eh... it's all discussion, if we didn't have this we would be mumbling about internal crap or external crap... blah blah blah...I rather enjoy the tossing back and forth.
Originally posted by BawangOriginally posted by Bawangi had an old taichi lady talk smack behind my back. i mean comon man, come on. if it was 200 years ago,, mebbe i wouldve smacked her and took all her monehs.i am manly and strong. do not insult me cracker.
This has been my point for the last 4 years on KFM! It's not the schools. It's not the teachers -- it's the students that suck. When I first started - we did hard chi gung exercises every class. This involved being hit with staffs, bags, and boards. People would come in and observe this and never come back because they were scared off.
Unfortunately - we, as a community, allow this kowtowing to the pu$$ies. Set the expectation that what you're doing is martial and live with it. Yes, you'll lose some students, but the one's you gain will be soooooo much better for kung fu.
Too bad the majority of *this* generation's Sifus comes from the wuss line. And I'm talking about most of you.
yes, because only you have the realzors! lol
if a person runs a business, he is ruled by his customers. no satisfaction from them = no business = no school to run and no teacher to teach.
people who go to ma classes for the most part are not interested in fighting all the time or becoming a hard ass or any of that.
many are happy to study for the rest of their lives and enjoy practice.
I think it's good that this can be offered along with the other. Kung Fu is a big umbrella.
Kung Fu is good for you.
this is a misconception that a lot of business people make. There's a strategy that involves "firing your worst customers". Basically - you get rid of the ones you don't want and focus on the ones you do. It involves defining your business model, understanding yourself and what you like to do and who you like to service, and lot's of courage.
People discover that they didn't enjoy their work because they spent the majority of their time placating people they don't like working with. They tend to be the whiners and time takers, and the people they like working with leave because they're not getting what they want.
So - in MA terms, you end up with a school of LARPERS and children (daycare) and all of your favorite Martial students go to the Thai or BJJ gym down the street.
It takes a lot of courage, but, if you want a combat school, run a combat school. The students will come and you'll be happier for it.
Bro,
I really don't listen to rap, dont rock fronts and stopped talking about money and *****es a long time ago.
You can develope your farmboy strength all you like, but what is it going to do for you when you come to the hood and find a 9 in your face and now your getting Jooksed. You can carry all the rifles you like, its the ones you dont see comng that will do it to ya.
Belt riding your kneecaps aint our thing. That is something recent. We gave fair ones and we can fight. Maybe in the country wrestling is allowed, but if I see you take my dude to the ground and try to twist him or snap something of his, I'm gonig to bust you open with the first thing I find. Its survival to us and its real. It's not a joke to see who can fight the best or what style is the best. Fnck who can fight the best, I'm about surviving.
To underestimate anybody is a foolish mistake, so don't underestimate us city dudes, because we have been given lemons since day one, but we try to make the best lemonaid we possibly can with it.
I
every school has an "inner circle," a group of guys who want to go harder, train harder, fight harder. Just so long as you nurture and develop them, rather than catering to the "customers" they won't quit and join some (agh) MMA school down the block. Next thing you know, they will think they know it all about TCMA, start posting on KFO, stalking TCMA guys...
"My Gung-Fu may not be Your Gung-Fu.
Gwok-Si, Gwok-Faht"
"I will not be part of the generation
that killed Kung-Fu."
....step.
look at my earlier post about "firing your worst customers". Don't make this inner circle the exception, make them the norm. Seriously your school will grow with these types of people. If you don't believe me, drop into your local MMA or BJJ gym and look at the number and type of students. These guys would come to Kung Fu if you really know your stuff because there are a lot of McMMA schools now too, so the school with the best knowledge available wins the students.
well, i think that's a terrible business strategy and just cuts yourself off from opportunity because you can't communicate effectively with a wide range of people.
I don't look at it like that. All customers are customers. Anyone who pays for a service deserves to have that service. If you waste your time as opposed to using it effectively, that's your issue, not theirs.
Make your offerings clear and stick to it.
True, if you want to run a combat school, go ahead and do that. But really, those aren't the most successful businesses at all really. They're just like any other.
the more elite you get, the more you have to charge to make any business worthwhile.
A greater saturation will bring the greatest returns and really, Kung Fu does have something for everybody. It's not exclusionary or exclusive to a particular type of person.
Kung Fu is good for you.
Not everyone who runs a Kung Fu or any martial arts school are in it to make money. I have a full time job so when I taught as long as I made enough to pay the bills I was happy, and sometimes even that was hard. I am working on opening another school right now and the building I am using I own so I don't have to worry about rent and what not, which helps.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with running a school as a business to make a living, just saying there are those of us who don't.
"The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero projects his fear onto his opponent while the coward runs. 'Fear'. It's the same thing, but it's what you do with it that matters". -Cus D'Amato
"The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero projects his fear onto his opponent while the coward runs. 'Fear'. It's the same thing, but it's what you do with it that matters". -Cus D'Amato
It depends on you, and firing your worst customers is a process that requires a decision and a commitment on the part of the business owner. A lot of people hear, "fire your worst customer" and think that's all there is to it. It does depend more on you and you have to take inventory of what it is that the customer is bringing to the table because the customer / business relationship is two way. You can't "fire" a pain in the butt customer that is giving you grief if they provide 90% of your business. What you can do is tailor a plan to decrease that customer's value to you and replace it with a more satisfying relationship over time so that you will be in a position to fire that customer at a later date.
If you're satisfied and profitable and like how things are going... then by all means be a daycare and tailor your training to the LARPER. Or, you could start to minimize that part of your business (keeping it intact) while you go about aggressively building a different client base of athletes. Coach Ross is a good example about how to go about doing that. As that client base grows - start systematically decreasing the cheap daycare and kung fu fantasy camps.
Yeah - wtf would I know about running a business... I mean I only run a successful multimedia company in the worst economy in the US in the worst state to do business in.
You can see it here: http://www.JTV.tv
Anyway...
That type of placating attitude is what's killing TCMA for the alleged "MMAers" that continue to post on this forum. I say "alleged MMAers" because most of them still do kung fu (that's why they continue to post).
You know what I can't stand? I can't stand not being able to buy Kung Fu magazine at a regular news stand anymore yet on that same stand there's 4 different versions of MMA fan boy magazines. That's telling me there's something wrong in how we're presenting ourselves and it is more than just a MMA "Fad" issue.