Making money in the Martial Arts

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
41

There’s a couple of things you need to be sucessful in business no matter what your business is.

For martial arts, well, you need a curriculum obviously.

With the curriculum, get a business model. what kind of club do you want? marketing?

With your model start building the business with marketing to the right demograph.

Are you ok with some bread and butter gym facility memberships? Work it in to your model.

Is your demograph workable with what you are ofering? IE: Seniors will warm to Chi Kung and Tai Chi but are unlikely to see the use of themselves commiting to Hard Core Fighting arts, Hevy sparring etc, at least the greater body of them.

Your curriculum must be designed to fit who you are teaching. Your model must fit your ability to deliver the curriculum and you generally have to keep an eye on the opportunities for promotion and further reach into the public knowledge of your school.

it adds up to a few blocks, but it is not rocket science to run a business. Unless your business is rocket science of course.

Good luck, it’s a hard grind.

peace

p.s -keeping things in perspective is always good too.

42

I don’t know what “Type” Of tae kwon do they were, but I know most of then were Brown to 2nd Black.

I have seen many tae kwon guys fight in the Pan Ams here run by Ralph Peluso. Every one of them, regaurdless of rank had a sincere problem with protecting their head, especially when kicking.

The other thing, is most of what “I” have seen, they have little in the way of effective set ups for their kicks. Maybe the tae kwon do in Chicago really sux, I don’t know. BUT from being online here and other places, it seems my opinion of Tae Kwon Do, is shared by many nation wide. It is often called “Take My Dough” by some of the hard core fight schools here in Chicago, there must be some reason why that phrase was coined.

43

Sounds like you’ve run into mostly the sporting variety. Excellent sport, hard to do if you follow the sports rules.
One thing we all have to remember is that we’re more than likely to see the sporting version or competitive version of most arts.
Most people have never seen “traditional” Korean arts outside of sport TKD, same goes for CMA where most folks have only seen old hippies doing Tai Chi in the park, a Jackie Chan movie, Wu Shu at the circus or a TV show from the 70’s, and that’s how you’re judged.
Is that what CMA is? So for most martial arts, BJJ being one notable exception, it’s going to be easier to find the schools that cater either to sport or mass consumption rather than the hardcore stuff.

Someone also asked a TKD black belt for the application of their hyung. Not everyone trains forms as an encylopedia of applications, some Korean arts don’t even have forms, so the black belts response may have been reasonable.

44

Originally posted by rogue
[B]
PaulLin,
Are you currently studying 9 different styles or is that a list of what you’ve studyed over time? I’ll be seeing what Tai Chi is about as I’ve found someone to workout with who does TC. I’ll keep you posted. If you get to play at someones dojang tell us how you do. Also try some BJJ schools as they’re almost always willing to have a go at it. And you’re right I more than likely haven’t seen very much good CMA yet outside of a couple of Wing Chun players, but I know it’s there and I don’t underestimate them with a broad brush.

Now back to schools,
PaulLin,
What do you think makes something watered down? I’ve visited many karate(Okinawan & Japanese), TKD and BJJ schools that seemed pretty serious to me. [/B]

rogue,

I should say I am currently researching into deeper of these 9 styles, I have done study on the foundations already. TaiChi is not a big part in fight, if you try to find out what is TC out there. In TC, it is to avoiding fight more. There are some new China masters that has applications, but they cannot be done correctly without many years of experiences. Xing-Yi, BaGua, ShuaiChiao, 8 step mantis, are used more often of I am applying. ChinNa has no foundation and forms itself, it is used mainly on the foundation of BaGua, Taichi, and 8 steps. White crane, I only practiced the 5 element foundations, there are many other forms that I didn’t learn, such as 3 Battle, 4 signs, etc. Tantui is mainly serve as foundational training, the use of it is direct and powerful, but got a lot of disadvantages if agaist higher level arts. I didn’t went on and learn ChaChuan, a higher level art that supposely follow after you learned Tantui. KunLunDanTao is meditation, gain inner strength and condense body chemically, as well as linking to the sun, moon, stars’ magnetic force to help your own qi circlar magnetic force. So in the moves of fighting, that has nothing to do with, only the inner strength.

yet, If I visit any TDK or BBJ schools, I will share the experiences. The tough side of these kind, I would include BBJ and MuiTai.

45

Originally posted by rogue

Most people have never seen “traditional” Korean arts outside of sport TKD, same goes for CMA where most folks have only seen old hippies doing Tai Chi in the park, a Jackie Chan movie, Wu Shu at the circus or a TV show from the 70’s, and that’s how you’re judged.

