10 Things You Must Do to Thrive This Year (So Get Moving)

Every January I outline for our members the things you absolutely must do to thrive in the year ahead. Owners who actually implement them transform their schools; owners who just nod and file them away stay stuck. So consider this your push to stop nodding and start moving. Here are the 10 things you must do to thrive.

1. Premium Pricing Is the Quickest Route to a High Net

Know your value and price your tuition accordingly. We are not in an industry where low price buys market share — all low price does is limit your revenue per student and convince families your value is limited. Absent other criteria, price determines the perception of value. I believe you should be in the range of $397 a month for a new student’s lessons, with two to three months as a down payment and a minimum six-month — preferably 12-to-18-month — initial agreement.

2. Focus Internally First

Take a blank legal pad and list everything you can do to improve your students’ perception of value. Value starts with rapport, so hire only sincere, honest people who care about their students’ achievement more than their own.

3. Build a Strong Sales Process

Put a real introductory, enrollment, orientation, and upgrade process in place, supported by a focused system, and train your staff on it relentlessly. Your Martial Arts Wealth resources provide extensive training on every sales and marketing process — use them.

4. What Gets Measured Gets Done

Keep complete operations statistics and an up-to-date profit-and-loss statement. Learn to read your numbers and know what your benchmarks should be in every area. You cannot improve what you don’t track.

5. Upgrade Your Staff

The most important thing you can do once you have employees is run regular training — weekly or twice weekly. A team member either has the aptitude for the role or doesn’t, and they bring their own motivation. Hire and train accordingly.

6. Martial Arts Without Philosophy Is Just Street Fighting

The drift toward pure fighting has led many schools to abandon the personal-development core of the arts. Don’t. Simple things — a student creed, weekly character-development lessons, a leadership team, and positive life-skills instruction — make an enormous difference and set you apart.

7. Focus on Retention

The least expensive sale you’ll ever make is the second or third sale to the same student. Acquiring a brand-new student is expensive in time and money — you might spend $500 to $1,000 in advertising to enroll one — so protect the students you already have.

8. Build a “Marketing Parthenon”

Relying on only one or two methods to generate students isn’t just lazy — it’s dangerous. Develop a wide range of systems and methods so introductory traffic keeps coming even when one source dries up. Each method is a column holding up your enrollment.

9. Separate Your Hobby From Your Business

Most owners confuse their interests as a hobbyist with their role as a professional educator. Your interests and needs as a Black Belt are different from the interests and needs of the families who want lessons from you. Run the business for them.

10. Eliminate Self-Defeating Thinking and Elevate Your Expectations

You ultimately get what you expect and attract what you focus on. Look for references that support your goals, ignore the naysayers, and stop benchmarking yourself against the pricing and results of a struggling industry. Raise your expectations of your school and yourself.

The 11th Thing: Out-Work the Field

Here’s the one I should have put on the list. The difference between a failing school owner and a successful one can be about 20 hours a week. Frankly, most owners just don’t work very hard — they show up at 4 or 5 p.m., leave at 8 or 9, and call it a full day. The big success stories I know start early and routinely put in 60-to-80-hour weeks, with staff focused on marketing during the day (roughly 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and on retention, renewals, and enrollments in the evenings.

As Tom Hopkins teaches, you must see 20 people “belly to belly” every day. If you’re not talking with prospective students — or current ones about upgrades and referrals — you simply aren’t doing what matters most. And take a page from industry pioneer Nick Cokinos: circle back and re-train your staff (and yourself) on the basics every 13 weeks. Drill the phone, the introductory lesson, the enrollment conference, and the renewal, over and over.

Related Reading

• The Four-System Game Plan: Fix Retention, Renewals, Staff & Enrollment
• The Four Keys to Rapid Income Growth for a Martial Arts School
• Prepare to Review Your Year: The Numbers Every School Owner Should Check
• Now Is the Time to Hustle: Seizing the Inflection Points in Your Market
• Case study: How Riley Fife grew Grimsby Karate from $6K to $50K a month

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single fastest way to increase a school’s net profit?

Premium pricing. Charging tuition that reflects your true value — rather than competing on low price — raises revenue per student and actually strengthens how families perceive your program.

Why is retention so important if I’m focused on growth?

Because the cheapest sale is the next one to an existing student, while acquiring a new student can cost hundreds in advertising. Strong retention compounds growth and protects your marketing investment.

How hard do successful school owners actually work?

Often 60 to 80 hours a week, starting early and spending daytime hours on marketing and evenings on enrollments and retention. The gap between struggling and thriving owners is frequently about 20 hours of focused effort per week.

Ready to Add 100 Students to Your School?

Turn these 10 things into a step-by-step plan: get your free copy of Six Simple Steps to Add 100 New Students to Your School at SimpleSteps.com.

And to strengthen retention and value through better teaching, study Extraordinary Teaching at ExtraordinaryTeaching.com.

Stephen Oliver, MBA, is a 10th Degree Black Belt, the founder of Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, and is known industry-wide as “The Millionaire Maker.”