| Friend,
A question that people seem to be asking me a lot lately has to do with space.
When a school owner figures out their marketing and they get more students, they always want to look at renting a bigger space.
But, more space won't solve the problems and challenges school owners face when a dojo is growing... it'll only make those issues more expensive.
2,000. 200.
1550. 125.
What are those numbers? They're the square footage of my first two schools, and the max enrollment we had (on-site) at each location.
In the first school I tried to grow it as big as possible, until I realized that I didn't like having that many students. So, I scaled it back and got to a comfortable 150-180 students year round, and that's where I liked things.
In the second school, I purposely set it up so I could work the fewest hours possible. I ran an after-school program from 3 pm to 6 pm, and that program paid the overhead on the school and then some.*
Then, I ran my evening classes until 8 or 9 pm. I didn't work weekends, and I only spent about 25-30 hours a week at the school. Yet it made just as much profit as my first school... even with fewer students and while facing the challenges of operating during a recession.
Why am I telling you this? To illustrate two things that a lot of school owners miss: - Space (square footage) is not the only limiting factor in how large you can grow your school's enrollment. Scheduling and class structure are also limiting factors, and if you maximize and optimize those two elements of your operations, you don't need nearly as much square footage.
- Enrollment is only a relevant metric in relation to profit per student. In other words, enrollment only tells half the tale. It's gross and net profit that are the really important numbers to watch in your business. And the smaller your space, the less you pay in rent, so the higher your profit margins will be.
Which means, when you can get by with less space, you can make more profit with fewer students. That means less work... less work in marketing, less work in teaching, less admin work, less cleaning every day, less everything.
Much of your ability to achieve more with less will hinge on how you manage your school's growth. And that's why roughly 20% of my new book on martial art school growth strategies is dedicated to class scheduling and structure.
The book releases next week. If you want to find out more about it and pre-order a copy, you can do so at the following link:
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. - *Each after-school student pays 3 or 4 times the tuition that a "regular" student pays. So, 20 after-school students = 60 to 80 "regular" students, at least as far as gross revenue is concerned.
P.S.S. - I'll have the paperback version of the book ready for publication soon. It should be released a few days prior to the when the ebook version officially goes on sale in the Kindle store. I'll send out a direct link where you can order the paperback version as soon as it goes on sale.
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