Question: Do you really need staff to run a small dojo?

I'm here to tell you, you really don't -- at least, not until you hit a certain number of students. You absolutely can start a small school and grow it to 50 or 75 students, all without hiring a single person to help you out.

I've done it myself, three times.

However, once you hit that certain point in your school's growth where you simply can't manage any more students on your own, you will need to hire help. That is, if you want to continue to grow your school.

This point will vary depending on your management and organizational skills, but for most school owners it'll be at about 75 students. 

I realize that some school owners will decide they are content working solo and maintaining an enrollment of 50 to 75 students.

But, I'm going to tell you why that's a mistake.

The First Why of Hiring and Training Help: Growth = Survival

Granted, a dojo with 50 to 75 students might be making enough profit to pay the owner a modest salary, in the realm of say, $35k to $60k a year. 75 students paying $150 a month = $11,250 a month gross, and if you keep your overhead low, you can certainly take home 40% of that as profit.

However, a school with only 50 or 75 students is built on shifting sand. Just one bad month can mean a significant income drop for the owner. Several bad months in a row can mean the owner might need to go back to their day job again. 

And pretty soon, burning the candle at both ends leads to burnout, and in most cases, eventually shutting down the studio. In business, as in most things in life, you're either growing or shrinking -- there is no such thing as standing still. This is why it's dangerous to allow your school to stagnate at that 75 student mark.

The Second Reason Why: Averting Disaster

If you're the sole person running your studio, what happens if you get ill or injured? Who is going to keep things running when you're in the hospital or at home recuperating?

You say that your senior students will step up? That's great... but for how long? How long can you rely on people who are paying you for a service to up-end their lives in order to keep your business going?

Not for long, let me tell you. And that's another very good reason why you need to have trustworthy, dedicated, reliable staff members working for you in your dojo. Because when life throws you a curveball (and it will), you need to know that your business won't go under in your absence.

The Third Reason Why: Your Sanity and Health

I have yet to find a small business owner who is married to their business, who isn't a tense bundle of nerves waiting to stroke out at 50. Seriously. Small business owners who insist on being in their businesses and running the technical side, every hour of every day, eventually go a little nuts.

Why? Well, it's because when your business is thriving, you can't wear two hats at once. You can't be both technician and manager. You can't be both teacher and bookkeeper or bill collector. You can't be selling and talking on the phone and serving customers at the same time.

And after a few years, or maybe a decade, of trying to do it all so you can keep it all, you'll start to burn out. First, you'll notice that when you wake up in the morning, you're still not rested. Then you'll start to notice little aches and pains after training, the kind that never really go away. 

After that, you'll start slipping a little bit mentally. You'll start getting brain fog, forgetting things like names and dates that you use to be able to bring to mind in a snap. Finally, you'll likely develop serious health issues, something autoimmune-related or perhaps a complication from chronic high blood pressure.

Sounds like a barrel of laughs, right? And that's why you need to hire help in your school, people who can duplicate your efforts and replace you, so you can free yourself up to work ON your business and not IN it.

- - -

Okay, by now I hope you can see why you want to start hiring and training help as soon as you get to that critical stage in your school where further growth requires additional help.

Tomorrow I'll be back to talk about profit maximization, a step that many school owners miss, but one that will make the difference between living comfortably and just scraping by for a lot of dojo owners. Stay tuned!