Case Study: Paul Prendergast — Two Jersey Shore Schools, Nearly $1 Million a Year, Teaching Two Classes a Week

Master Paul Prendergast founded Paul Prendergast Karate in 1989 and has taught Ocean County, New Jersey for more than 25 years — today across two schools, in Brick and Toms River, built on a Kenpo Karate, Jujitsu, and grappling curriculum. Sharing his numbers at a recent Martial Arts Wealth Mastery mastermind, the two schools combined are approaching $1 million a year — roughly $200,000 more than when he joined the coaching program two years ago.

The number that tells the story isn’t the gross, though. It’s his teaching schedule: about two classes a week. Paul spent years doing what most owners do — teaching five, six, seven classes a day, every day, and running the business in the cracks. Today his job is the owner’s job: marketing, bringing bodies in the door, and training the staff to close and teach. “It’s the independence — the security. If something happened to me, the business would still be a business.”

Watch Paul’s Story

The two schools, by the numbers

Toms River: roughly 150–160 students grossing about $40,000 a month on eight to nine new enrollments a month — in a modest space with low rent, which is why the margins work so well. Brick (the main school): 3,200 square feet, 290–300 active students, around $50,000 a month in tuition — before testing fees and events. Paul is based in Brick; his head instructor and staff run the floor.

Growing pains came with the growth: the first time he wrote a payroll-and-expenses check north of $65,000, it was a shock — “a whole new education and whole new problems. But a good problem, because I’d never had to do that before. I wasn’t making it.”

The $169 lesson: your staff will underprice you

Here’s the confession every multi-staff owner should tattoo somewhere visible. Paul raised his published tuition to $199 — and discovered his staff were quoting $169. Not out of rebellion: out of their own money psychology. The price barrier lives in the seller’s head, and your employees’ heads have lower ceilings than yours — they were “going crazy” over a price the parents weren’t blinking at. If you raise prices without re-training and re-convincing the people who actually quote them, you didn’t raise prices.

The value side made the prices stick: structured character-development programs, karate homework, the materials parents can see and touch. His conclusion after installing them: “Parents don’t mind spending the money. It was all in my head.”

The next move: student value

His current project with the coaching team is restructuring pricing to $247 basic and $397 leadership — which lands his average student value around $300. Stephen Oliver ran the math for the room: at a $300 average, every 100 students is $30,000 a month. At 300 students, that’s a $90,000-a-month school — and even if every student only ever signed the $247 basic program and nobody renewed, 300 students still locks in $75,000. The grandfathered students at old rates filter out over time while new families enroll at the new structure — which is exactly why the gross climbs every year without a single hard conversation.

From five classes a day to two a week. From “not making it” to writing $65,000 checks without flinching. The systems — pricing structure, staff development, marketing pillars — are the difference between owning a job and owning a business.

Still teaching every class and running the business in the cracks? Call or text National Director Bob Dunne at 1-720-256-0208 for a free school growth evaluation. More member results: client case studies and the student-value math.