take class too (I think we could add a bunch of students that way) but I can’t get my head around it.”
I’ve been juggling my own martial arts school schedules for the past 10 years. Of course over the last 24 months I’ve been helping other school owners with their schedule concerns. Here’s what I’ve found to work best from a “simplicity” and “not drive your self crazy” point of view…
Of course, starting with the end mind, as in your active count goal, is needed to begin your schedule adjustments. But the main thing to look at right away is your current student base and what they are used to.
One thing I’ve learned while training to receive my black belt at “The Martial Arts School of Hard Knocks” is that students, parents and clients HATE change. Actually it is just human nature to resist it, funny too, because one thing that we can all be certain of is change. I guess that is why only small percentages of people are successful: The embrace change while the majority does not! Sorry, don’t mean to get off on a rant here!
Look at your current roster of students and where they are spread out among belts, levels and programs. I wouldn’t need my wife’s Cornell degree to figure out that I need the most classes for those belts and levels that make up the bulk of my school.
Next, you’ll need to forecast- When you set a very aggressive new student goal: Example- Brett more than doubling his active count in less than 6 months. (If you have not listened to the recording of that call yet, you’re nuts!) You’ll need to be sure you have plenty of room for beginner classes.
However, do not build it before they come. Just be prepared to steal a little from somewhere else and minimize the negative effect when you do add the classes. It’s funny, in my Philly school we always made it a point to have our beginner classes around 6 or
To easily overcome the, “I can’t make it” objection at the enrollment you’ll want to have at least 4 times per week for beginners mixed between early and later times (5:30, 7, or 6:30).
When making a schedule overhaul the best thing you can do is make it to where you can see just about everyone in your school on a given day if they all choose to come in. Here’s what I mean; let’s say your school, looks like this. Basic, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Adults.
Your Monday may look like this-
When you think about keeping class sizes manageable you hedge your bet on this fact of life. Most people who come Monday will not come Tuesday so if you see an average of 22 people per class and you have 5 classes a day and see half of your students on Monday and half on Tuesday 22 X 5 = 110 X 2 = an active count of 220.
Of course, it is not an exact science! That’s why you can also do this; let’s say your enrollment push goes well and now the majority of your students are basic. Well, you look at your other level and see where things are skimpy and you remove that class and add another basic class for the day.
As far as family classes go…
The 2 main reasons why parents don’t train are: 1) because they feel stupid and 2) because the schedule does not work for them to take an adult only class. The key is to make them feel comfortable and then show them how it can fit in, if they are just going to be sitting there anyway then you up your chances. You must ask them to do the intro with their children to up your chances!
As always- Go after the low hanging fruit! You know which parents are ready to go and which would never do it even if you paid them. Make it as one sided as a plane crash and don’t let the negative ones kill the ones that want to get in and going!
Talk to you soon!
Mike D.
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More On Simplicity
More on Simplicity
By: Mike Dolpies
We’re gonna dive into a little time management today and then give you a simple definition of “Self-Discipline.” (Pretty gutsy to talk self-discipline with martial arts school owners)
“You should concentrate on doing the right things, rather than doing things right!”
FYI- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was a student of Drucker.
And to paraphrase Robert Ringer, (you should read everything he has ever written).
As school owners, it’s easy to find yourself at the office supply store 3 to 4 days per week. It’s easy to impulsively unpack the box of gear immediately after you hand the UPS guy (or girl, at my NJ school, it’s a women driver) back that fancy signing gizmo.
The question you must ask yourself constantly-
“What should I be doing right now that will bring me the best results at my school?” The answers should comeback…
I can call past prospects.
I can call and check in with my current students.
I can brainstorm and qualify my current 12 month students for the upgrade and set appointments to talk to them.
I can think of ways to work with my fellow merchants in my area or at least go drop off some passes to them.
I can flip through my local chamber of commerce directory and find 10 business like day cares, music schools, art schools, dance schools, etc and go network with them and see how I can help them.
I can drop in and introduce myself to the office personnel at the local elementary schools with a box of Dunkin Donuts Joe in hand.
I can be surfing the “MA-Biz Secret Society” members only site and getting all the resources I need to get results!
I can really keep going with the list and I’ll add more for you in the future.
To wrap up today’s tip I want you to think of the letters S.T.P.
NO, not the motor oil!
