Stop Working “IN” Your Martial Arts School

Here is another great tips from an "online" article about people interested in opening their own martial arts schools .... I censor some of the "sell talk" ... enjoy reading ....

Stop Working “IN” Your Martial Arts School (01 June, 2010)

 

When you started your martial arts school you were already an expert in your art. But you probably knew very little about actually running a business.

So you had to learn to do everything – the filing, bookkeeping, data entry, setting appointments, computer maintenance, etc.

You took everything on and soon found that not only were you not spending time on growing your school, you felt like you didn’t want to give up control of any part of your business to someone else.

But it is important for the growth of your school that you stop spending time on things you should not be doing – even if you are good at them and enjoy doing them!

You need to understand the importance of letting an expert handle those things that you should not be doing so you can focus more on growing your school.

You might have one or two people helping out at the dojo, but do you continue that policy consistently through out your business? Take a quick assessment:

• Do you keep your own books?
• Do you answer the phones, read your own email and mail?
• Do you handle customer service calls yourself?
• Are you the web master for your school website?
• Do you maintain your student database yourself?

 

There are many other, similar questions I could ask but I think you see my point. If you answered yes to any of these then you are still working IN your school.

 

Working IN your school is doing anything that is the day to day operations of your business.

 

Working ON your business is doing those creative things such as marketing and sales strategies, finding ways to increase student retention – anything that grows your martial arts school.

 

Most people get this – in theory. But they can’t get past it in practice. You feel stuck in that place, bogged down with day to day stuff and fires that continually need to be put out – not knowing how to get out. Not knowing where to start.

 

An example: ... You can repair your own car or computer or remodel your own kitchen but first you will have to learn which tools to use, how to use them, make mistakes, go through the whole trial and error thing – or you can hire someone to do it for you.

 

..... censor x 2 ... "just sell talk" ....