So you have decided to start your own Taekwondo School. It is an exciting time, but there are some important decisions that you need to make before you open a martial arts business. To help you make the right ones you will find below, the key business questions you need to ask and think about when starting your Taekwondo School.
Key Business Questions When Starting a Taekwondo School
Big vs. Small
How big do you want your Taekwondo School to be? This decision will have a major effect on many of the other choices that you make.
Bigger schools can produce higher revenue, but they can also mean a lower profit per student.
Many Taekwondo school owners find the right balance is somewhere between 200 – 300 students.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Location
A good location will have adequate parking, will be safe and well lit and ideally is visible from the street front.
Don’t under estimate the power of being clearly visible to passing traffic.
You also want to locate your school close to where your students are. If for example you intend to charge above average rates for you school, then you will want to locate it in an area where the students (or their parents) can afford to pay for it.
Type of Classes and Hours
Some key questions to ask:
- What hours do you intend to open your school?
- Will you run daytime classes or evening only?
- Are you going to be open on the weekends?
- What type of students you hope to attract?
Answers to these questions will need to be considered. For example, if you are primarily focused on adult students then you may need to consider running a weekend class or a late evening class that full time workers will be able to attend.
Marketing Your Martial Arts Business
- Marketing Plan: Before you establish your Taekwondo School you should have a clear plan on how you intend to attract new students to the school. The idea of “If you build it, they will come” is completely false.
- Online Marketing: Also don’t make the mistake that having a website, means that you are marketing online. A website is simply a place you can direct visitors to and allow them to find out more information. You must promote it, by itself it is unlikely to attract many, if any visitors unless you are able to rank website well online.
- Marketing Success: In order to be successful with marketing your Taekwondo School, you must be consistent. For example if you are doing a direct mailer, you want to make sure that you don’t just send it out once.
Have a schedule of when you will be sending mailers, placing flyers or advertising in your local classifieds.
Online marketing should also be part of your promotional mix. Make sure that your Taekwondo School is listed in Google places and properly optimized. Create content for your site on your blog in order to attract search engine traffic. And consider advertising online, on platforms such as Google Adwords and Yahoo advertising.
How Much Will You Charge?
Pricing is a crucial business decision for the health of your Taekwondo School. Most schools veer to the side of undercharging and so this is a mistake you want to avoid.
If you are charging to little, it is either because you have not located your school close enough to customers who can afford it or it is because your marketing is inadequate. Don’t automatically lower your prices to attract new students.
Instead think about how you can use your marketing to bring in new students, while keeping your prices where you need them to be in order to make a profit.
Important Business Questions For Your Martial Arts School
Before you start a martial business some key business questions need to ask in order to gain information you need to start a Taekwondo School and increase the chance of a successful outcome.
