The 13 additional business mistakes that I’ve made owning and operating my school are presented below. Words of wisdom: Don’t repeat them in your school, and if you already have, then it’s time to take corrective measures.
Mistake #8: Changing too much, too soon. This is the other side of the coin, where you trash everything to serve your students and risk losing the true meaning of what you intended to do.
Mistake #9: Missing the niche. Martial arts is a niche opportunity and, often, you try to be too many things to too many people. It is better to be exceptionally good at what you do and provide a service that cannot be matched by the competition.
I have been successful in my town because I have a reputation for what it is that I offer: Judo, Jujitsu and Taekwondo. My reputation has real value in the minds of my students. I would rather do one thing well than try to open extra profit centers and compromise my core skills.
Mistake #10: Thinking that your competition is the martial arts school up the road. Your real competition is all the other sports and activities that students and prospects can choose instead of the martial arts.
Mistake #11: Being so specialized that you offer programs and services no one wants.
Mistake #12: Not engaging in enough business and leadership training for your staff and you.
Mistake #13: Failure to make the switch from a “club” instructor to a business owner, an entrepreneur. Don’t make the mistake of operating with a small-club mentality and fail to understand that business professionals play by a different set of rules to become successful.
Mistake #14: Don’t fail to schedule time to develop your strategic business plan and vision because you are too busy doing tactical work every day.
Mistake #15: Opening a business is not the vision. You need a vision of what your business will do when it’s working at peak efficiency and effectiveness, doing the right things for the right people and giving you the life you dream of living.
Mistake #16: Plan your curriculum or lesson plans ahead of schedule. Don’t fly by the seat of your pants too much.
Mistake #17: Observe the performance of your staff and you through the eyes and ears of your students and their parents. What do they see and hear when you teach? It’s easy to teach what you think was a great class and forget to focus on what your students think is a great class, and one that helps them achieve their goals.
Mistake #18: Don’t lose the personal touch. Provide the personal services that you did when you opened your school. Too often, your cards and telephone calls smack of mass-production, not sincerity.
Mistake #19: You can easily compromise standards to keep a client happy, rather than recognize that standards are a statement of business and personal integrity. If you want your students’ respect, then it behooves you to have reasonable standards and expectations of performance, and provide the tools necessary to achieve those standards. Many martial arts school owners and instructors have ranked at least one student who was not quite ready, in an effort to re-motivate or to keep a student in class.
Mistake #20: Don’t fail to organize and implement the systems with which you operate your entire school. Too often, important tasks are not completed correctly, on time, every time-unless I do them. See Mistake #2. This does not mean that I have to reinvent the wheel. See Mistake #1!
