| Friend,
It's time to talk about scholarships. Not college scholarships, but scholarships for tuition at your dojo.
So, why in the heck would you want to offer scholarships at your school? Here are a few very good reasons:
The Right Thing to Do
I don't know about you, but when I started martial arts classes my family couldn't afford it. So, my first instructors trained me for free. Would I have gotten into martial arts later in life if they hadn't? Maybe, but I likely would not have turned out to be the same person.
Martial arts gave me confidence, it gave me a reason to stay away from the drug culture most of my friends were into at the time, and it gave me a job skill, something that came in handy years.
You never know what difference martial arts training might make in someone's life, and offering people who can't afford your regular tuition rates a way to take classes is simply the right thing to do.
You Can't Teach Everyone for Free
At least, not if you're running a full-time school. And if you're a generous person, that's going to be your inclination. So, you need a formal method for selecting people who might qualify for some assistance with their tuition, and you need a way to weed out the deadbeats who are just trying to take advantage of you. Having a formal scholarship program serves both purposes.
Scholarship Programs Allow the Recipient to Retain Their Dignity
If you've never been poor, I'm here to tell you a few things. One, some people are poor because they are just lazy no-good dirt bags. Two, some people are poor because they are good people who hit a rough patch. And three, others are poor because they were born into poverty, and there's not much they can do about it until they gain either sufficient job skills or sufficient education to get out of poverty.
But regardless of why people are poor, you need to understand that there are good and bad people at every level of society, and the good people who are poor don't really want a hand out, they want a hand up. They want to earn what they get. Offering a formal scholarship program provides them a way to do exactly that.
A Right and a "Less-Right" Way to Do It...
Now, you might think that offering a scholarship program involves nothing more than letting people who say they can't afford your tuition to train for free. Nope, not even close.
Just giving away memberships is a recipe for disaster, and tomorrow I'll explain why, and what you should do instead to ensure that your scholarship program runs smoothly.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
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P.S. - Some of you may bristle when I say that some people are poor because they are lazy, no-good dirt bags. But I'm here to tell you it's the truth. I lived the first half of my life below the poverty level, and I've known all kinds of people. Many people who are poor are poor by choice, because they are professional grifters who make a living by taking advantage of the system, maximizing social welfare program benefits and avoiding honest work any way they can. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm going to explain how you can avoid being taken advantage of by that type of person, while still helping those who truly deserve your help. More on that tomorrow.
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