MMA has been called the “Fastest Growing Sport in the World” with a fan base that grows every single day. Unlike some other sports, many of its fans want to do more than watch. They also want to get in on the action and learn MMA skills for themselves. This has created a lot of market opportunity for the MMA entrepreneurs to start a MMA gym.

One of the great things about the MMA industry is that students are not afraid to spend money. Forbes estimates that over $USD250 million is spent on the UFC alone each year. That number is expected to climb to over $1 billion over the next five years.

The demographic for MMA are mostly young males, who either work part or full time. Unlike other marital arts students they are not necessarily as price sensitive and so reasonable membership fees can be charged, making this a sustainable long term business.

With the fan base for MMA growing each day, the future for MMA tuition looks bright, positive and profitable to start a MMA gym and succeed in a martial arts business.

How To Start A MMA Gym

MMA Gym Start up Basics

• Venue: For most entrepreneurs the best place to get started when opening a MMA gym is to open classes as a recreation center, YMCA, or local school. This is a very low risk approach to beginning the business and will allow you to build up the student base, before looking for your own space.
• Class size: It will also allow you to experiment with class sizes and teaching style, while not having the over head of a weekly rent. Some gyms will also allow you to teach an MMA class inside their premises, for a percentage of the revenue. This is a win win, as it brings in new users to the gym itself.

Tips on Choosing the Right  Location

You have been running classes at rec center or similar location and you are now ready to lease your own space. Hopefully you have built up a reasonable number of students, so that you know you can cover your expenses from day one.

When choosing a space for opening a MMA gym there are few different things you want to keep in mind:

• Visibility: Ideally your MMA gym should be visible from the street front. This is a good opportunity to brand yourself and attract new students. It will also make your gym easier to locate.
• Parking: Many of your students will want to drive to your gym, unless you live in a major metropolitan area where few people have cars. Make sure that there is adequate parking. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to attend your classes.

Reasonable Rent

You don’t want to over pay for rent. In general it is better to rent a smaller location with a lower rent, and then run more classes, than it is to rent a bigger space and run fewer classes. Keeping control of your expenses is very important if your martial art business is going to succeed and rent will be one of the largest of these.

Equipping Your MMA Gym

When you start a MMA Gym, make it a policy when accepting new students that they need to bring the majority of their own gear. This will save you a significant amount of money in upfront costs. Over time you can build up your own collection of gear.

If you have been running classes at a local rec center, you should use some of the class fees to invest back into gear. By the time you move your martial arts business to a new location, you should already have some equipment.

Basic MMA gym equipment you will need for your MMA gym include:

• Heavy bags
• Grappling dummies
• Target shields

The amount of equipment you purchase will depend on your class sizes. One of the advantages of running smaller classes, more frequently is that you won’t need as much equipment, compared to a larger class.

Advertising Your Martial Arts Business

Marketing strategy for your martial arts business:

Advertising your MMA gym is not a one off endeavour and be part of your marketing strategy. You should be marketing and promoting your MMA gym, which is a martial arts business, on a consistent basis.  After opening a MMA gym you will need to consistently bring in new students to replace those that leave to not only maintain but also grow your marital arts business.

Online Marketing:

Online advertising has become very important and at a minimum you consider the following:

• -Create a Google places listing for your gym
• –Setup a Facebook fanpage
• -Run Google Adwords
• –List your gym in local online directories like Yelp (and actively solicit reviews)

Offline Advertising:

In terms of offline advertising, think about where your potential students spend their time and advertise there. That might be as simple as putting up flyers at the local college.

New and Existing Customers

Remember, one of the best ways to grow your business is to keep your existing students happy. That means providing them with quality tuition and helping them to achieve their goals and to improve. Attracting a new student is far more expensive than retaining an existing one.

Also happy students are much more likely to recommend their friends. Guys talk about MMA with their friends, and if you are helping him become the badass he wants to be, you can be sure he is going to be talking about it.

Fee Strategy for a Profitable MMA Gym

Make sure that you get your students to sign a contract that locks them in for a certain period of time. 3, 6 and 12 month contracts are typically best. You should offer financial incentives in the form of lower fees to sign up for the 12 month contract.

You will also want to offer some sort of introductory period before they have to choose to sign up. This might a single class, or it may be as long as a week.

Go over your contract with your potential students so that they know upfront what they are signing for. You don’t want to be tricking your students.

Opening a MMA Gym

While MMA is a growing sport with increasing numbers wanting to participate in the sport, starting a MMA gym requires research and planning before opening a MMA gym.

Defining your customer group, choosing the right venue,location, and fee structure assists in making the right decisions for when you start a MMA gym business.  Advertising your martial art business to capture the growing enthusiasm for learning MMA skills is critical. Constant commitment to effective marketing is required to keep your gym in the public eye for attracting new customers, especially when starting a MMA gym and essential for  continued business growth.