Instructors, how do people find you?

[Shaolindynasty]

I need some good cheap advertiseing ideas. I just got a business line that will be installed friday and I will be listed in the yellow pages. I am wondering what else do you guys do to get people into your classes. I get space from a park district so putting signs on the building is out. I am curious about what media you use and which ones work best for you.:confused:

[Johnny Hot Shot]

You might want to try a grass roots approach with something like flyers.

Make School T shirts, give a few away .

You might want to intice your existing students with incentives for bringing in new students. ie new uniform, free month stuff like that.

I think the best advertising is word of mouth. Teach Good Kung Fu and the word will get around.

[wushu chik]

The best way we have had students walk thru the door.....WORD OF MOUTH BABY!!! That's the BEST advertisement that you will get! The best part is, it's free! There are tons of other ways, like sending out fliers with your students, and they hand them out. Ad in the paper, etc. But I guarantee your reputation will get you the most students!

We also had window stickers for our students cars made with the front of our school shirt on it. That worked wonders as well. I don't know how many times students have came in and said "I was driving down the road, and some guy came along and asked me what it means......and I gave him the phone number!" That helps also, but it helps if your logo rocks like ours does!!

~Wen~

[joedoe]

I found that advertising usually brings in a lot of crap - people with the wrong attitude. The best way to get students, as JHS said, is word of mouth.

Main thing is to give it time.

[Shaolindynasty]

Hah, yeah word of mouth works well for us. Our class has a very demanding apporach so we have a rep for being good MA's but that is mostly with the other schools in the area. What should I do in place of walk in's since we don't have a school front?

Advertising does bring allot of "flavor of the month" type people but I need their money to keep things running for the rest of the serious practitioners.

I had a though to design a curriculum specifically for the less deicated students(same stuff just easier) just to get the fees to finance the serious students. Has anybody here ever done anything like that?

[Dark Knight]

Call Educational Funding Company ( http://www.efconline.com/ ) They have one purpose, to get you to make money.

What I found effective: I helped a friend open a school in a health club. We placed boxes with a backing that says "Win one free week of Martial Arts". Then put a pad on the front where they put their name and phone on.

Every one wins the free week, you just call them and they make an oppointment for the first free class.

Dont wait two weeks, just one and bring them in the office and sign them up for a one year membership.

We had 300 people the first year come in for the two week trial.

Call a box company in your area, get about 20 boxes about 4" x 4", on the back just slide a blank piece of cardboard straight down the back so about 6" stick up. Tape to it "Win a free week of Kung Fu". Got to Kinkos and make copies of a sheet that has 4 entry forms (name, adress, phone) cut the sheet into the four and have kinkos glue them as pads.

Tape the pads on the top of the box and cut a slot on the top.

Now go to all busisness in town and ask if you can put the box on their counter and give their kids free lessons for letting you do this.

you need about 20 boxes to make this work. Check it every two or three days, your competitors will steal them.

You see health clubs do this all the time. It works. And its cheap.

[wushu chik]

EFC is good...just make sure you get a good rep. We were with EFC, and they would make stupid mistakes all the time because the rep we had was on crack or something!! SO, if you do go with EFC, make sure you make it very clear what you will and will not tolerate!!

~Wen~

[Dark Knight]

There are other companies that do great jobs, wushu who else have you used?

[Water Dragon]

Train hard, get in some local NHB tournaments. Win convincingly, consistently. Always put up a good fight. Be friendly with the local schools that also compete. Show a banner with the school name and phone number before each fight. You'll attract enough good, quality material to last you a lifetime. People who are willing to work hard to achieve excellant results. Who could ask for more than that.

[Tae Li]

have you tired just getting students to help you put simple pamphlets in the mail. Not even a pamhlet, just a really appealing advert with a dragon or something on it, make it look traditional yet simple. Dont overcrowd the mind with designs....you can do it real quick on our comp, small size, photocopy it and start delivering by foot or bike.

the photocopying may be costly but hey its an idea. i dont know if someone already suggested it cos i didint read all the thread, but thats my thought. Plus you get to talk to people who are standing out side of their homes when you deliver so thats word of mouth also.

