my story thus far...
After getting my 'sifu' title from the teacher I had been with for 13 years I moved to a different town with the basic goal of teaching/opening my own school.
FTR, I have been training since 1982. 7 year in one style then 13 and now 2 years with Pong Lai.
I didn't have the ability to get the capitol to start up right away and my personal financial situation meant I needed to continue having a day job.
So, I started teaching in a gym. Adults only.
Then I opened a kids only program at a rec center.
Then I moved my adult program to the rec center to consolidate my efforts.
Last September I saw a space for rent close to my house and checked on it and found I could pay the rent with the existing students. So, with about $4500 I opened the doors.
After fiddling with class times I've settled on this:
Tue/Thur 6:30 - 7:30 Novice - No sash - white sash - gold sash
Tue/Thur 7:30 - 8:30 Beginner - Orange - Purple - Blue
Mon/Wed 6:30 - 8:83 Intermediate and up
Mon/Wed 5:45 - 6:30 Kids 8 - 12
I generally bring 13 and up straight into adults after consultation with the parents and observation of the kid.
I don't want to mess with the 5 - 7 year old age group at this point - having said that, I have 1 five year old.
Adults start coming to the two 1-hour classes and as they progress move into other classes. They still have the option to come to the lower level classes for refresher lessons. Eventually they can come to 8 hours a week if they so wish.
I run a rotation through the curriculum as well but slightly different then Lama Pai Sifu illustrated above.
I have my curriculum broken up into categories: Forms, Hand Drills, Kicking, Chin Na, throwing, etc. Each sash level has the same major categories. I will teach the same category for 1 or 2 weeks and then shift. We almost always work solo forms at least a little bit every night as well as the arm drills.
Not growing at all though. Averaging one new student every 2-3 months.
Competition in town is pretty stiff. There are around 30 schools in the county, most of them concentrated within the city limits. City Pop. is about 75k with a total county pop. of 225k.
Most of the schools are your average karate/tkd schools with just a few standouts, IMO.
Over the last year I've run newspaper ads and community newsletter ads and posted flyers on every bulletin board in town.
At the moment, as happens every summer with my day job, I'm simply too busy to work on more marketing. It will be september before I can look in that direction again.
I had dropped sash ranking at one point but picked it up again as it is an instrumental tool in attracting and keeping students in a commercial school.
"George never did wake up. And, even all that talking didn't make death any easier...at least not for us. Maybe, in the end, all you can really hope for is that your last thought is a nice one...even if it's just about the taste of a nice cold beer."
"If you find the right balance between desperation and fear you can make people believe anything"
"Is enlightenment even possible? Or, did I drive by it like a missed exit?"
It's simpler than you think.
I could be completely wrong"