| Friend,
So this week I've been sharing with you how I dug my dojo in a hole during the recession, and how I dug it back out again.
But that's not the whole story.
There's a footnote to this story that you have to hear, because it's a cautionary tale that every school owner should heed.
As martial arts instructors, we want to help people. I don't really think anyone goes into this field without wanting to help people in some way.
Whether it's in teaching them self-defense, helping people improve their health, helping them build greater self-esteem and a more positive self-image...
...for the most part, martial arts instructors are naturally the type of people who want to help other people.
Unfortunately, sometimes we help others to our own detriment, and that's what happened after I had finally dug my school out of the hole and put it back in the black.
Here's how it happened.
An old friend of mine contacted me out of the blue and said he was moving to my neck of the woods. He also mentioned that he'd be looking for work when he came down, and hinted that he'd like a position teaching at my school.
This conversation occurred way before the recession hit, and I promised him a job when he came down without a second thought. I mean, we were old friends, and I knew he was a great instructor.
Then, I promptly forgot about the conversation for the next 18 months or so. Going through a really harsh financial patch, I was a little preoccupied and never gave it another thought.
So, about a year-and-a-half later, my friend calls me out of the blue and says, "Hey, we sold our school - I'll be down to start work next week."
Needless to say, this was a bit of a surprise. I mean, we were just pulling out of the financial mess we'd been in. The school was finally pulling down a nice profit, and I was able to pay myself a decent salary (not great, but decent).
But, I'm a man of my word. So, I told him to come on down and I'd have a job for him. He told me I wouldn't be sorry, that he'd help me grow my school, and on and on.
It all sounded great. He and his wife had grown their school to 240 students before the recession. So, I knew he had a lot of great ideas about how to market a school.
However, the reality of it was that I really couldn't afford to pay him. So, I was banking on him helping me with a lot of marketing to make up for his salary.
Even so, I didn't want to let him know that I was basically paying him my salary to bring him on. Yeah, I know.
So, for about six months I paid him my salary for 40 hours a week of his time. He made all sorts of big promises about how he was going to help me build my school, how he'd market for me in the community, etc, etc.
I bet you can guess the rest. He never came through on those promises. The guy was a clock-puncher. He never did any marketing for me, and pretty much just phoned it in the whole time he worked for me.
I ended up letting him go, and he's resented me for it every since.
The crazy thing is, I never did tell him that I was paying him my salary in order to give him a job for those six months. I figured that I didn't want to burden him with it.
I almost got my school back in financial troubles because I was trying to help a friend out, and in the end all I got was a pissed off former friend and a mess to straighten out at my school.
And that's why I strongly caution you against making hiring or business decisions based on your feelings. Feelings will get you into a heap of trouble in your business - take my word on this.
That buddy who wants to start a dojo with you? Or who is asking for a job? Or who says they can do the build out on your new location for half what other contractors are bidding?
Yeah, that's a bad idea. Really bad.
So, here's the moral of this story... always separate your business and personal affairs, and never, ever, ever make hiring decisions based on friendships.
You'll only end up with a bruised and battered relationship and that much poorer in the end.
Well, that about wraps up that saga in the Mike Massie story...
I hope you enjoyed the telling of my tale, and that it helps you avoid making the same mistakes I made as you start and grow your own dojo.
Until next time,
Mike Massie
P.S. - Next week I'm going to give you the formula for school growth, and we're going to go over the numbers so you have some benchmarks for growing an SDBP dojo.
Keep an out for it - you won't want to miss it. | 