I think this is more of the ‘European Model’. Enthusiasts teach and only charge to cover the hall rental costs and our are organisations tend to be ‘not-for-profit’. I think this is rare in the US because of it’s more capitalist leanings; people want to make money in anyway they can.
I'm not so sure about that. I don't ask to look at the books in office, but based on the number of students I see showing up, the tuition, and the family discounts, and my estimation of the rent based on commercial property square footage in my area... I can say that at least at 3 of the 4 dojos I've trained at, they're likely operating at a loss. And even if they're able to pocket anything, there's no way it can be enough to live on.
I wasn’t, in the slightest, suggesting they are well-run businesses (most people don’t have a clue on how to run a successful business!), but the intent is there. For example, I haven’t heard of many U.K. dojo running their own, internal gradings and pocketing the fees for the grading, certificates (menjo), belts etc, instead getting in a national grading panel where the menjo fees go back into running the association and belts etc are bought from third party businesses.
I can think of plenty of places that I know of/have trained at that are the same. There are definitely for-profit places, and that's likely the majority, but depending where you're living it's not difficult to find a teacher for free or for a very low cost just to cover materials/location. I can think of 3, in 3 different states, that I've personally trained at that did this.
So the original poster will have no difficulty finding very cheap if not free instruction?
No difficulty? No. You have to look for those schools, I found them after looking through multiple paid schools because I'm picky (not about price specifically..other factors), and I know how to look for schools/instructors. If you do a quick google search of an area, you will almost definitely find all the profit schools first since they'll optimize SEO. It requires a bit of digging to find cheap/free instruction.
At my last dojo, it was $40/hr.
Money is not the sole motivator for things and not all rewards are measured in $.
When I goto the barber I don't charge for politely listening to the barbers compulsive social talking to customers about things that does not interest me one bit. He gets partly paid in money, the rest in serotonin boost, I get a cheap haircut, and get a mental drain, so who is taking advantage of whom? So that makes it fair enough for me.
Then why charge the $6.40 at all?
From people who have done similar (and from what I would do personally) is that helps pay to rent out whatever space is being used, potentially for insurance depending on how that works in the UK, and to have materials on hand/in good condition for repairs and to loan to new students.
You can get far more money towards rent and insurance in three hours than $6.40 by doing something else. So that explanation won't cut it.
It's for covering overhead costs of the dojo etc as Monkey said. In our club we also have insurace etc, all included in the fee. But we also get public contributions due to the health benefits of engaging people in activity.
$6.40 is not making enough of a dent in the costs for that claim to be believable by any reasonable person.
That explanation cuts it just fine, actually. Even if you don't understand it.
Three hours to make $6.40 towards thousands per month in costs... nah. You're not going to insult your way out of having to make that make an ounce of sense.
You're making up thousands per month in costs. Plenty of places you can teach and have pretty much 0 in rent, or close to it. Making even 50 bucks a month might be enough to cover everything.
That’s partly the point, it’s a wage because of US economic philosophy. In Europe it’s not.
$15 for an expert 30 min haircut from a wonderful Palestinian man.
I tip him $4 and give him medical advice!
Oh yes…my Finnish friend had a beautiful dojo built for them by their government. Insurance fees are paid directly to our association £30 ($38.40) for a year