It stands for See The People! If you need to go to the auto store and pick up a quart and put it where you can see it to remind you to get out there and see the people by all means do it!
Talk to you soon!
Self-Discipline- Acting on your intellect, rather and your emotions. Making every decision based on the long term ramifications rather than the short term pleasure or discomfort!
BTW- Our next Member’s Only call will be on Thursday April 3rd at
To get behind the scenes of “MA-Biz Secret Society” for 30 days and get all of the resources you need in the Martial Arts Business go to….
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Simple yet Profitable
In this week’s series of “MA-Biz Secret Society” tips I’ll be focusing on the idea of simplicity.
I’m gonna move from the general to the specific. I’m gonna talk about life in and of course, “The Martial Arts Business.”
So here goes….
Remember this simple (Yet often overlooked) marketing maxim; “Sell people what they want not what the need.” More importantly…
Sell people what THEY want not what you think they want. And….
Never, ever catch yourself trying to sell people what they need or worse yet….
Never, every try selling people what you feel or think they need!
OK, sorry for all of those negatives!
Remember the “Platinum Rule” by Tony Allesandro, “Do unto others as they want to be done unto. The platinum rule stands above the Golden Rule and was written to be followed by ALL business owners.
Find out what your students want by simply asking them. This may sound overly simple, but study their guest questionnaires about which benefits they are seeking.
Since we’ll be talking simplicity all week, I wanted to start off…well…Simple!
Count your blessings that the Martial Arts are still largely un-regulated. This simple fact saves us all a TON of headaches, so be sure to take full advantage of this reality.
As we move to specifics I encourage to take a long, hard look at your school with your silent thinking cap on. Try to find areas that would benefit from being less complicated.
Look at student service issues….
Do you get the same questions over and over?
Do you lose people more at a certain belt or level than at other levels or belts?
Are you keeping any employees around just for the sake of it? I spoke with a woman last week who had four employees with only 130 students! Ouch, I know one man bands that manage 150 students and are putting the 7k per month that they’d be paying out in their pockets!
We’ll talk more simplicity later!
FYI- In the early part of April I’m gonna post the interview I did with Warren Greshes, Author of, The Best Damn Sales Book Ever. I’ll also be starting my interview series called: “Not the Usual Suspects,” where I’ll be talking with school owners who are doing fantastic and flying under the radar!
To get behind the scenes of “MA-Biz Secret Society” for 30 days and get all of the resources you need in the Martial Arts Business go to….
http://www.mabizsecretsociety.com/
© 2008 by Mike Dolpies
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Simple Martial Arts Business Models
The Simple Models of The Martial Arts Business
By: Michael Dolpies
Why complicate things? Our business can be a relatively simple one to operate and make profitable.
I had a cup of coffee yesterday with two women. Both of them serial entrepreneurs, one a professional speaker, among other things, the other had been involved in numerous start ups and worked for the 3m corporation for a while. Annette and Sylvia are their names.
I met them through Sylvia’s husband who happens to be the president of my Toastmasters club. Toastmasters is where you can perfect your public speaking skills. Sylvia’s husband has a fascinating business- He builds cars for the super rich. I’m talking million dollar cars! I said I’d put my order in when the secret society was up to 1000 schools! I’ll keep you posted because I plan on interviewing him about his business and the super wealthy people that he has come in contact with! Now back to the coffee meeting…
I was telling them a little about the martial arts business. Based on both of their backgrounds- Annette owned a 10,000 sf restaurant for twenty-five years and Sylva being involved with all of those start ups, they both agreed that the martial arts business seemed like a very lucrative, simple business when done right! I agreed and of course started to formulate how I’d report this to all of you, so here goes!
Here are the basic business models, that when done right, can provide the owner with a very nice income/business. You may recognize yours right away or you may see that you are sort of back and forth between a two or more of them.
Model # 1- The one man band
I use “man” for simplicities sake! This model is how most of us start out. I started this way when I was eighteen years old in a 600 sf space! This could be profitable, but don’t kid yourself, this is a job 100%, not a business. There is only so far you can go on your own.
The natural progression in your growth would be to begin out sourcing. Don’t do your own billing and never collect payments at your school. Use Member Solutions or one of the other billing companies our software providers like
Model # 2- Owner operator assumes a role.
