| Friend,
Before I get into the specifics of martial art school growth strategies, there's one more sub-market that bears mentioning, and, I would be remiss if I didn't cover it.
So, let's discuss...
The After-School and Summer Camp Market
The after-school and summer camp market represents a sizable market segment within the children's martial arts market. However, in some ways it is bigger than the market for kid's martial arts, because the market itself is not limited to parents who want to place their kids in martial arts classes.
See, all single-parent households and households with two working parents need after-school and summer daycare for their school age children. This is not a "nice-to-have" thing; it's a necessity, because children under the age of 12 require supervision when their parents are at work.
In recent years, many school districts in the U.S. have attempted to start after-school and summer camp programs to meet the demand for offering these services to parents. This should tell you something, because when the government goes into business in the private sector, there's definitely money to be made by providing whatever service they are offering.*
How I Learned About This Market
I learned about this market from a friend who has run a large program of 125+ after-school and summer camp kids for years. To this day, the guy runs that many students year in and year out in a 10,000 foot school, and he does very well with his programs.
Before running my first summer camp I studied his operations, then I shadowed a multi-school operator in Florida who ran multiple locations for several days (expensive but worth it). And finally I paid a multi-location owner in Texas for advice and guidance when I launched my own after-school program.
I ran these programs for ten years in two different school districts, and I know and understand this market intimately. I also spent months doing research and getting training and advice before I embarked on starting my first camp.
In both locations my camps were a profitable endeavor, but not without their downsides. There are tremendous pitfalls involved with running these programs, so you need to know what you're in for before you enter this market.
Things You Should Know About Entering This Market
I'm going to list this info by pros and cons, because you should be fully informed before entering this market, and you need to know the upside and downside before you get involved.
Pros:
Big Financial Upside - The financial upside to running after-school and summer camps is huge, if you can fill them and if you run them efficiently. You can easily charge between 3x and 5x your regular tuition rates per child for tuition in these programs.
However, overhead costs involved with transportation and staffing can eat that profit up if you're not careful. And, if you don't know how to keep your camps full all year long (including those dreaded dog days of summer) then you might go bust during weeks when you only have two or three kids in your camps.
Financial Stability - Having said that, a full camp year-round is a blessing to any martial art school. Imagine having 30 students paying you $500 a month year round, come rain or shine. They always pay on time because they don't see your services as a luxury; it is a necessity. I think you can see how that would stabilize your dojo's income.
It Can Be Fun - Running camps can be fun, when you are organized and everything is running smoothly. Who wouldn't want to get paid to play games, teach martial arts, go to the pool, museums, and parks, and basically have a good time all summer long? That is, if you can enjoy it; read on to find out what I mean.
Cons:
Overhead - It simply costs a lot more to run camps than it does to run regular martial arts classes. The reasons for this are simple and straightforward: - Camps require more staff, because you simply cannot run them solo. Don't even try.
- Kids require lots of stimulation, otherwise they get bored and in trouble. This means finding lots of things for them to do, outside of your dojo. If you think you can keep them entertained in your dojo all day all summer, good luck with that.
- Camps require transportation, either to pick kids up from school, or to take them to various activities during the summer months
This all adds quite a bit of expense to your operations, and if not kept in check can detract from your bottom line.
Staffing Issues - As I said, you need more staff to run camps. When my wife and I ran our first summer camp, we thought that by splitting the hours between us and taking a break at mid-summer for a week, we'd be able to handle the load ourselves.
How wrong we were. I bet we slept most of that vacation away in our room on the cruise ship, and by the end of the summer we were almost ready to divorce. I am not exaggerating. You must have qualified staff to help you run your camps, and the best staff will cost you.**
Plus, if someone is sick or doesn't show up, you can't just cancel that class. You are ultimately responsible for those children, and their parents are relying on you. So, that means if your early morning person doesn't show, you need to drag yourself down to the dojo, even if you worked 12 hours the day before and didn't get home until 11 pm.
Transportation Issues - If your primary vehicle breaks down, do you have a back-up? Do you have enough space in that vehicle for all the kids in your camp? Will you need two vehicles? Who will drive the second vehicle? Do they have a good driving record? How's your insurance coverage?
These are all issues that will come up with transportation during after-school and summer camps. You need to have these issues worked out in advance, and every solution will be a costly one.
Facility Limitations - How big is your school? Big enough? Maybe with a dozen or two dozen kids all lined up in neat rows during your kid's classes. But what about when you have two dozen kids running around like obstacle course racers?
And bathrooms... have you thought about that? You think one is enough for 30 kids? How about when they have to change to go to the pool, or for karate class? They don't want to be in their uniforms all day, and trust me, you don't want them to be, either.
Facility size is always a consideration that must be addressed when running after-school and summer camps.
Stress - Being the person who is ultimately responsible for the health, welfare, and safety of a few dozen kids is a lot of responsibility, and it can wear on you. When things go wrong (and they will) it can easily keep you frazzled, especially when you're short on staff, a kid gets injured playing at the park, and another kids is sick and tossing their cookies in the bathroom.
Government Compliance - When it comes to the safety and welfare of kids, the government wants to be involved, and rightly so. Not in all states, but in many this can present serious issues for your operations if you are not in compliance.
Case in point: One of my mentors started his first programs in his martial art studio after being asked by several parents if they could hang out with him after school. He had done the same with his instructor when he was growing up, so he thought nothing of it. Before long, he had a full program with dozens of children.
Then, one day he showed up to his dojo and the state daycare compliance agents were waiting for him. They shut down his dojo, literally locking him out of his own school, and sent him into financial ruin by doing so. All because they deemed that he was running an unlicensed daycare.
Trust me, you do not want to mess with the local or state government in this manner. They will drop the hammer on you, and in truth there's not a whole lot you can do about it if they do.
In Summary
In short, there is a lot of reward, and a lot of risk and work involved in starting and running an after-school or summer camp in your martial art school. It can be very financially rewarding, and having a successful camp can stabilize the income for your martial art school for good.
So should you do it? That's a question you need to answer for yourself. There are a lot more moving parts to running an after-school or summer camp program, and it'll add a ton of additional work and stress to your load.
Yet, for many school owners the rewards are worth the risk. Ultimately it's up to you to decide if you are equipped to take on the workload and responsibility. Remember, it's not just you who will suffer if you fail, there are also all those families to consider as well.
Hopefully, you'll make the right call.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
Quick-start Guide to My Books and Resources: - Looking for a list of books and resources I've written? Click here! - Need business coaching to grow your dojo? Click here…
P.S. - *Don't let competition put you off from pursuing this market. If anything should give you second thoughts about running after-school and summer camps, it's the long hours, high overhead, and tremendous responsibility involved. Well, that and compliance with government regulations. But competition should be an afterthought, because there are rarely enough quality after-school and summer camp programs to serve a given population.
P.S.S. - **We also cleared $22,000 in profit over eight weeks of camp, and paid off a ton of debt. And that was after paying for vehicles and other expenses. So, it wasn't all bad. Summer camps are actually a very good way to test the waters before you commit to an after-school program. If you want to know how we did it, click this link. | 