Selling school

[terryl965]

I have been offord a great price to sell my school and wanted some feedback from the good people on MT.

Pro's
Spend time with family
Get to be a real retired person
Can go on vacation when I want
No more hassle with people problems


Con's
No more time with people I love to train
No satisfaction of seeing people finally get something
the workouts


I know I'll still be training my family and doing tournaments and such but the decission is really killing me, one side says yes the other says no and the middle has no Ideal, let say the offer is a lot of money for the rights of owning the school. No really has no bearing but I would never thought somebody thought my school was worth that much.


Terry

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Wow, that's a tough one. Would you be able to sell the school, start a new one and still see a profit?

Jeff

 

[mrhnau]

Would they consider allowing you to still teach? Alot of places have "guest" teachers come in for a fee. You would be able to "cash in" and still periodically teach. That might be a good compromise. I imagine you could dictate your teaching terms (1 day/week, 2/week, etc)


If they don't want you to ever teach, then the decision is tougher...

 

[mrhnau]

Wow, that's a tough one. Would you be able to sell the school, start a new one and still see a profit?

Jeff

That would depend on the contract. Might include a "non-competition" clause, where you have to be a certain distance in order to restart things.

 

[terryl965]

Wow, that's a tough one. Would you be able to sell the school, start a new one and still see a profit?

Jeff

Jeff I can start another school outside a twenty mile radious and yes there would be profits in it for me.

 

[Bigshadow]

Would they consider allowing you to still teach? Alot of places have "guest" teachers come in for a fee. You would be able to "cash in" and still periodically teach. That might be a good compromise. I imagine you could dictate your teaching terms (1 day/week, 2/week, etc)


If they don't want you to ever teach, then the decision is tougher...

Dang you beat me to it. Terry, you could have it put in a sale contract. You could put a term on it, so you can limit how much time and for how long. They may even be interested in keeping you on for a while anyway to help transition the school. You could also become part of that shaping process so you can see that it goes in a satisfactory way for you. Just some things to consider.

 

[terryl965]

Dang you beat me to it. Terry, you could have it put in a sale contract. You could put a term on it, so you can limit how much time and for how long. They may even be interested in keeping you on for a while anyway to help transition the school. You could also become part of that shaping process so you can see that it goes in a satisfactory way for you. Just some things to consider.

Thanks Bigshadow the whole idea just jumped in my lap at dinner the other night and I was asked if I sell the school how much and I replyed and a day later he is making the offer at the price I gave, prayer will let me decide and input from those of you.

 

[HKphooey]

Good luck with it! Your heart will tell you what to do.

 

[Flying Crane]

Are you ready to quit teaching in your school? I guess you need to answer that question.

Kind of a strange thing, in my opinion. If a school has a good reputation, it is built upon the shoulders of the instructor/owner. If it passes into new ownership, with different instructors, there is no guarantee it will be any good. I would not be surprised if the students left the school. I know I would leave the school, if my teacher quit. I am not simply at the school to train under whoever is there, but rather I am there to train with that teacher. I guess I don't understand why someone would want to buy someone else's school. Seems to me that someone would start their own school and build their own reputation...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey Terry,

Think through what it is that you want to do. Do you still want to teach? Do you want to teach at this location and to these students? Once you know that then you will have a good idea on whether to sell it or not. Really it is just a matter of you determining what is best for Terry and his family. Once you figure that out then you will know how to proceed.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Do you trust the people that made the offer to give you students quality instruction? If you reopened would any of you present students make the drive to study at you new school? Is the money enough to help you and your family for some time? How dose your family feel about this? And again are you ready to give up your school and teaching?
Best of luck in deciding it is going to be a hard decision no matter what you do

 

[terryl965]

Do you trust the people that made the offer to give you students quality instruction? If you reopened would any of you present students make the drive to study at you new school? Is the money enough to help you and your family for some time? How dose your family feel about this? And again are you ready to give up your school and teaching?
Best of luck in deciding it is going to be a hard decision no matter what you do

No I'm really not ready with the mind part but the body has taken it toll onme over the years of neglict, my wife says if I sell it it would only be a matter of months before I miss it enough to open a new one and is it worth losing what we have and start over in that short of a time frame.