Tae Li;)

what about a radio advert? prob too expensive huh? im a radio broadcaster at times (some local stations) and you can prob cut a deal. try it.

[Shaolindynasty]

All great ideas guys. I especially like the "free box" one. I am also working on a kind of "2 for one" sale, buy one month get the next free. We don't have contracts which from a business standpoint is a bad idea but the park district we are at doesn't allow them. So people sign up month to month. I am going to check out that EFC site now so I end this by saying keep the ideas comming.

Oh yeah I got the advertising for dummies book and it's giving me some good ideas.

p.s. took me so long to respomd cause I forgot I posted this! Give me some more ideas guys cause I still need them.

[Sensei Kunz]

Shaolin;

I am tied to a non-profit organization, this enables me to distribute flyers throu the school diestricts in my area. the flyers are handed out to each individual student from elementry to high school. Every three months, I pick up an additional 50+ students. My student count right now is at 350+. Word of mouth is great once you have been established for a least a year. Dark Knight's idea is great also. Some schools do not require a non=profit status. Another way to get flyers into the schools is to introduce your program through the Park & Rec in your area. That's how I got started. But of course, the most important thing is to be able to keep them in once they are in the door. offer special programs at $10.00 per class for the first six months. This may not sound like a lot, however, each student paying an average of $40.00 per month times 50 students, adds up!! And don't forget the money on merchanising, like, T-shirts, equipment, uniforms and so on!!

Hope this helps you out!!

[Stacey]

My Sifu used to have us pass out business cards or slide them into kung fu movies at the video store. That way people who were interested would have the number of the school.

Direct marketing is the way to go.

[Royal Dragon]

Sensei Kunz,
Are you connected with "Duke" of Chamion Youth Outreach?

I used to work for him years ago here in Chicago, but he's actually out of California.

Royal Dragon

[Nexus]

Hold a free class once a week where anybody is welcome and teach general information stuff which anybody can learn. For instance chi kung, 24-movement tai chi, things like that, or whatever your style offers. Then consider passing out fliers to those students and ask them to hang them up at their workplaces and so forth advertising the free class and also your own private classes, all on the flyer.. Or just pass out flyers to existing students but this comes accross different then with the free class from what I've seen.

[Sensei Kunz]

Royal Dragon;

No, i don't know who that is. I use to work for a group known as "Youth of America". My advertising is based upon theirs though. It is one of the best ideas around.

[Shaolindynasty]

We do the school flyer thing but we have problems with it. The park district we teach at handles that but they overload their flyers(big advertiseing mistake). They figure since they pay for the paper they should get as many programs as they can on them. So what ends up happening is alot of clutter that nobody reads.

The rent and space situation we have at this place is great but the downside is that they want to control all the advertiseing and promotion stuff. They are really bad at it, we had many people quit because of the way they handle registration. Unfortunatly at this point this is all we can afford or I would be somewhere else. I am trying hard to get more control over the business aspect of our classes so maybe I can build it up. I don't care about making tons of money, I just want to teach a full class and see my art spread.

[wtsihing]

SD:

have you looked into renting space from any dance schools or gymnastics centers in your area? I hold classes twice to three times weekly at a gymnastics center and pay $20.00 an hour for rent. Have had people come in just by watching my class while they were waiting to pick up their kids from the gym class, and I have all control over media, etc. Weight lifting gyms are often a good place to check out also. Their aerobics studios work great for classes. My instructor has one teaching location out of a gym's aerobics studio. he gives discounts to the gym's members and fequently has people come in from the gym. same control over media and his rent is the same as mine.

[Shaolindynasty]

I am always keeping my eye open for a new place. Most gyms around here have karate or tae kwon do and when I call them they say "we already have karate" and they still don't get it after I explain the difference then I go :rolleyes: . My little sister goes to gymnastics maybe I'll check that out. I think they always are having class though.

[Royal Dragon]

Sensei Kunz,

We had a branch of you guys out here. "I" was told that the formatt was stolen from Champion Youth Outreach founded by Duke. BUT, I also heard someone else created the format and taught it at seminars in California, and all these guys learned it there.

Your probually a sibling organasation to my former boss.

