How do we create a six figure school?

[Royal Dragon]

Ok, heres the template,

One, the school MUST profit a minimum of low Six figures for the owner (Like a huge TKD school often does).

Two, I'm lazy, and would rather spend my time on KFM yapp'n about the soap opera of a love life I have, so it has to be self sufficent.

Three, it must have flexible enough courses to accomidate a wide variety of clients, from Kids, to health and fitness nutts to silk PJ Tai Chi Hippies to real fighters.

Four, some how, some way it MUST produce at least a small core of top quality hard core competitve fighters who are sucsessful in all sorts of competitions, under any rules, or even no rules from push hands to San Shou/Kou Shou and MMA.

Let hear yur ides (If they are good, I might actually use them someday!!!)

[Starchaser107]

study under mimi chan for a few years and then open up a wah lum.

(drumroll)

[Shaolinlueb]

three words
after school program.
80-100 a week badda bing badda boom.
tkd schools also have contracts and such for a long time and such.

[joedoe]

1. Make up a story about how you learned your art from some non-English speaking guy in a Chinatown somewhere. You were his only student, and he was the last teacher of the art.

2. Make up some religion-type stuff about the art and your skills.

3. Find some rich, gullible people to be your students.

4. Have some way for students to become disciples and charge them a bucketload of money for the privilege. Continue to suck cash out of them for the duration.

5. When the authorities start getting suspicious, feed all your followers purple kool aid.

[Royal Dragon]

Like these guys?

http://www.dokungfu.com/

[MoreMisfortune]

6 figure schoo?
you be kidding... right?

[SaMantis]

Originally posted by Starchaser107
study under mimi chan for a few years and then open up a wah lum.
(drumroll)

ba-da-DUM-dum-dum!

actually ... it took about 30 years for Wah Lum to get that big. I think RD wants it to happen *instantly*.

Hire a ringer, RD -- someone who's ready to teach and (hopefully) is also a top quality hard core competitive fighter. Heck, hire two. Then sit back and let the cash roll in ...

I like joedoe's idea, too. About the rich, gullible people, I mean. Not the Kool-Aid (limited ROI in that one). It would also be helpful if you married the daughter of one of those rich, gullible people.

[FuXnDajenariht]

be either really good or a real good sell out.

[SPJ]

Include a basic Qi Gong class.

Needless to say, Qi Gong class is open to all ages.

It was the most popular class and most successful "business", when my brother's school was running in Pan Qiao, Taiwan.

And yes teach Tai Ji 24 moves, too.

Easy to teach and learn, more age groups.

The people that have deep pockets will be there.

Your dream fighter students are usually young and broke, though.

Or they are busy in school or at work.

If you like, you may include Wushu routines for young kids to learn and compete in the local, national, or world games.

And then franchise.


:D

[Samurai Jack]

1)You should also take the time to shoot ten or fifteen training videos. Show a form on each one, along with applications. Sell them online and put adds in Black-belt and Kungfu/Taichi magazines offering "distance learning courses".

2)Charge at least four hundred dollars for the videos and one hundred fifty for each training certification and belt test, make sure you've got at least ten belts before black-belt.

3)Offer Black-belt testing after three years of training, but charge a grand for that rank's belt test.

4)Offer to franchise to students from your Kwoon and your video courses for three or four grand, then take like twenty percent of thier yearly earnings.

5)Don't be afraid to charge at least one hundred dollars a month. All the big schools do. Sign each student to a year long contract. Get a lawyer to write it up for you and contact a collection agency to handle drop outs.

6)Better yet, get thier credit/debit card number and charge them every month even if they stop showing up. If they don't want to give thier crdit card number (or they don't have), charge an extra $30.00 a month for a "processing fee".

You'll be making six figures in a couple of years if you follow this plan.

[MonkeySlap Too]

Why bother?

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by Royal Dragon

Two, I'm lazy, and would rather spend my time on KFM yapp'n about the soap opera of a love life I have, so it has to be self sufficent.

It can't be self sufficient until you have trained a handful of students qualified to run the school for you.