The money really is not an issue as the fact of me needing time off to regroup my body and not having the right people to run the school while I'm gone and I can trust with the everyday running of the school.

I guess it is a matter of health when I get all my test back next week I'll know more. I will let everyone know when I do.

Thanks for all the well off replys.
Terry

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Terry,
My advice would be, sell the school, use the money to heal the body and relax for a bit. Then, in a few months, if the itch is still there, and your no-compete clause allows, scout out a new location and hang up the shingle again. Being self employed, I'm often considering selling and resting, but know that soon as I do so, the itch will come back, so can understand a bit

Best of luck

 

[tshadowchaser]

no matter what the seel decission is I wish you the best with those test. Your health is more important

 

[Andrew Green]

Are they willing to hire you as a part time instructor? Then you get to only do the teaching, not worry about the business stuff at all and are only there a few hours a week.

The other thing you can consider is selling and taking a small group and renting space (or if someone has a big basement...) and training a small group a couple nights a week without the "running a school" part to it.

Or maybe even spend a year or two in a completely different style after your all rested and healed up, I have to admit I have been tempted by the idea of being a student somewhere again... esspecially when there was a boxing club in the same building as I worked in and I had to walk up the stairs past it everyday

 

[Kacey]

I think you need to decide what you want - if you want to teach, and starting over would be tough (and it would) then selling your school, no matter how profitable, will later come back and be a problem. If you think you might enjoy retirement more than you miss teaching, that's something else. Have you considered selling your school and teaching for a rec center, public school, or Y, where they would pay you, there would be no overhead and fewer hassles - but still be able to teach to your preferred standard 2-3 nights a week?

 

[DavidCC]

... I was asked if I sell the school how much and I replyed and a day later he is making the offer at the price I gave...

you obviously did not ask for enough!!!

There are probaly lots of good relationships you could establish with the new owners. I would think the more involved you were during the transition the better it woud be for the new owner in the long run.

 

[searcher]

You should consider doing seminars if you do decide to sell. It can be a great way to still teach and you won't have the overhead or tie down of a school.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Sell it....if he does not work out...and the school falls apart..you can always start it over. Most schools are successful because of the Sensi's/teachers.

Very important here...can your students still keep there rank and earn ranking. Can they continue the same type of training or will they need to start over?

Talk to your students of your intentions and feed back!!!! ......Aloha

 

[exile]

I think you need to decide what you want - if you want to teach, and starting over would be tough (and it would) then selling your school, no matter how profitable, will later come back and be a problem. If you think you might enjoy retirement more than you miss teaching, that's something else. Have you considered selling your school and teaching for a rec center, public school, or Y, where they would pay you, there would be no overhead and fewer hassles - but still be able to teach to your preferred standard 2-3 nights a week?

Terry---I'm with Kacey on this... of course, in the end it's your decision, but I've noticed, reading years of MT threads, that you are intensely involved in teaching and thinking about the issues that the teaching profession raises. It's true---if you want to retire, really, then that's another story. But from everything I've read that you've posted, you don't really want to disconnect from the teaching life. With your own school, you can determine policy, curriculum and so on. If you retire from running a dojang and then teach part-time, it might not be so easy...

I have to own up, I guess---I'd like to see you decide to keep your school, I like your philosophy of instruction in the Korean MAs as you've expressed it on MT over the years and I think it's important for the art to have a `hard core' of people devoted to the full expression of TKD, not just Olympic-style sparring. It's not my place to say, but since you asked, I would feel disappointed to see someone leave his school who has what I think has the right take on TKD... well, you did ask! :wink1: