Any better?

[ATC]

After reading Terry's post Dazed, my way of thinking, I was wondering if enrollment for others has gotten any better. Has things turned around or are you still struggling to make ends meet.

I know in our school it seems like things have turned for the better. We have tons of new white belts and we just visited a school not too far away that also had quite a few newer white belts.

Even when times were bad we kept our core group of students even though we lost quite a bit. But recently we have gotten an influx of new students and even a few past students have returned.

Just wondering how everyone else is doing and what others see.

 

[dancingalone]

Enrollment at my main dojo has remained steady, but profitability is not really an objective there.

In spite of the current economy, I'm considering and negotiating an opportunity to teach martial arts through a corporate wellness program, and that opportunity would likely be a money-maker with plenty of new students at another venue. Might even give me the chance to just teach MA for a living which is something I never thought could be possible for me.

 

[ATC]

Enrollment at my main dojo has remained steady, but profitability is not really an objective there.

In spite of the current economy, I'm considering and negotiating an opportunity to teach martial arts through a corporate wellness program, and that opportunity would likely be a money-maker with plenty of new students at another venue. Might even give me the chance to just teach MA for a living which is something I never thought could be possible for me.

Congrats on the corp wellness gig. I may do something similar here at my job. Our wellness program rotates though so I would only get to do a 4 week program then it is off to something else for many of them. Good way to get people exposed to many different options then let them choose to join or do what they feel they like.

Hope it all works out for you.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

My club aims for between 100 and 200 new white belt enrolments every 3 months , obviously they dont all stick it out as martial arts has a large drop out rate. Over the last year that number has been down slightly , but very few people over about 5th gup have stopped coming so the 'regulars' have all maintained enrolment so the numbers overall have pretty much stayed the same. The particular class I train at has about 40 students and of those about 25 are black belt or higher. I have only seen a couple of new white belts come along to try it out but no one has stopped coming so we maintain between 40 and 50 regularly.

 

[Miles]

I've had a few new students but am not sure the tide is turning yet. We'd love to be at 200-300 students!

Dancingalone, congratulations on your new opportunity!

 

[searcher]

I gained a few new ones this week and we just moved to a higher traffic town, so it is looking up for my school. I am not sure how good it will get, but I want my students to get the best student teacher ratio that I can have for them. On the other hand, I would love to pick up another 15-20 students over the next few months. I am thinking of diversifying my programs to make the programs better suited for the different types of students, mainly the 18-36YO males that are wanting to get in great shape and fight in the kickboxing ring.

 

[Archtkd]

I've had a few new students but am not sure the tide is turning yet. We'd love to be at 200-300 students!

Dancingalone, congratulations on your new opportunity!

Kudos and good to hear you are getting new students despite the steady drumbeat of bad economic news we keep hearing about Michigan. The interesting thing is I've had some serious inquiries from two people who've recently moved to St. Louis from your great state.

 

[searcher]

What have you all done to make yourselves more marketable? What are you doing to market your school to the public?

I would be interested in hearing. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

What have you all done to make yourselves more marketable? What are you doing to market your school to the public?

I would be interested in hearing. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

First and foremost we try to retain all the students we already have , that way at the very least we maintain our current number of students. To get new students the most successful way is doing demos at schools during the lunch break , thats a sure way to sign up some new students.

 

[terryl965]

Well this past week was a little better, we sighned up four new students and had three come back. I sure hope it continues.