Jason Purcell had been running Family Black Belt Academy in Seattle for 13 years, and by his own account he was “barely getting by,” grossing somewhere between $4,000 and $8,000 a month. He loved the work — teaching, coaching a strong competition program, helping kids — but the business itself never moved. Then his landlord situation forced a decision no coaching program can manufacture: he had to relocate.

This is a coaching case study based on the owner’s own account, shared in a recorded conversation with Master Jeff Smith of Martial Arts Wealth Mastery. Individual results depend on market, pricing, and how completely you follow the system.

Thirteen years is a long time to run a business on $4,000 to $8,000 a month. Jason wasn’t failing — the school had students, a real competition program, a real community — but it wasn’t a business that could support a family or scale. It was a school that survived on the owner’s willingness to make do.

Then the lease ran out. The only space Jason could find to move into came with a new reality: he now needed to gross roughly $16,000 a month just to cover it. “I was terrified,” he says. “I’m barely making eight grand a month. How am I going to double that?” For the first time, the math forced a choice: find a fundamentally different way of running the school, or find a new profession.

Around that time, Master Stephen Oliver posted something on Facebook that stopped Jason cold: every school owner needed to raise their prices. Jason’s reaction was the same one almost every owner has the first time they hear it — disbelief bordering on offense. He was charging $85 a month. A Taekwondo school six blocks away was cheaper. Another martial arts school was operating directly below his, fifteen feet away, charging around $60.

“I’m going to one up all of you,” Jason told the group. “There’s a school directly below me, charging $60. I’m at $85. How am I going to raise my prices?” It is the single most common objection in the industry: my competitor is right here, and they’re cheaper. Master Oliver’s answer reframed the entire problem. Stop treating the school below you as competition. Get your price to $200.

That number was hard for Jason to swallow. Nearly triple what he was charging, in a building that literally shared a wall with a cheaper option. But the diagnosis wasn’t really about the number — it was about what price signals. A $60 school and an $85 school look like the same category to a prospective student. A $200 school doesn’t.

1. Premium pricing, not competitive pricing. The core shift was psychological before it was financial: stop pricing against the school down the street and start pricing at the level the value actually supports. “If you’re at 200, you’re going to be so much better. Everybody’s going to assume you’re three times better than them,” is how the logic was explained to Jason — and it is exactly what happened.

2. A relocation used as a reset, not just a move. Instead of treating the forced move as a crisis to survive, Jason used it as the moment to rebuild the business model itself — new pricing, new positioning, a school built to support the overhead rather than barely cover it.

3. Building a staff, not just a student base. As revenue grew, Jason didn’t just keep more of it — he reinvested in people. The school now supports a team substantial enough that staff members can afford to buy homes in Seattle, one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.

Family Black Belt Academy now runs approximately $120,000 to $130,000 a month in routine billing, with 344 students — and by Jason’s own estimate, the school is still only scraping the surface of its potential. He believes it could reasonably support 900 students at that same model.

• A competitor’s price is not your ceiling. Jason shared a wall with a school charging $60 a month. He now charges roughly $200 — and outgrew that competitor entirely.
• Being forced to grow can be the best thing that happens to you. The relocation that terrified Jason is what pushed him out of 13 years of just getting by.
• Higher price is a positioning signal, not just a revenue lever. Students don’t just pay more at a premium-priced school — they assume the school is better, because the price told them so.
• Growth should build your team, not just your bank account. The measure Jason is proudest of isn’t the revenue number — it’s that his staff can now afford to own homes in his city.

How much did Jason Purcell’s school grow?

From $4,000–$8,000 a month over 13 years to approximately $120,000–$130,000 a month in routine billing, with 344 students. These figures are owner-reported.

What triggered the turnaround?

A forced relocation that required nearly double his historical revenue just to cover the new lease, combined with a decision to raise prices from $85 a month to roughly $200 a month.

Wasn’t he worried about a cheaper competitor nearby?

Yes — a martial arts school directly below his, fifteen feet away, charged about $60 a month. Rather than compete on price, Jason repositioned above it, and the two schools stopped being comparable in students’ minds.

Stephen Oliver, MBA, 10th Degree Black Belt.