| Friend,
In this email series, I've been confronting some rarely discussed but very real issues that all school owners eventually face. Last week I wrote to you about the long hours necessary to start a dojo, and the toll it can take on your family and social life.
This week, I want to talk about the personal impact that running a dojo can have on a school owner. There are two topics that I specifically want to tackle; burnout and depression.
The first topic, instructor burnout, is something you'll occasionally hear mentioned at industry events and in industry periodicals. However, typically all that's said about it is "avoid it," and that's not much practical help.
But depression is something you'll rarely hear mentioned in the industry. Yet, just about every school owner I've worked with who has faced financial struggles has mentioned it in some way. It's not like every school owner tells me, "Yeah, I'm depressed," but if you read between the lines you often get that impression.
So, I'm going to talk about both of these topics this week, starting by tackling instructor burnout today. Then later this week, I'm going to offer some solutions for avoiding the issues I've mentioned during this series.
Let's Talk About Burnout
Burnout is a real and serious threat to your school's success. I've seen it absolutely crush instructors, and I've experienced it myself. Typically, instructor burnout is a side effect of working long hours with no end in sight, or without seeing much return on your investment of time and energy into your school.
The real danger with burnout is not that you'll lose your school; it's that you'll lose your health, both mental and physical. Burnout can easily lead to depression, because of the sense of hopelessness that comes with working your fingers to the bone for little to no reward.
And, it can ruin your health, because the changes your body goes through when you're under high levels of stress for prolonged periods can lower your immune system and trigger autoimmune issues. So, it's not something you just want to gut out, or else you could end up with serious mental and physical problems.
How Burnout Happens
Burnout doesn't just happen overnight; it often takes months or years for it to sneak up on you. Here's how it usually happens: - An instructor starts a school, and they work long hours at their day job and teaching in the evenings to get their school off the ground.
- They experience some initial success but eventually hit a wall, either because they lack the business skills to hit the next level, or because they are simply unable to work the hours necessary to increase their enrollment.
- After months or years of working long hours with little to show for it, they burnout, and either let their school slide into financial disarray (self-sabotage), or they close the school entirely (a healthier, but not ideal, alternative).
This inevitably also leads to feelings of failure and a loss of self-confidence for the instructor who closes their school, or who loses their school due to financial reasons.
Why "Just Hire Help" Isn't Always The Answer
The inevitable response you'll get when you tell other people you're burned out is, "Just hire some help!" However, this isn't always the answer.
For one, often a school owner isn't in a good position financially to hire help. So, when they decide it's a make or break thing and they hire an assistant or office staff member, it puts even more financial strain on them. Now, not one but two people are affected by the school owner's financial straits, effectively doubling the stress for the school owner.
And, even if they can afford the help, it's not always easy for school owners to find competent help. Training floor staff takes planning and a grooming or breaking-in period, if you want to hire someone who can teach your curriculum well. And this is often where school owners first hire someone to assist them in the dojo; yet, it's the area where it's most difficult to find good help.
So, the school owner finds themselves in a position where their new employee is increasing rather than decreasing their workload. They still have to be at the school the same number of hours, plus they have to babysit their new employee because they hired someone who is incompetent or unqualified.
The net effect is more stress and work for the instructor, and no relief for their situation.
But There Are Solutions
That being said, there are solutions to these issues. Obviously, there are school owners out there who are making it work for them. They grew their schools from a few dozen to a few hundred students. They hired staff. They are doing well for it.
So what's the difference?
Knowledge and training, plain and simple. Typically when two school owners take the same path with regards to the trajectory of their businesses, and one experiences growth while the other continues to tread water, the reason for the difference boils down to training and education.
I'll write more about this later in the week, but first I want to discuss depression and how it can impact your school. I know it's a real downer of a topic (duh), but I believe it's worth discussing.
And I promise, once I'm through outlining the issues tomorrow, on Wednesday I'll start talking about solutions for the various challenges I have discussed.
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! - Looking for low-cost business coaching to grow your dojo? Click here…
P.S. - I'm not saying you shouldn't hire help. All I'm saying is that you need to hire and train them right if to have a reasonable expectation that your employees will pull their weight.
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