There are two simple, important jobs in our business. The first is Instructor, the second is Program Director. As an owner operator you can give yourself whatever role you choose. If you choose program director you’re gonna need to hire a full time or part time instructor. If you hire part time you should intend to make them full time as you grow. If, as the owner, you assume the program director role, you still must keep your pulse on the teaching floor and make sure all of your students know whose boss.
The owner can also higher out the program director. The good news about this is the fact that they don’t need any martial arts experience. You can train them. As long as they know how to sell and can teach a good intro you are good to go. As a side note- when hiring employees hire slow and fire fast and be sure to get a no compete agreement. Of course, there are many husband and wife teams who operate schools with the above model.
Model # 3- Owner builds more of a business.
This model can be an outgrowth of model # 2. As the school grows and becomes more established the owner can higher out both roles. With good training and careful monitoring the owner can simply become the marketer and leader of the school. With this model the owner really won’t have a ton of “day to day” chores at the school. The owner won’t be teaching all classes because there’s someone full time who does that and the owner will not be doing intros because the program director will be doing those. With this model you can cut your hours back and get some freedom. BUT you can never take your finger off the pulse of the school and disappear for too long unless you are using model # 4.
Model # 4- The partnership model.
This is how I got going with my school back in 1999. These models can work and aid in creating piece of mind when done right. Having two people with a solid vested interest can do wonders for a school. In some cases one owner can be hands off. In that case be sure that compensation is fair for the person doing the day to day. Business partners can assume the role that they feel comfortable with. Be sure to check with a legal advisor and an accountant before entering into a partnership!
In the “MA-Biz Secret Society” we have clients that span every model. If you feel as though I have missed one please let me know, this list is by no means the end all be all!
http://www.mabizsecretsociety.com/
Take Care!
© 2008 By Michael Dolpies
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The Law of Balance
The Law of Balance
By: Mike Dolpies
Everything in life must be balanced. There is no way around it!
Just think of when life gets crazy and out of control. Chances are
something or several things are out of balance. If you’re personal
life is suffering, then you maybe working too much. If your health is
failing chances are good that you brought the condition on via being
out of balance physically and in your diet.
Every circumstance in life must also, by the nature of this law,
be balanced. The fact is that everything has a price. There always
has to be some sort of trade off. If you adapt your thinking to
this truth then you’ll clearly see that most situations are neither
negative nor positive, but what you choose them to be based on
what side of the balance beam you happen to be on.
Let me give you a quick example to confirm the natural law of
balance. I had crises in my school. A staff member who was
responsible for day to day operation of the school decided to
leave. Now, this staff member leaving was really not the issue!
I have had many staff members come and go over the years.
It was the way he went about it.
He didn’t plan on telling me that he was leaving! He was just
going to be gone, leaving my students and me high and dry. It’s
quite clear to see what his motivation was for doing this was.
He planned on opening his own school with the idea that the
students would naturally follow him. He hedged his bet with the
idea that because I do not live close enough to the school that
I would not step in and run things. He was wrong! But, the real
lesson is what positive came out of this situation.
At first glance this would seem catastrophic, but as Robert
Ringer says, “the habit of putting problems in perspective is a
key to long term success and the ability to think clearly in a
crisis.” This staff member’s thoughtless, reckless actions
were actually what I and this school needed!
We needed a fresh start. We needed to clean house and get rid
of some non-loyal customers who would only hurt us in the long
run anyway. We needed someone of higher quality and integrity
looking after the school in my absense on a day to day basis.
That was the big positive that balanced this situation out and
truly revealed that everything happens for the best!
A former school owner who knew there was an opportunity came in
and became a partner in the school with me. He was absolutely up
to the challenge and committed to making things better!
Always remember the law of balance when life throws its
un-avoidable problems your way! Stay focused on the solutions
and not the problems and through the laws of the universe things
will turn out how you visualize them and think about them in your mind!
If you consider the law of balance in every situation you’ll easily be
able to deal with the problem knowing that it is just a matter of time
before the positive side begins to shine through!
Remember the MA-Biz Secret Society is Run By School Owners
for School Owners. We don’t run schools in our distant nightmares!
We know what you’re going through and we can help you grow!!
Visit:
http://www.mabizsecretsociety.com/
and take it for a test drive!
Copyright 2008 By Mike Dolpies
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