Welcome back to the second part of the dojo basics email series wrap-up. Today I'm going to cap this series off with a second helping of the common mistakes school owners make.
Let's get started...
Mistake #4 - Being Bedazzled by Bullshit
There's an old trick that's been used by online marketers (the type who sell "opportunities") for decades. And that trick is, take pictures that provide "proof" of your success, and put them in your sales letters or on your website.
And if that meant taking the for sale sign down in front of someone else's McMansion so they could take their photo in front of it, or renting a Porsche or a Mercedes for a photo shoot, that's what those sleazeballs would do.
You have to be cautious of similar tactics being used in this industry.
See, there are a lot of people who get into the business of consulting because they see it as an easy path to wealth. And the truth is, a lot of them (the majority, in fact) have never actually done the things they are professing to be able to teach others to do.
Since they don't have a track record of success in running schools, what they do instead is bedazzle people with bullshit. They'll Instagram the hell out of themselves in a new ride they can barely afford, partying at nightclubs, out on the lake on their friend's boat, and so on...
...because fronting is the only way they can convince others that they have something of value to share. Now, some of those folks actually do have money, but they didn't make it running schools. And others are just full of shit.
So, don't be bedazzled by bullshit. Look at a consultant's track record before you buy into their line. Have they really done what they say they can teach you to do?
If not, don't just walk away -- run. Because you're about to get scammed.
Mistake #5 - Building a School You Don't Really Want to Own
The previous topic is a nice segue into this next topic, which is building a school that you don't really want to own. And how does this happen?
It happens when a young, hungry instructor (or perhaps even someone who is older and starting a second career) sees someone who is successful in this business (or who they think is successful), and they try to copy them... without ever asking whether or not that person's lifestyle is compatible with how they want to live.
Exhibit #4: A few decades back I paid a very successful school owner a consulting fee so I could shadow him for several days. He and his wife ran several schools, they had a nice home with a pool, brand new sports cars, and were making money hand over fist.
Over the four days we spent with them, they worked 14 to 16 hours a day and never slowed down. We sat down with them late one night and tried to start a conversation that wasn't related to their school or martial arts. Couldn't do it. These people were so busy running those schools, they had zero time for anything else.
It was the classic case of having all the money and no time to enjoy it. On the plane ride back, my wife and I agreed that was NOT the lifestyle we wanted for ourselves. And if I had used his business model as the template for our own business, I would have fallen in the same trap.
The moral of the story is to make sure that the school you build supports the lifestyle you want. Otherwise you may very well wake up one day burned out, and hating the life you lead.
Mistake #6 - Trying to Keep Too Much for Yourself
Have I mentioned to you before that martial art schools run on cash? And, in order to get them to grow, you have to feed a large portion of your profits back into them in the beginning.
Likewise, to keep them going and growing, you have to reinvest in your dojo so it stays healthy. Otherwise you'll end up with an anemic dojo that is wheezing its way along on its last legs.
And that's what happens when you try to take every last dime of profit out of your dojo. The signs of an anemic dojo are easy to see; equipment that is well past its prime, walls that are badly in need of paint, floor tiles that need to be replaced, and hardly any new students in the beginner's classes.
A school that is starved of working capital cannot survive for long, and eventually if the owner continues to pull every last cent of profit out of their business, their dojo will fail. Maybe not tomorrow or next week, but it will eventually go under.
So, once you start making money, reinvest in your dojo. Replace old and worn equipment regularly. Paint once or twice a year. Remodel every couple of years. Set a marketing budget that is sufficient to generate the number of leads you need to grow or to maintain your current enrollment, and use it every single month.
That's how you keep your dojo healthy over the long-term.
Mistake #7 - Unnecessary Grinding
The last mistake goes hand in hand with mistake #5. How many times have you seen business owners who are successful, and yet they continue to grind away in their business, working 60, 70, or 80 hour weeks, even though they've already "made it"?
This is what I call "unnecessary grinding," and it stems from a combination of perfectionism and having your entire identity wrapped up in your business.
Being a perfectionist (and/or a control freak) has kept many a school owner from passing on the day-to-day mundane tasks in their schools to an employee. Because they think they're the only one who can do those tasks properly, they keep grinding away in their business, just like the day they started.
This also happens when a business owner has their identity so wrapped up in what they do, they forget to spend time on who they are as a person. Pretty soon, all their time is spent at the dojo, and every other aspect of their lives suffers.
I speak from experience when I say that you can become a very one-dimensional person, very quickly, by following this path.
So, once your dojo gets to the point where you can hire and train competent staff, then it's time to start letting go of those mundane, day-to-day activities in your business. Because if you spend all your time at the dojo, and never get to enjoy the fruits of your labor, then what's the point?
- - -
That's it for this series. As always, I'll be taking a few weeks off to let my writing muscles relax for a while. In the meantime, I'll be sending you links to past articles and podcasts. There'll be a lot of good info in those links, so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Mike Massie
MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
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P.S. - You'll never see me posting pictures of sports cars and other signs of wealth. That's because I don't waste my money on that crap. I live what I teach. I buy all my cars used, I live well below my means, and I don't take expensive vacations or blow cash on silly shit. Yes, I'm boring as hell... but I also don't have a ton of debt and I live exactly the type of lifestyle I am happy with. If you truly want to become financially free, my advice to you is that you should be conservative with your money and lifestyle. Read The Millionaire Next Door for more on this topic.