Three, it must have flexible enough courses to accomidate a wide variety of clients, from Kids, to health and fitness nutts to silk PJ Tai Chi Hippies to real fighters.

then you need people who teach those things and have that experience. You can't teach a fighter unless you are a fighter. You can't teach me how to fight in a ring if you've never set foot in one.

you can't tell me much about fitness if you know nothing about fitness, etc.

you need to either

1. hire people with these specialties or

2. get the experience for yourself, then field students to fill those roles.

Four, some how, some way it MUST produce at least a small core of top quality hard core competitve fighters who are sucsessful in all sorts of competitions, under any rules, or even no rules from push hands to San Shou/Kou Shou and MMA.

You can't teach a fighter unless you are a fighter. You can't teach me how to fight in a ring if you've never set foot in one.

[SevenStar]

however, churning hard core fighters and having a six figure school don't really go together... unless you are getting the money from your fighting, but in that case, fighting is making you the money, not teaching.

[Yum Cha]

Yes, it is. Very easy, and achievable too....

Just send my school a $100,000 down payment, and I will forward to you the essential secrets to building a school that can bring in $100,000.

If you care to discuss franchise opportunities, put it in the subject of your letter....

[Songshan]

hmmm ok well it's hard to say that you can generate a 6 figure income school but here is a few tips:

1. Marketing - spend some $$ promoting your school and advertise

2. Be honest, truthful and real

3. To appeal to all ages have morning as well as evening classes available

4. Oh yeah did I mention Marketing??

;)

[SifuAbel]

low overhead, location, marketing.

I'd study under Mimi Chan. (drumroll, rimshot)

[Samurai Jack]

Originally posted by Songshan

2. Be honest, truthful and real


Dude, you don't know a thing about business, do you? Not that that's a bad thing. Capatalisim sucks.

[Starchaser107]

"low overhead, location, marketing.

I'd study under Mimi Chan. (drumroll, rimshot)"
________________________________________

I'm sure you would,
and I don't think I'd hold it against you either

[Royal Dragon]

Why bother?

Reply]
Ah Hellooooooooo, in the subject line it says "SIX FIGURE INCOME!!!"" what other reason could there be?

As for Mimi Chan, I was thinking more of studying behind her (He he he if you all get that!! :eek: )



then you need people who teach those things and have that experience. You can't teach a fighter unless you are a fighter. You can't teach me how to fight in a ring if you've never set foot in one.

Reply]
Fine, I'll cover the mainstream courses (till I find someone to do it for me so I can yapp on KFM all day), and you come in and run the fight club for me. I'll charge those students a "Club membership fee", and then you can get what you can get from them on top of it.

[Starchaser107]

in all seriousness, I think you should follow the example of any 6 figure school that you see existing...

If that model is (as was suggested earlier) a tkd school or karate then so be it. follow that model. I mentioned wl because it just seems to be a good enterprise in the kf world. I'm assuming that you're not the lineage holder of anything though , so what you have to offer might not be "exclusive" (forgive me if I'm misinformed)

I believe that what the other guys here are saying..is perhaps you need to present your services in a way that seems "exclusive" (that is , if you aren't already )

point is, follow a model.

and i don't mean margie, lianne, or charlene...

although you could if you wanted to...

...:rolleyes:

follow a model :cool:

[Royal Dragon]

:eek: :p :D

[David Jamieson]

you want a 6 figure income? Then don't bother with Kungfu. lol

go out and get a degree as a dental surgeon, cha ching! there is your 6 figure income buddy!

all that aside, read about marketing vs merchandising, a few courses in business management and advertising won't hurt and finally, the gold standard is "you gotta spend money to make money". In other words, ain't no one gonna give you high fees for learning in yoru cruddy garage or some dump hole of a building with no showers, or dirty showers.

Make a busines plan, get the loan and stick to the plan. If you don't know what a business plan is or how to use it to get your grub stake from a bank, then get to a college and learn these things.

Royal, you have revealed that you are more interested in making a bunch of money than making kungfu in your self...maybe it's time to reconsider your path and be honest with yourself?

[Royal Dragon]

Royal, you have revealed that you are more interested in making a bunch of money than making kungfu in your self...maybe it's time to reconsider your path and be honest with yourself?

