# Well I'm finally doing it



## tradrockrat (Nov 14, 2007)

It took three years and a move from LA to Austin TX, but I'm opening my School

The paperwork and name search is underway for a LLC and my business plan is all but completed.

I have read all I can find about running and operating a MA school and I have plenty of experience teaching MA, Self Defense classes, and in fact I am a Special Education teacher in a local High school.  The teaching part of the school is taken care of, I believe.  Also, my wife and partner has taken business management classes and accounting classes in preparation for the school, and she is a former police officer and is certified to teach several law enforcement type seminars and classes (for example - she is a certified Tazer instructor).  There are a lot of options we have as far as a focus to our school, but we have decided to be a family oriented school and offer traditional Bando for adults, An adapted Bando blend with Jiu Jitsu and TKD for youth / children (curriculum is already developed), Self Defense classes (including a woman specific class), Cardio Kickboxing, and a program for special needs students with motor impairments.  My youth classes will be allowed as substitutions for high School PE classes / credits.

I want to make a living teaching MA in my school - full time.

I will be on the boards a lot more often now that I have committed to the school, but I have some questions that I hope a commercial school owner can answer for me.

Can anyone answer these questions for me?

1. Is there any reason why I should not retain my high school teaching job while I build my student base?

2. At what point should I give up my teaching job? How many students?  Cost to income ratio?  number of classes?

3. For those that opened full time schools - what kind of start up capitol did you have?  I have only 15 K to invest myself, but am wondering how much more I should be looking for from loans or investors - 6 months operating costs?  2 years!?!?  There are a lot of differing opinions in the literature I have read on it.

4. Location, location, location right?  Well *really* good locations in Austin / Cedar Park area are several thousand a month after triple net and all the rest - WAY out of my budget.  So what would you look for in a building?  


Thanks to all who take the time to help out a new school owner set up his school for success.


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## setboy (Nov 14, 2007)

Wish i had something to add, but Good luck with it!


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## Brian R. VanCise (Nov 14, 2007)

While not a commercial school owner per se. (meaning I do not need the money from the Training Hall to get by) but since you have a regular job I would keep it until you build up your student base and can make ends meet.  

However the biggest thing I would do is *own the building* or build a building rather than paying rent.  This way you are investing in your future. 

Just a couple of thoughts from my observations...


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## Xue Sheng (Nov 14, 2007)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> However the biggest thing I would do is *own the building* or build a building rather than paying rent. This way you are investing in your future.


 
Agreed


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## bushidomartialarts (Nov 14, 2007)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> However the biggest thing I would do is *own the building* or build a building rather than paying rent.  This way you are investing in your future.
> 
> Just a couple of thoughts from my observations...



Agreed, but not in bold type and underlinied.  _Yes_, owning is often better than renting.  On the other hand, you probably won't be able to start out in your ideal location.  Don't lock yourself into a location that you'll grow out of.


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## bushidomartialarts (Nov 14, 2007)

tradrockrat said:


> 1. Is there any reason why I should not retain my high school teaching job while I build my student base?



Depends on the rest of your life.  What you'll be doing is working _two_ full time jobs for a while.  It's safer than just going for it, but a lot more work.  If you have kids who are still children, I wouldn't recommend it....they'd never see you.



tradrockrat said:


> 2. At what point should I give up my teaching job? How many students?  Cost to income ratio?  number of classes?



How much do you need to live on?  Multiply that by 1.25.  Your studio needs to be _netting_ that reliably.  If you go the teaching and running a school route.

If not, make sure you have a year or so of living expenses saved and then hammer it.




tradrockrat said:


> 3. For those that opened full time schools - what kind of start up capitol did you have?  I have only 15 K to invest myself, but am wondering how much more I should be looking for from loans or investors - 6 months operating costs?  2 years!?!?  There are a lot of differing opinions in the literature I have read on it.



Given this position, I'd suggest a third option.  _Don't_ get a location yet.  Start up a club at your school.  And get one with parks & rec.  Another at the Y.  Build those programs (which will have virtually _no_ overhead) until you have enough students and income to go full-time.




tradrockrat said:


> 4. Location, location, location right?  Well *really* good locations in Austin / Cedar Park area are several thousand a month after triple net and all the rest - WAY out of my budget.  So what would you look for in a building?



See above.  Do that first.  

What I look for in a building is proximity to a major intersection, a reasonably decent neighborhood and 'complimentary' businesses.  In other words, don't get the space between the gun shop and the pawnbroker.  Get the one between the hobby shop and the grocery store.


Just my 2 cents

j


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## Drac (Nov 14, 2007)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> However the biggest thing I would do is *own the building* or build a building rather than paying rent. This way you are investing in your future.


 


Xue Sheng said:


> Agreed


 
I also agree..But that's for the future...Get the school up and running , Strive to bring in new students and success will follow..Best of luck to you..


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## tradrockrat (Nov 14, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestions all.  I appreciate it.

Any more thoughts from any others?


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## ArmorOfGod (Nov 16, 2007)

When you open your school, will you be starting from scratch (zero students), or are you bringing a base of students in from somewhere?
If you are starting with no students, have you considered starting a small to medium class at a local rec center or even subleasing a room at a local dance/gymnastiacs studio?  That would give you a base of students to start with when you get your real location.

