The Business Center: Operations

 
Planning For Success
At the end this year, school owners and instructors should take a good hard look at what they accomplished for the year, how they accomplished that, and what they want to accomplish during the next year. Before the work can begin, you need to sit down and seriously and objectively evaluate your school's operation. Did you meet your goals for this year that include growth, retention, student quality, staff competency and so forth? Below are some steps to include you can use to review your operations and plan how to improve your school in the next year. All successes in running a martial arts school start with the retention of students.


Step One: Professional Development
  • Are you constantly studying to improve your business skills?
  • Are you studying the communication styles of top motivational speakers to improve on your skills while teaching class or training staff members?
  • Are you networking with other top school owners like NAPMA, style specific associations, or other small business professionals to stay on top of your game?
  • Are you keeping track of statistics each day and using them to see where you have room for improvement?
  • Are you training yourself or staff members how to handle telephone calls, enrollments, and renewals to get the results you are looking for?
  • Are you constantly improving your martial arts skills so that you are the sharpest technician in the school? (i.e. going to seminars, continuing to work with an instructor, etc...)
Step Two: Methods of Instruction
  • Is the curriculum taught at the beginner level too overwhelming making retention difficult?
  • Is the children's curriculum taught in the school appropriate for kids? Is it easy to learn, exciting, and can they understand it?
  • Do you have a belt level where the most students drop out? If so, examine why they are dropping out. Is the curriculum too tough, or too easy? Are they bored or frustrated? Is it the instructor? If you're not sure, ask the students who have left to be honest and let you know why they stopped training.
  • Are your upper-rank students bored? Perhaps the school's curriculum teaches a lot in the beginning and teaches less new material in the highest ranks? Find out what interests the higher ranks have and what they would really like to learn, then do it.
  • Are you sparring too soon? Students may be missing class or avoiding sparring days if they feel overwhelmed or fearful.
  • Need a lower student-to-teacher ratio? Teachers should be able to give each student personal feedback several times during the class. Preschoolers ideally have a 1 to 6 teacher-to-student ratio, school-age children 1 to 8. Get assistants if you can.
  • Do you have special programs in place? (i.e. Black Belt Club, Demonstration Team). Not only can they help the with the promotion of your school, but special programs can improve your retention.
  • Do you hand out surveys to your students so that the school receives feedback on a regular basis in reference to the students experiences in your classes?
Step Three: Testing
  • Do all students receive copies of test requirements for their belt rank in writing? Setting expectations will set them up for success.
  • Are the belt requirements being taught often enough in class so that most students are confident by test day? Working from lesson plans that utilize the test materials several times during the month will help ensure that your students are confident in their abilities.
  • Are you testing students for stripes and belts every month so they feel/see progress? Students need to feel progress and having a monthly stripe/tip exam can help them know where they're going. Breaking down big goals into little bite-sized pieces is what stripe testing is all about.
  • Are your exam dates posted in the school at least six months in advance? Give your students notice so that they can be available for testing. This helps them prepare as well as limit the number of make-up requests you may get.
  • Are your students showing up for testing or not showing up? If you find students just not showing up for their tests, you will want to find out why. Was it preparation, or the time of the test?
Step Four: Schedule
  • How long are your classes? The recommended time for students is between 45-50 minutes (preschoolers 30 min.). You may be limiting the number of people willing to train if you run 90-minute classes. Take into consideration their driving time to and from class, as well as new student fitness levels. In the beginning, less may be best.
  • Is your schedule flexible enough to give several choices for classes? If you only offer one class time per level, you narrow down who can come to your class. Whenever possible, try to offer an earlier class and a later class for the same rank. (Example: beginner children Mon/Wed 4:00 p.m. or Tue/Thur at 5:45 p.m. or also include a day class for adults who may work 2nd or 3rd shift.)
  • Are there too many ranks training together in one class? If you have 6 ranks in one class it may be difficult to teach them what each level needs or to focus on individual students. Try dividing classes into different levels.
  • Are some classes overloaded and others almost empty? If you have overloaded classes and others that are very small, revamp your schedule to include additional classes for your largest rank population.
Step Five: Delegating
  • You should be able to delegate an employee or assistant the task of collecting leads from contest boxes
  • You can also have students and/or assistant help with flyer distribution
  • Need help cleaning the school? A little Miyagi-do is an excellent way to build character and get your school ready.
  • An assistant should be able to track attendance or enter other computer data
  • An assistant should also be able to book demo team appearances. Or a captain of the team to warm them up and practice if need be.
This is of course a sample of some ideas you should look for when reviewing your school's past and future. You will more than likely come up with additional items you'll want to add to your own list depending on the individual needs of your school. But I would suggest you get a calendar to organize what you want to do next year.

Works Consulted

  • Joshua Meredith, personal experience
  • Martial Arts Professional. National Association of Professional Martial Artists- NAPMA