Reply]
Haven't reveled anything here. And how do you know what my personal Kung Fu goals are anyway? Obviously I'd love to run a school someday, I loved teaching when I did it more than anyother thing I have ever done. Is there something wrong with trying to come up with a way to make a respectable income doing it?

My back is healed now, Job and family are starting to fall in line, oppertunity is about to knock. It's getting close to game time again, I won't be on the sidelines much longer.

[Shaolinlueb]

nobody is lsitening, but aftershcool program is very profitable. its hard to setup, but you can make big bucks off of it. 80 dollars a week for a kid is nice. msot daycares charge more. get ten kids, 800 dollars a week. offer homework help, snack and a class near the end. if the kids like it they will sign up for a month which is another whatever a month you charge. i have seen schools make big moeny alone.
try to get in with the school system and offer an afterschool type program too. doesnt necessarly have to be after school. a local tkd school that makes 500k a year has one. the guys do it at 6-7 at night at the school gym.
whoever mentioned the contract, that is a good idea form a business point of view. the local tkd school that makes 500k a year has his people sign up for 2 years. and guess what his school is huge.
also be very confident in what you teach, go to tournaments and have your students win.

[MasterKiller]

I'm pretty sure LKFMDC is running a six-figure school. Why not just use his model?

You only need to pull in about $8,000 a month. At $100/month, you only need 80 students. Get 20 or 30 more to cover expenses, and bada bing. Instant Corvette.

We have close to 100 students year round. 30 or so kids, about 20 old ****s in Taiji, and 50 or so regular kung fu students. We only charge $50/month, but that means my Sifu pulls in $60,000 before expenses. And we're only open after 5:30 every night. We have plenty of calls from stay-at-home moms, students, and night-shifters who want to take day-classes, but we can't accomodate.

We also teach PE classes at a couple of private schools, which brings in extra money.

Private lessons.

It can be done, but you'd have to work it. It just ain't gonna fall into your lap.

[red5angel]

I don't believe there are 6 figure schools.

[Royal Dragon]

try to get in with the school system and offer an afterschool type program too. doesnt necessarly have to be after school. a local tkd school that makes 500k a year has one. the guys do it at 6-7 at night at the school gym.

Reply]
This is how I started out originally. Before I blew my back out it was doing rather well. My plan was to teach the class and use the $$ to fund the start up of a comercial location. Then build the comercial location into something I could support mysef with.

[Royal Dragon]

I don't believe there are 6 figure schools

Reply]
Any big TKD school is pulling at least that much. I did all the figuring when I was going to open a comercial location before.

[red5angel]

I'd have to see proof of that. Most of the big TKD schools I know still have instructors, including owners that work day jobs.

[Royal Dragon]

Not in Chicago they don't. The "instructors" maybe, but owners do nothing but run the schools buissness ends, and very often hardly even teach.

I should probably interview Dino Spencer of Iron Fist, I hear he's dong VERY well with his school.

[red5angel]

I see, I've never seen a school like that, atleast not around here, although they could exist.
I know with some organizations, the people or persons at the top make pretty good money but a single school?

[SifuAbel]

With all the external marketing aside, the number1 problem you have to deal with in a big school is any "percieved indifference" of the instructor on the part of the student. This happens a lot when the instructor, or more likely a junior instructor, is perceived as just going through the motions and treating the student like cattle. Nobody likes that.

The more retention the less you have to collect on long term contracts.

Also, cashing out the student and haveing a detailed budget goes a long way too.

[MonkeySlap Too]

What matters is how much you take home. Period. You could have a school that grosses $120,000, but after expenses, you walk away with $20,000. Or you could have a school that grosses $65,000 and you walk away with $40,000.

Personally, it's not a business I would choose as it is a very, very mature market with a target audience largely incapable of esponding to strategic differentiation outside of:

Sporting school

Daycare center

psuedo-mystical arm-waving center


To each thier own.

I'd suggest getting a part-time job at The Degerberg Academy in Chicago and see how they run thier show. Running a money making school is not for the lazy or feint of heart. To do it right is non-stop hard work.

[SPJ]

Agreed.