Well, I think the traditional Korean arts are extincted. I have heard people talked about them but never seen one.

TaiChi is also watered-down heavily, it is very difficult to find a Taichi master who really knows how to make the applications work.

46

Why bother with insurance? Can’t everybody just sign waivers?

47

NOOOOOO!!!

What if some lawyer finds a way to make the waiver invalid?? What about legal fee’s?? My policy covers legal costs regaurdless of the final verdict

48

What is considered Traditional Korean MA? TKD was created in the 1950’s, the forms were based on Shotokan.

49

not quite true.

There were previous Korean styles. Basically the whole Northern Leg, Southern fist thing applied to Korea (N) and Japan(S)

Korea was also part of China for a while. There was/is a lot of travel back and forth.

Korean styles even TKD in Korea is a completely different thing than American TKD (which I have zero respect for)

Trad TKD has great kicks, the same kicks you’ll find in other Northern styles.

50

I Know they have great kicks, but why is it consididerd a traditional art, and other arts that are the same age are not consididered traditonal?

Im not debating its effectiveness (Another discussion) But TKD is a sport orientated art. Olympic TKD may be powerful and effective as an olympic sport, but its based on modern training adn concepts. Should it be called traditional?

51

Much of what is “traditional” Korean arts are based upon Japanese arts. As far as some genuine traditional arts surviving I’d say it’s doubtful, though I’ve heard that Tae Kyon survived in some form as a street art. Kind of like savate.

52

What if some lawyer finds a way to make the waiver invalid?? What about legal fee’s?? My policy covers legal costs regaurdless of the final verdict

Royal Dragon–I wasn’t aware of the possibility that a waiver could be made invalid. I thought that once signed it was binding.

Legal fees–Do you mean legal fees incurred by a lawsit brought about regardless of having signed a waiver, uh, waiving all possibilities of a lawsuit? That sucks.

I thought that if you have people sign waivers, the liability would be zero, or at least according to whatever you specified in the waiver, which could be set up to cover everything. So are waivers generally useless, and one can ignore them and file a lawsuit anyway? Interesting.

Sounds like you have good policy.

53

My waiver is pretty air tight, but in today’s age, you never know. Besides, anyone can “Try” to sue you. Even if it goes no where, it’s going to be costly.

54

Waiver’s aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

bit of a statement but RD is right, you will still get taken to court
wether you have a signed waiver or not. Get your lawyer to
approve the language in the waiver for starters then train your
students as safe as you can.

matt

55

Even if it goes no where, it’s going to be costly

I must admit, the law is not my forte. If someone tries to sue you unsuccessfully, aren’t they responsible for your court costs then? Should be.:mad:

56

Here’s an idea. When I went to workout with a TKD school they signed me up for the X-number of days Trial Classes. I paid something like $14 dollars since I didn’t need a uniform. As far as their insurance was concerned I was a student and covered, and got to spar with them some.

57

Royal Dragon

Speaking as an 18 year old who hopes to someday own his own school, I like your idea. We recently had a career unit at my school(students are supposed to design their own businesses and follow people around for a day in the field they are interested in etc.) and it got me thinking about how to run my future school. I came up with an idea similar to yours but with a few differences.
I also like other people’s ideas of having other sources (MA related or not) of income. I trained at a school once that taught a good style(it was American Kenpo Karate, pretty decent) and sold equipment as well. The cost from lessons seemed a bit steep but OK and the real money seemed to come in the form of T-shirts(ranked by color), weapons, bags, uniforms etc. They even sold kiddie crap like headbands and the like. Whether you like it or not, it makes money. I’m not really into what I call glass beads(throwback to “Native” American history) such as the Karate Kid headbands but I bought two of them. I have long hair that kept getting in my way, and since I was traveling I had forgotten my hair ties so I bought the crappy headbands and used them for the time I was there. Figure that I’m not the only one with that situation, added to the fact that kids like 'em and you’ve got income! The fact that they got discounted equipment from the people whose brand of bags etc. they sell plus commission doesn’t hurt either.
I have also studied at a bare bones dojo that had about three heavy bags, a 3 minute timer(for round timing), and a water faucet. They don’t make too much from equipment sales or anything, but they have a great rep, good PR(they win most tournaments they are in) and a relatively traditional style of teaching that makes fighters. Because of that, their student base is increasing and they are expanding their services which helps them grow…
Some of the best advice I ever got in business came from a personal trainer I met who told me, “What you need is a lot of people paying a little bit of money.”
the phrase “You need a dollar to make a dollar” is good wisdom as well.
-ZC