Martial Arts Management

The basis of any successful business is a series of reproducible, result-producing systems. Small and large businesses, including martial arts schools, create and implement systems for accounting, customer services, marketing, etc. You hire staff members to implement those systems and you train them to implement them correctly. Then, you teach, which is something else entirely. ...

I feel grateful to serve so many people in the martial arts community, because martial arts put major discipline into my own life. Grand Master Jhoon Rhee was the reason I got involved in tae kwon do. I was originally interested in aikido because I loved the beauty of the art and the concept of ...

Do I recommend that you open five schools in 18 months as I did when I was 23? No way! However, these lessons working for opening one school or dramatically growing your existing school. Prior to opening, get extensive training on business operations. Do extensive market research to locate a good market with adequate income ...

Renewing students from a short-term beginner program to a long-term Black Belt program is a process that occurs at virtually all martial arts school. How can martial arts instructors use pre-framing to make their renewal process smoother and more successful? Tom Hopkins answers… First, I think it’s very important that instructors show a real personal ...

Is it possible to over stretch? Is it possible to over reach a technique? Is it possible to over commit resources? Obvious answers, right? I wonder why so many of us do exactly that as business owners. We counsel our students to do appropriate stretches; we reinforce the correct form. Yet, we sometimes find ourselves ...

As I explained in Part 1 of this multi-part column, our Black­ Belt tests are very large rank-requirement classes filled with students from Green through Black Belt. There is much hard work, fun and sweat during our Black Belt tests. The tests take an entire evening, but they are not rigid, discipline-driven events; and they ...

In my previous columns, I explained that the first ingredient of success is peace of mind. Peace of mind is achieved by creating a vision of your perfect future. You begin unlocking your potential by envisioning your life, as if it were exactly how you would want it to be. Then, you work backwards from ...

At last year’s Extreme Success Academy, Pat Burleson was presented with the 2009 NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering contributions to the martial arts professional school instruction industry. Grand Master Burleson created many of the business systems that are now standard in the model used by most schools. He studied under Grand Master Jhoon ...

How do honesty, integrity and strong personal character help a martial arts instructor become a better leader? Zig Ziglar answers… You must have someone to lead before you’re able to lead. You must determine what your students want from life, and then try to help them. That’s the underlying purpose of the martial arts: enabling ...

Emotions are powerful human forces. Under the power of emotions, human beings can perform the most heroic (as well as barbaric) acts. To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress. ...