The classes and the management, advertizement, recruiting students, paying rent, bills, salary, scheduling, etc all take up your time.

And we only have 24 hours a day.

You have a school.

[David Jamieson]

psuedo-mystical arm-waving center


ooooo, that sounds kinda neat, where do i sign up and do I have to bring my own bong? :D

[Royal Dragon]

I'd suggest getting a part-time job at The Degerberg Academy in Chicago

Reply]
Now THERE is a useful idea!! Thanks, I never thought of doing that, but I think you are on to something there. That is still a couple of years away, I have to get into regular training again first.

Sifu Abel, your comment about student retention are right on the $$. When I taught for Champion Youth Outreach, I set attendance records. One session, I had attendance of 100% for the entire session. I think I was, and still am the only one to EVER do that. Even got noticed by the founder from California for that one!!.

I can tell you, the fastest way to lose a student is to forget to make them feel you are paying attention to them. I used to actually alot 10-15 minutes between classes just to socialize with students, and parents when I ran the Royal Dragon Kid's Kung Fu club. I had Theresa oganise cook outs, and grill outs in the parks after class, recognised birthdays, and celebrated things like rank advncements wiht cake, cookies and such, as well as different social functions such as going to the Pan Ams run by Ralph Peluso to spectate (In prep for entering students in that comp, never happened due to my back though :( )

The year I set the attendance record at Champion Youth was the same year (different session though) that all my students shut out first place in the forms divisions (as in no other locations took first in any division because MY students occupied LL those positions, in ALL age groups). We also took most of the first, and second place trophies in point sparring that year. This was done with mostly Chung moo quan training, supplemented by a foudation in master John Tsai's system. I basically taught CMQ, only the way Tsai's school taught his stuff.

I did this without ever competeing in my life. Yes, I know it was only points sparring, and forms, but I have a knack for seeng whats needed to succeed, and then figuring out how to give that to my students. I also did it with little to no rank what so ever, against teachers with 10-15 and as much as 20 years in the arts. So I think I could cover most of the schools progams. Don't know how I'd fair with the hard core competitive stuff though, it's a different game all together. I might have to hire Seven Star to run that for me. ;)

[YongChun]

Here is how to do it: learn from his Holiness Olaf Simon

http://www.bullshido.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=viewreview&id=16

Another way is to use the WT model. A breakaway guy from WT in Europe has 30,000 schools.
30,000x1,000 a month = 30,000,000 a month.

[Royal Dragon]

There seems to be alot of great ideas here guys, keep them comming!!

I also like the day care plan. I bet from like 3:30 to 6:00 I could make enough to pay all the bills, and then from 6:00-9:00 I could run the rest of the programs.

Any school owners have any luck with Cardio Kix classes? My thought would be to just Nix those, as your students would get all the same bennifits from the standard Martial arts program.

[Samurai Jack]

If they want Cardio-kick, give it to them. You're trying to make money here. That means offering the product that your customers want, not what you think you want to offer the customers.

If you want to teach the old way, that's admirable, and it's the way I would do it. But that's not your stated goal. Your stated goal is to pull alot of money. That means approaching this whole thing like a business. Do whatever it takes.

Stop thinking about them like they're students. Think of them as customers. If they want belts, SELL them belts. If they want monthly lessons, SELL them a contract. If they want Pit Fighting lessons, SELL them very expensive lessons. If they want new age foo-foo, SELL it. SELL, SELL, SELL!

Forget about anything that dosen't directly contribute to getting the money from thier wallets into your pocket. I'm telling you, get thier bank account # and have them sign a year-long contract.

[Vash]

Originally posted by Samurai Jack
Forget about anything that dosen't directly contribute to getting the money from thier wallets into your pocket. I'm telling you, get thier bank account # and have them sign a year-long contract.

You just made my nipples hard.

[MonkeySlap Too]

You have nipples?

[lkfmdc]

a school making 6 figures is nothing, if you want your SALARY to be 6 figures, that is another story entirely...

go out and buy a coaching book, ANY coaching book, first chapter is about figuring out what your mission is, what you believe...

ie, are you just interested in having a school that makes money?

or do you want to teach the "pure, traditional art and save it and honor your teacher"

or do you have a vision?

without understanding WHY, your school will fail, then again, often understanding why is also why your school will fail....