It's BY FAR one of the most profitable teaching programs there is.

Hey SD, If I can find the contact info, you could set up a Champion Youth progrm down by you, then reqruite the parents and kids for your Kung Fu program, It's how I go started. The Chicago branch is run by a guy nick named "Tex" He's a former Chung Moonie and has a bit of an ego problem (why I left), but if you can put up with his BS, i might be a good way to start out.

Basically, you'd use thier marketing powere and platform to run one of thier Kid's classes in addtion to your own program. It would be run in a local grade school gym, so you would have to scedual it on another night. Then, as you get to know people, slowly introduce them to Kung Fu. Technically that's a no no, but if your patient, it is workable (like said "I" did it).

Also, Tom Montgumary runs an almost identical program just south of Chicago, but I don't think he has the non-profit satus needed to get flyers in to the public school district. He piggy backs with the YMCA though, and there may be something workable there.

The advantage is you get maximum exposure and Champion Youth foots marketing bill. PLUS, you get paid $1 per student to teach + a commision on equipent sales. With being able to drop 5000 flyers in the schools, you can easily have 45-65 students a night spread over 3 classes. I usually had 65-75 students, but my lowest classes were never less than 35.

The down side is you have to teach thier curriculem in thier format. You get an instructor manual for this. It's a SUPER watered down thing, and you'll have to get used to the idea that your NOT there to teach Karate or Kung Fu, but give the Kids a fun time with a martial arts setting. You will need to learn quite a bit about working with kids. It's more like a daycare activity program, and you have to be smiley and positive and happy all the time. It's NOT serious. infact taking the program too seriously costs you students. I can help you with this if you like.

It would be a GREAT experiance for you, especially for building your student retention skills. Once you get in, I'm sure Sensi Gregg (My mentor and former director of the program) would be willing to coach you on our student retention skills.

In fact, if you want to o this Kung Fu thing for a living, I'd say it's a must, kinda like going to school, only they pay you.

I used to base my Kid's program on my adult, only watered down, but now I've found I'm basing my adult program on my Kid's, only more watered down. Scarry, but if you an learn how the Champion Youth thing functons, those principals can VERY successfully applied to ANY martial art program, I'ts worked well for me!!

Royal Dragon

[Royal Dragon]

Park district just sent a reporter from the local paper in to do a story on my Taji class. Good free promotions!!!!! I get free exposure, and the news paper gets an easy space filling article.

It's a win-win senario.

[Sensei Kunz]

Shaolin;

You will never have control while associated with the Rec & Park Dist. I said that I started out with them for 90 days. I then had a base of 60 students and then I rented my own space. What I didn't like about Rec & Park was that I was limited to days and hours of teaching. go and find a space once you have some students. I am sure they will follow you!!

Good Luck!


Royal Dragon;

Tom Montgomery still has 26 locations in the Chicago area and 14 here in California. Yes, he is a non-profit organization there in Chicago and here in California. I know this for a fact, he is a good friend of mine.

I am no longer associated with Youth of America, I now have my own two locations, however, I use the best of both worlds, by using their business formula and the dojo formula. I combined the two ideas into one and it was the smartest thing I did. I have told Tom also that he should use store front. rather than the school properties. But he is stuck in his ways. I wish him continued success and anyone else who teaches to enlighten the kids of today!

[Royal Dragon]

I last talked to him was around 97 or so, and back then he was doing buisness throug YMCA's. He must have gone "not for $$" soon after that.

I was going to consider working for him, but back then I was still too far north for it to work out. Now that I'm in Westmont, it may be feasible.

I always like the layout of that program. Working for someone that runs it is a MUST if you plan to go pro in my opinion, kinda like a colledge course in teaching Martial Arts.

Last I looked, Champion Youth was not doing so well under Mike Saunders's (Tex's) direction. Infact they lost thier office space and ended up renting 2 appartments, useing THEM as office space. You may want to let Mr. Montgomary know, opertunitys to expand in to Champion Youth's territory may exist.


Anyway, got to go

Peace Bro,

Royal Dragon

[Sensei Kunz]

Hey, thanks for the inside information. I will let Tom know tomorrow regarding same. I wish you well in all that you do!!