AoG


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## tradrockrat (Nov 19, 2007)

ArmorOfGod said:


> When you open your school, will you be starting from scratch (zero students), or are you bringing a base of students in from somewhere?
> If you are starting with no students, have you considered starting a small to medium class at a local rec center or even subleasing a room at a local dance/gymnastiacs studio?  That would give you a base of students to start with when you get your real location.
> 
> AoG



I have only three students at present, so I consider myself starting from zero, but the timing will never be "perfect" and right now I am in a position to dedicate my time to it.  It has been a goal for several years to open a school, and I would love to start in a rec center or studio, but haven't found one that I am willing to trust as far as long term stability.  I don't want to have 20 students only to find out that 20 is "too many" for the space I'm borrowing or some such silliness (this actually happened to a friend in California).  Frankly, besides the obvious reasons of opening and running a school (love of the art, desire to teach and share knowledge, etc.) what really makes me excited about opening a school is that I get to be the boss of my own life and in charge of my own success.

If I could find a dance / gymnastics studio with plenty of open evenings and an owner I could feel good about, I'd jump all over it.  Trust me - I'm looking.

thanks for the input.


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## Danzer (Dec 1, 2007)

I run a small school of around 20 students and rent space from a gymnastics school. It is not the ideal situation but works for me. I always have the gymnastics students running through my class and the noise can be annoying. More power to you if you can find a location that is JUST your school. Also think of going in with a martial arts instructor from a different discipline as you grow. The two of you can share expenses and not compete for students.


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## Andrew Green (Dec 1, 2007)

tradrockrat said:


> I don't want to have 20 students only to find out that 20 is "too many" for the space I'm borrowing or some such silliness



But then you got 20 students, paying fees, which puts you in a better place too open a bigger school 

20 students would probably pay your rent, depending on where you are and what you charge them, better then you paying it out of pocket until you get 20 students 

I don't run a full time school anymore, I did, and might again though.  Here are some of my thoughts:

Location: important, but in a different way then other businesses.  Convienience is probably more important then visibility.  Most of your students will come in through internet, yellow pages and friends that train, not walk ins.  Being on a high traffic street isn't as important as being within driving distance for a large population.  If you can save $1000 + month by going a little off the beaten path but still being just as quick to get too, save yourself the cash.

Plan to lose money for a while, especially over the summer.  Unless you can do day camps or something for a couple weeks, in which case they might be more profitable.

And the big martial artists mistake, remember that once you sign that lease you are a business, and this is how you make your money.  You might want to teach anyone and let them slide when they can't pay, keep the fees low, not have contracts and sell them gear at wholesale.  But you also have to pay the bills.

It is also tempting to want to only teach your art in it's pure form.  But sometimes you have to teach the other classes you might not enjoy as much to pay the bills.  Depending on your demographics a cardio kickboxing sort of class might be the one that pays most of your bills.


Do the research, even the schools you don't like.  Whether they are making money (find out why) or not (find out why not).  There is a lot of stuff out there, just have too look ( ex. http://www.martialartsteachers.com/index.php?page=FREE STUFF )


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## tradrockrat (Dec 1, 2007)

thanks for the insights,  I appreciate them.


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## Dusty (Dec 2, 2007)

connecting with one of the professional martial arts orgs can help too. i have been a member of MAIA (martial arts industry association) for a couple of years and i have nothing but great things to say about them. It is basically a group of top school owners or former owners backed by century martial arts offering  a consulting package anywhere from 50 per month right up to $1500 per month. they provide monthly ideas for generating new students, pre made ads etc.
www.masuccess.com
good luck.
Dusty


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## dragonswordkata (Dec 2, 2007)

tradrockrat said:


> It took three years and a move from LA to Austin TX, but I'm opening my School
> 
> 1. Is there any reason why I should not retain my high school teaching job while I build my student base?
> 
> ...


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## tradrockrat (Dec 2, 2007)

Thank you all very much for the suggestions.

Lots of good ideas here.


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## grydth (Dec 2, 2007)

I ran a small business, not an MA school, but some rules are universal:

Save all the money you can and keep that day job. You may have the best service or product in the world to offer, but it takes time for the public to realize that. In the interim, you need to worry about paying your bills.

Treat those early students like gold. Why? One of the best sources of new business... is old business. People will rapidly tell friends and famiy when they have found something great; conversely, they will also tell everyone if they are treated poorly.

If you can do so, diversify. Not every martial art is for everyone, so if you can work an alliance with other reputable instructors of other arts it could help both of you - and the public. Around here I have seen a karate school that had a Tai Chi instructor come in one night, and an Aikido school that had an Iaido instructor one night a week. This can attract new students, and pays off especially if you now offer an art nobody else in the area has. Caution - bring a disreputable person in, and his sins become your sins very quickly.


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## Jimi (Dec 11, 2007)

Best of luck Bro. If there is anything I can do for you, let me know. When things slow up at work I will complete a design for a private training area good for up to maybe a dozen. As soon as I have it complete I will get the drawings to you somehow. Miss you bro, I take a good swing, but I miss you man. PEACE JIMI


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