[Royal Dragon]

Actually, I do have a vision. I want to structure it similar to the way high level Gymnastics clubs are structured. They have a general public program, and then the competitive one. the system is usually geared to move those with talent from the GP to the competitive program. It's synergistic, so the stuff taught in the GP prepares them for the competitive (IE same fundementals/skills and all.

So far as teaching a "Pure" Traditonal system, I really don't want to do that. I am a free thinker, I have alot of my own ideas. I'd prefer to teach it my own way. Yes, traditional methods are in my aresenal, however, so are alot of my own methods that would hardly be considred traditional, like modern conditioning, Gear up and spar, pad and bag work and so forth.

I have my own unique approach. Since I have no real lineage, I'd be seeling the fruits of my years of research, NOT some estoric line.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by red5angel
I'd have to see proof of that. Most of the big TKD schools I know still have instructors, including owners that work day jobs.

There was a TKD chain here that was doing it. Around the time of the ufc boom though, something happened and he lost all of his schools except one. A buddy of mine here offers judo, karate, aikido, bjj and kickboxing classes. In addition, he holds karate/grappling tournaments as well as kickboxing/mma every 3 months or so. I know he;s 0ulling in at least six figgas. There's another guy who I heard through the grapevine is pulling in about 80k.

[Ray Pina]

Build it in the shape of a hexagon

[Wilson]

I've had an idea that could attract both men and women to cardio.

1) Standard cardio class just for women (if you have time)

2) "Hardcore" cardio class for anyone (men & women) - Treat it more like a boxing or Muay Thai class. Don't have to focus on the technique, sparring, fighting aspects......but its a hell of a workout. You could run them after your kung fu classes so kung fu people could stay & you might attract some others who just want a good workout.

[Royal Dragon]

Not a bad idea. Of course, a good forms session would do that too. I was thinking of having two classes, one called forms & Cardio, and the other sparring and application, and just letting students come to whichever one they wanted too.

I'd encouracg them to all go to the forms class, as that is where the art comes from, THEN to the sparring to learn how to use it.

But ultimately, thye could go to whichever they like best.

[iblis73]

There are many good ideas on in this thread.....but one thing I noticed is everyone giving advice re: cardio kickboxing,this that the other. Hey, concept-ASK people what they want! Seriously. Do some market research. Ask regular people why they dont attend MA classes (time, $,convenience,etc.) Ask people what they WANT, and more importantly why they want it. EG:someone sez they want a black belt, but why? It may be they equate that with a certain level of self protection.

Here are some other general ideas:
Location,location,location-dont just look at cheap ass commercial rents, but looks at accesibility and the local demographics. With a little work u could use GIS and census data for your town to make some interesting discoveries.

Convenience is a BIG thing with people-location,time,etc.

Small, private groups-small groups of 4-10 people who want serious training/workout. Charge a premium for these, but give them your full attention.

You will need at least a small core of senior students who are loyal, hard working and SKILLED.

Kids-man, there is some money here. Maybe not just MA classes. Think about what the parents want-self esteem,self defense, this that the other for their little ones. Can you teach other things than punching and kicking or a physical workout? How about personal,moral,intellectual development?

TIME IS MONEY!-lets say u have a kick ass location,teach part time (after 530 pm) and make mad cash....stupid, fill up the unused hours! Find someone who can if you cant-a senior student? How about a different style/instructor? Who else could use that space-yoga,pilates,rehab,latin dance lessons? This take diligence to screen prospective additions and there are legal issues, but it can be done and can greatly increase cash flow.

[Royal Dragon]

You will need at least a small core of senior students who are loyal, hard working and SKILLED.

Reply]
Yes, my first mission is to get the skills myself. Hopefully I can start training again full time in January.

[SPJ]

I73;

1) Good ideas on location.
We have a shopping area near Univ. California, Irvine. It used to be clothes and other stuff. however, the students do not have deep pockets. Now, they have a dance school that take up several spots. An Aikido and a Judo school nicely remodeled rooms.

