Instructors Starting Out
When opening up a martial art school whether it be as a hobby or to make an income the approach should be the same. When you are dealing with the public or the corporate sector you want to appear and indeed act with the professionalism of a qualified instructor as you are a representative of the martial arts industry.
Now we are not going into a lot of detail here in explaining the best way to start up a martial arts school because we will need lots of pages and the best way is to work with a Business Mentor (more about that later).
Check List:
Qualifications - Minimum Martial Arts at least 4-5 years’ experience
Qualifications - Minimum Sports Coaching NCAS or higher ideally Cert III or Cert IV
Qualifications - Other options AMACS, Cert III or Cert IV in Fitness - Personal Trainer Course
Qualifications - Get better skills from Cert IV Trainer & Assessor (TAA)
Qualifications - The ultimate is to get a Teaching Degree from university
Qualifications - Senior First Aid often done with a Cert Course but should be kept current
Police check - Often required for working at schools/corporations - promotes confidence
Working with Children Check / Blue Card - Compulsory for teaching children
Weapons Licence - Compulsory if you are using prohibited weapons in training or have in your possession
Registration to an Industry Body - Professional Membership is expected by students
There is a Coaching Course especially tailored for School Owners and assistant instructors that ticks all the boxes and is at a price that is affordable for everyone - Australian Martial Arts Coaching Scheme AMACS.
Stage 1: Qualifications - You have the right qualifications, checks and licenses so now you need to look at martial arts insurance to protect both you and your students.
Stage 2: Insurance - There are a number of polices to cover all areas of your business but not every school owner will take them out. There is Public Liability and Professional Indemnity as one package and Player Accident and Income protect as another, there is also insurance for the property you rent/owe and the Content inside it that can be covered for Fire / Theft along with Business Interruption, (follow the link for more info).
Stage 3: Curriculum - Is what you sell - What are you going to teach? Not sure!
Can you buy great curriculums? Yes try this one!
Is it what the public want in your area?
Is your training syllabus easy to follow do you know it off by heart?
You can also sell martial arts equipment and other products (DVDs / Books) as a supplement to student fees.
Stage 4: Policy & Procedures - OH&S - Accident report book, blood rule and other polices need to be formalised and implemented. Membership sign up forms (waivers), communication with students and other protocols should be made.
Stage 5: Location - Where are you going to teach? Church hall, Community Centre, Fitness Centre, Scout Hall, PCYC, WMCA, school hall, from home, lease/buy a factory. The choices are varied and will depend on how much of an investment you want to put in and each one having their advantages and disadvantages.
Stage 6: Advertising - Lets face it you can be the best and most skillful /qualified master in the world but unless the students know where they can find you, there isn't a school. In all my years of experience I haven't found one model that works all the time and what worked several years back doesn't work as well today. Advertising needs to be confident / repetitive and far reaching in all the ways that people search for information / your service. You need leads, that is people calling you, better still turning up at your school and then you need to sell them your service and you have a better chance of doing that speaking face to face.
Essential tools: Website, community directories, flyers, business cards, a brand, cash flow, positive attitude.
Procedure: Create a lead, call them, book them into an intro class, up sell them into a membership, sell them uniforms / pads, mouth guards etc, get them to bring a friend for a free class, offer a special deal for the new person etc. Keep motivating the students you have because it is so much harder and costly to bring in a new student.
Want an expert to help you in this area go to our Mentor's page.
Want to add an Online Shop as a passive income earner to your business - LINK
Want to add an Martial Arts TV Channel as a passive income earner to your business - LINK
Keep coming back as we will be adding more info to this page. As a member we will give you links to other resource material that will help you build you school in student numbers and profitability.
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