10 Reasons Why I’m Proud to be Martial Arts School/Gym Owner – And You Should Be Too! - Mark Slane
Posted by Member Solutions on Thu, Jul 21, 2011 @ 07:00 AM
This post is a departure from my usual blogs … a reminder of why most of us chose our profession in the first place … a pep talk for all Martial Arts school/gym owners.
Today’s blog (with apologies to Letterman) is the top 10 reasons why we do what we do!
We could all being doing something else for a living, but we chose to teach. I have instructors at my facility who quit jobs to take half as much pay with us so that they could love what they are doing. Owning a Martial Arts school or gym and teaching is absolutely the coolest thing in the world to do for a living! If we thought about it, we could probably all come up with this same list.
10) We care about people. A lot of instructors are also police officers, firefighters, nurses and teachers. Teaching others and caring about others just comes naturally. I would bet you are a good-hearted person and say that if you weren’t running a school or gym, you would be doing something else to help people.
9) In that same vein, we make people safer and healthier. How cool is that? We aren’t simply doing people’s taxes (nothing wrong with that, I need my tax guy) or serving them coffee (ditto), but we are helping our members live longer, protect themselves and protect their families. Wow!
8) Teaching is a thrill! I hear my new instructors quite often talk about how they can’t sleep at night after teaching. It is such a thrill and gets us going so much that we are too hyped up to sleep. I know my own teaching was a great mood fixer. No matter how blah or bad my mood, when arriving at the gym after teaching a few classes, I was always up and feeling happy again.
7) We get to punch, kick, train and workout for a living. Most people sit behind a desk and get fat at work. We are getting healthier and in shape.
6) We are doing something that people are coming to us for. I have never had to cold call or use “used car salesman techniques” to get people into my gyms, ever. People hear about what we are doing and call us asking when they can come in and try.
5) Low overhead. Think about the box gyms and the half million dollars of equipment that they need. We have flooring, focus mitts, kick shields and a few hanging bags. That’s pretty much it.
4) People are giving us $100 a month and signing up for a year! I once owned a coffee shop. Most people spent about five bucks while there. I would need each of those people to spend that twenty days a month, every month for a year for that kind of income. This didn’t happen (notice I said that I used to own a coffee shop)!
3) We have levels (or a belt system). This is magic. If you were teaching Zumba or Jazzercise, you pretty much teach the same stuff to everyone, every day. We get people to set goals to get to the next level with a whole new curriculum. We have a Black Belt to ultimately aim for. This keeps people around a lot longer!
2) There are dozens of very successful school and gym owners out there who will show you step by step how to be a success. Member Solutions’ blog, BootCamp and webinars are led by people who have succeeded in the business, and are making a lot of money doing the very thing that you are trying to do. You can plug into one of Member Solutions’ systems and not have to reinvent the wheel.
1) The main reason to own a Martial Arts school or gym (drum roll please) … we change lives. We’ve all seen shy and hurting people open up. We’ve seen people who were just living life with no purpose perk up and our classes become the highlight of their week. I heard a story from a Martial Arts instructor about a boy in his classes. The boy thought that he had no friends and that his parents didn’t care about him. He took his dad’s revolver one day and was going to kill himself. He said that as he was about to do it he thought of his Martial Arts instructor and how disappointed that he would be in him, so he didn’t do it. This kid is now an adult … and a state police officer!
Think about it, it has changed our lives as much as anyone’s. I wouldn’t know what to do without teaching. I wouldn’t be the same person with the same friends … who knows where I’d be?!
Be thankful for your business and realize that you would rather be doing nothing else … buckle down and make it work!!
Mark Slane is a retired firefighter who has been in the Martial Arts for 28 years. He is a 4th dan in taekwondo, a second degree black belt in Krav Maga and has owned Martial Arts schools since 1993. He is the head instructor for the United States Krav Maga Association, the owner of Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness and a published author. Mark just released a book, Be Safe, Self Defense For Women In the Real World, which is available on Amazon.com.