I was looking around to start a Tai Ji club there.

2) Use of unused time for the same facility.

I saw the Aikido and Judo are empty most of the time. The dance school has schedules posted for each room for different time slots and different day of the weeks. Every time, I go there, I see people are using the rooms for hip-hop, ballet, tap dancing,Tango, what have you. The dance school has different teachers for different classes.

3) Time sharing concept.

There is a Gym. They have gym classes and clubs. There are also 2 corner rooms with mattress. The owner rent the time out for TKD and Aikido classes. His interests are in the Gym. Since he has extra space, why not rent out. The teachers pay for the time. Everytime, I go there. I see different classes with different teachers and students.

:cool:

[Royal Dragon]

Yes, this is what I did when I taught my Taiji for health classes. I basically was usieng unused time in the Westmont Pk dists dance room.

Now, I wasn't doing 6 figures, but it gave me a base to where I was able to start building classes. If my life hadn't gone so crazy this last year, I'd still be teaching that class.

[iblis73]

I think REALLY studying the local demographics is important as hell in choosing a location. For example where I live a high level WT/WC/NAACP (my attempt at humor, sorry) instructor got a steal of a deal on a strip mall location-right on a major street with lots of sign space that faced the street. The problem is the part of town wasnt full of the demographics he needed (younger,male,though it did have income.) The actual street itself was a little seedy and he was next to a liqour store! Realize that if you have a great product (good training/coaching/system) people from all over town will want to come.....which leads to the next problem, that while his school is on a main street its out of the way to get to from most of the city.

You really have to think about the demographic and type of student your after. EG, the best students will likely be young males (aggressive,fighting). People 25-35 are more likely to be established with more disposable income. Colleges and high schools are great sources of students, but they must be able to afford them.

I could go on and on about this (I was a geography major, go figure) but suffice it to say do some real research on location analysis methods and market research before grabbing just any old space.

[MonkeySlap Too]

The harsh reality.

Martial Arts is a mature market.

There is little to no barrier to entry for competitors. You are not only competeing against other schools, you are competeing against park districts, people in garages/parks, the YMCA, etc, etc.

Anybody can (and frequently does) hang a shingle. There is no 'certification' or licensing required.

There is no real brand differentiation to the general public. And when there is, it is usually TKD and now BJJ what they are looking for.

The people who are earning money are focusing thier messaging on something the public will respond to:

Look at Coach Ross's school, ot the Degerberg Academy in Chicago.


RD - when i said get a job there, I didn't mean as a coach - I meant at the front desk. Learn first hand how they get people in, and sign them up. You'll learn much more being a lackey for six months than you will as a teacher.

Find those who have done well, and learn from them.

[lkfmdc]

The original martial arts business concept was kids, get as many little screaming unruly buggers in your door as you could. Parents are used to paying for their kids, and once they are in, there isn't the constant "should I be doing this" thing... you sell the kids uniforms, you have black belt clubs, you have belt tests, you get 200 kids at $100 per month, set on contracts for one year, blah blah blah

Two major problems, not all schools are in areas where a kids market existed

Trend was less kids wanted to do martial arts.... Korean TKD instructors can still rely on the Korean family to bring it's 2 to 3 kids in no matter what. If you are white, no self respecting Korean family is bringing your kids to you, sorry, and I'm married to a Korean!!!!!!

For like 10 years, adult market was DEAD, DOA.... why? well, a few simple things started popping up...

Adults don't like uniforms, they dont' like belt tests, they don't like bare feet and they think the oriental mysticism is hockey.... That is the general trend...

Apparently, those who do like uniforms and hockey crap ended up becoming Kung Fu students! How that happened I have no idea really....

In the 1990's we had the Tae Bo thing, the way to get adults to do martial arts was to make it hip fitness....

Problem is, how do you run a cardio program if it is totally out of line with your established school?

I've seen TKD instructors trying to do Taegeuk forms to music and calling it "cardio TKD"...

Judo instructors tried to get cardio programs going.... that never worked at all

As the "fad" of Tae Bo fell off, those programs that were on the edge dropped off the edge and died. NAPMA says that the market shrank like 35% after the initial wave...

