How's your school doing?

[rogue]

I was talking with a friend who runs a commercial school and he mentioned that him and several other owners are looking to consolidate their schools into one. All of these would be considered successful schools with class sizes ranging from a minimum of 20 on a slow night to 40 on a real good night. But all are still feeling a squeeze between rising rents and not being able to up their tuition because of perceptions of an economic down turn.

So, anybody else having additional challenges with their schools lately?

[TaichiMantis]

Our "school/class" met at a local health club. We did okay for a few years. However, when our class size got to low, we ended up moving to my sifu's basement. Two other chinese martial arts schools in town still maintain pretty good class size (see below). One is commercial the other meets at the local YWCA. I will still study mantis with my sifu but have started tai chi with Master Li.

www.chanskungfu.com
www.sifulee.com

[iron_leg_dave]

I've seen so many good schools flop. It's a shame really.

Our school, luckily has almost no overhead. We train at an established shotokan dojo at night when they aren't using it, and our sifu maintains a tight relationship with the owner. Lately, even regulars aren't coming for full classes, it's been a class size of between 4 and 10 students lately. We get hands on work every week like this, so we (students) are all growing fast, and get to push hands with the master every week, but I feel bad for our teacher, and for the 150,000 people in the area that are missing out.

Almost all of my friends do gong fu, and they are all pretty lazy when it comes to showing up for classes. Right now, I'm littering the city with flyers, and trying to get my people to come to the school. I have noticed that there are BS internal schools in the area right now, which is probably shying away some of the business.

[xcakid]

Our school is doing alright. We probably have 85-90 students total. Adult classes on average see 20-25 students same with the kids classes.

We are going to do a demo this weekend and should see at 1-5 enrollments from that.

We are in a great location since the median income is around $80K a year. We have a lot of professional folks with disposable incomes. Parents don't even bat an eyelash when we raised our tuition + $15 a month beginning of this year. We also have quite a few paying for 2 private lessons a week.

Guess the rule in RE also applies to a commercial school. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. :D

[GreenCloudCLF]

xcakid,

How many days a week do you offer classes?

[TenTigers]

Summers are usually a dead zone. This has always bothered me. When I was younger, Summer was the time to step up my training. My training bro and I used to wake up at 8am, run two miles, go to the community pool and swim thirty laps and then get home in time for the noon class. We would then come back for the 6:30 and the 8:00 classes. Our Martial Arts skills always made a quantum leap during the summers.
I offer my teens to come in at noon and then come back for their eveneing classes, since they are off from school. Nada.

Some of my older students say,"That's because you expect them to be like you."

BUT-late Aug. early Sept it starts to climb again. Frankly, I don't see any signs of a ressesion when it comes to enrollment.
I do find it funny how parents want to get their kids established in school first. Before signing up at the Mo Kwoon.
Heck, get them on a Gung-Fu schedule!

[xcakid]

xcakid,

How many days a week do you offer classes?

6 days a week.

[GreenCloudCLF]

6 days a week.

How many days a week do your students go?

[xcakid]

How many days a week do your students go?

Adult beginners have 4 days a week they can come to
Adult intermediate and advanced has 6 days a week they can come to
Kids can come all 6 days if they want

Our Class Schedule (http://www.swyi.com/class_schedule.htm)

Our tution structure is:
All group lesson plus 4 half hour private lesson a month. Cost is $140 a month

We have 7 black belt instructors, and 7-8 asst instructors (int/adv students) that handle the private lessons. Sifu give the priv to all instructors. Black belts handles the int/adv student, asst instructors teaches the beginners and kids.

Our typical adult shows up about 2-3X a week. Our typical kid shows up 3-4X a week during the summer months and maybe 1-2X a week during school. In our area the kids are very active. Parents have them in all sort of stuff. Gymnastics, Soccer, Dance, Basketball, Tee Ball, Football, Band, some are in advanced classes at school and some after school activities. Majority of these kids are busier that I am with one job, teaching and a social life. :confused: