| Friend,
In my last email to you, I showed you how to set up your schedule when you're first starting out, in order to maximize your student capacity so you can scale up your operations.
We looked at two schedules, one for school owners starting from scratch, and one for school owners who are following the Small Dojo Big Profits methods closely, who already have students when they start their dojo.
Those two scheduling structures will easily take the average-sized school (1,500 to 2,500 square feet) to 100+ students, comfortably.
But what do you do after that?
Well, that's the topic of today's email.
Why It's Difficult to Grow an Adults-Focused Dojo
Here's something you need to consider, especially if you're in the planning stages of opening a dojo.
Frankly, it's difficult to grow a school beyond 125 students if you don't teach kids. That is, unless you have enough square footage to run multiple classes at once.
The reason for this is simple, and it's because most of your adult students are only available to attend classes after they get off work in the evenings. So, this limits your peak class times (when most students attend classes) to between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm in the evening.
And quite honestly, that 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm slot is pushing it, unless your school is located close to where most people work. I'd say the earliest you could have an adult class in the evening with decent attendance would be 5:30 pm, if most of your adult students don't commute.
So unless you get more square footage for running concurrent classes, you're going to need to look at alternatives.
Alternative #1: Looking At Other Class Times
If you're dead set on focusing on adults, I suggest that you open up other class times before you start looking for more space.
Why?
Because you're going to want as much revenue coming in as possible before you increase your overhead.
There are a few class times that seem to be popular for expanding adult classes beyond the evening class slots. These include the following: - A lunchtime class, starting at between 11:00 am and noon -
- A mid-morning class, starting at around 9:00 am -
- And an early morning class, starting between 5:00 am and 6:00 am -
Lunchtime classes are often popular with shift workers, work-at-home professionals and business owners, and stay-at-home parents, who often have their kids at school during this time. The same goes for mid-morning classes.
Early morning classes can be popular among busy adults who work 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, who want to get their workout over early in the day.
However, don't expect any of these classes to go gangbusters, and don't expect them to grow quickly. Most of the school owners I know who start classes in these time slots say it takes months to build up a decent attendance.*
Alternative #2: Teaching Kids and Adding Afternoon Classes
The fact is, if you're going to run a small footprint school and you want to grow it to 150 to 200 students, you need to have a strong kid's program. That's just a fact of doing business in this industry.
Sure, there are outliers who have small footprint schools that focus on adults... but not very many. For the most part, those small school owners who grow their schools to the 175 student mark (which I think is the ideal size for a small, profitable dojo) teach kids. A lot of kids, in fact.
And the best way to expand your schedule and enrollment, after you max out your evening classes, is to add afternoon, a.k.a. after-school, classes.
I hesitate to call these "after-school" classes, because of the connotation that brings. Most people think "after-school karate classes" means "after-school pick-up."
Let me make it clear that I'm NOT talking about adding an after-school pick-up program to your dojo. Instead, I'm talking about adding after-school class slots to your schedule.
Understand that in any given community, there are usually a lot of stay-at-home and work-at-home parents who have school-age kids. And, these parents often want to take their kids to an activity that starts soon after the school day ends, so they can get it out of the way before they take their kids home to do homework and eat dinner.**
In fact, in my first dojo my after-school classes were my most popular kid's classes. They were packed, wall-to-wall with kids, every single day on Monday through Friday.
How an After-School Class Schedule Might Look
Consider that in most areas the school day ends at between 2:30 pm and 4:00 pm.
Generally speaking, here in the States the younger children are released earlier, and the older children are released later, so the school buses have time to drop the younger kids off before they head to the middle and high schools to transport the older kids.
I've found that the best time to start your earliest after-school class slot is about 30 minutes after the school day ends. So, let's say the local elementary schools (that's ages 4 to 12, for those of you overseas) release at 3:00 pm. If so, here's how your afternoon schedule might look:
- 3:30 pm - Ages 4 to 6
- 4:00 pm - Ages 7-12 beginners
- 4:45 pm - Ages 7-12 advanced
That leaves you with six more class slots a week... meaning you've increased your capacity by 90 students on average! With this schedule, when it's done right, you can easily scale your dojo up to over 200 students.
And trust me, you don't need to offer after-school transport in most cases to fill these classes. If you've located your dojo properly, you'll have plenty of students who are able to attend these classes (see Small Dojo Big Profits or the 100- and 200-level courses at MAbizU.com for detailed instructions on finding the right location).
Other Considerations
I bet you're asking what to do in that 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm class slot. I suggest that you either take a breather, or that you schedule intro classes during that time. And if you only have one classroom, you'll need to keep it open for intros.
Another thing I should mention is that burnout is a very real and pressing issue after you open up your schedule this wide. When you're teaching morning, noon, afternoon, and evening classes, you're stretching yourself thin.
So, by this point you had better have hired and trained another instructor, or you're going to be headed for trouble in short order. Trust me, I know this from experience.
Coming Next...
Tomorrow I'm going to wrap up this series by showing you one final piece of the scheduling puzzle, one that will offer your clients even more convenience... and that will help you retain more students year round.
Stay tuned!
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
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P.S. - *I see a lot of BJJ schools offering lunchtime classes these days. A friend of mine offers one and it's among his busiest classes, with an average of 15 students attending three times a week at 11:00 am.
P.S.S. - **Not to mention home-schoolers, who are another growing market for daytime and early afternoon classes. | 