It remains my largest and most successful program, why? Because I do "kickboxing" and the fit is natural. I have a contact class and I have a fitness class... it's just about level of committment and goals. But it is technically the same program, it is a natural fit....

People will tell you the "new wave" is combatives or "self defense". They'll point to Krav Maga.... except they won't tell you that at lest 75% of Krav Maga's business is a cardio kickboxing program. No, I'm not shooting in on you! :D

The rest of the Krav Maga business has become self defense lesson units, actually similar to the original Gracie Jujitsu arrangement, with a strong emphasis on some basic jujistu mixed with soem simple Thai boxing


The answer is, there is no easy answer. If you don't have a very clear vision of what you are about, and then have a very clear plan on how to turn that into a money maker, you are doomed...

[brothernumber9]

somewhere around 1992-1993 I was working at my Sifu's martial arts supply store, adjacent to the school. I was putting some weapons on the display racks. Two people walked in the front door.

The second one I recognized from some classes a year or two ago. The first one looked around for a second then in a low but prominent sand paper voice said something. I paused, kind of bewildered, and said "I'm sorry?". He got closer, his eyes were small but then opened wider, he said the same thing again, louder this time. In a flash he reminded me of my father, A small but framed man who's voice alone sort of made you freeze.

This time I could make out "Yim Sifu" somewhere in the middle. I knew he must have meant my Sifu. I said "oh" then went to a back door and told my Sifu someone was here to see him. My Sifu came out and rushed them to the back office. Before they went back the first man that had come through the door said something to me again, that at least phonetically sounded pretty harsh. I figured I must be in trouble for something I did.

Sometime later they all walked back out. My Sifu introduced his "uncle" to me, told me how he was a student of Bok Mo Jiu (our system's 6th gen inheritor) then breifly told the story of how that came to be. He then said " you know his student, David right?". I was puzzled at first because I thought he was my classmate, I later learned he was cross-training which after all was explained made perfect sense. Anywhoo that was my first introduction to Sifu Chan Tai San and David Ross at the same time.

No special story or anything, this thread just made me think of it.

EDIT: I meant to post this in the Chan Tai San story thread, if a mod could move it, I'd appreciate it.

[Royal Dragon]

RD - when i said get a job there, I didn't mean as a coach - I meant at the front desk. Learn first hand how they get people in, and sign them up. You'll learn much more being a lackey for six months than you will as a teacher.

Reply]
Yes, you are right. this is the same reason people often quite good jobs to earn $4.50 and hour as a runner on the floors of the board of trade (Seen this happen, we all though he was nuts, now he makes more in a month than the rest of us do in a year).

You are right about learning how to bring in and sign them up. I am already good at getting students to sign up once I get them in, and I am good at keeping them. My concern is how do I get them in to begin with, and in large enough numbers to build a school quickly. Not to mention funding that project.

So far as the programs and such, I don't think that will be a problem, I already have an idea of how I want to do that. I want to offer 2 Kids classes, one 2 days a week for the beginners, and the other 3 days a week for the rest. From there, I want to do a forms and conditioning class, then application and sparring. The application and sparring will of course be directly related to the forms class that just ended. I also thought that I could offere 40 minutes of warmup and conditioning, followed by a 40 minute forms class, and then 40 minutes of application. If the more serious student took all 3, that would be a good 2 hour lesson. This gives the student the ability to do as they pleased based on thier own level of motivation, and desire.

I also thought that I could set my lesson fee's based on the number of hours a student is in class. For each hour of training, they could get like 30 minutes of open time.This would be a bouns especially to those who are really serious as they would get alot of open time, and the less dedicated ones would get less.


Like Ross said, ranks and uniforms are not nessarily the way to go. I think the old way, of no rank system, or uniform may very well work better for me for the adult program, especially if I promote it as being the "old school" Kung Fu. I was thinking of selling a Royal Dragon T shirt and some basic Kung Fu pants rather than the silk PJs for those who want something school related to train in. Ranks and uniforms would defenetly be a must for the kids Kung Fu program. However, for the adults, think a certification isued priviately for each level with no or little outward sign would be better.