Opening a new School

I am opening a new martial arts school and am looking for ways to advertise it before I officially open. I was orriginally going to do flyers at schools and on cars but was informed that doing so was illegal in my area. That being that case what can I do?

Tags: Advertising, Help, New, Opening, School

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Permalink Reply by Sensei Nick on May 29, 2009 at 12:25pm

Where are you from? Usually you would get a warning first.

Have you ever though about door hangers?

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Permalink Reply by Darren Gaitan on May 29, 2009 at 3:04pm

The first thing is to make sure you have a marketing plan. There's no one thing I can tell you to get 100 students but I know 100 ways to get 1 student. Make sure you have a business plan because this will make or break your school. Just based on the numbers 98 out of every 100 businesses opened fail after the first year, but we (Sensei Nick and I) can help you beat the odds. I would suggest that you track where every prospect comes from, door hanger, flyers, school talks, lead boxes, etc. You need know what is working for you and where you should invest extra money. Sensei Nick is right, usually you get a slap on the hand the first time but its worth it if you get some students. You can post or send you marketing plan for some friendly advice. I found out early after opening numerous schools that everyone needs a coach. You find that almost every success school in the country has joined some type of consulting group. Even the biggest schools in the country still belong to their consulting company. What's your enrollment goal when you open? How many students will you start with? How many students do you need to break even, make a profit? How fast you need to enroll 100 students? We need to know where you are starting and where you want end up so we can help you work the middle out.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Jensen on May 29, 2009 at 6:59pm

I have seen a 24 hour fitness centre open in my city. The guy is advertising in all forms of media and sits out the front under a shade cloth selling pre opening membership. I think that is GOLD

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Permalink Reply by Master Richards on May 30, 2009 at 4:45am

Mr. Guerrini, please let me know if I can help? We have opened schools and did $20K prior to the first class starting. If you attack it correctly, you can have 100 students withing 90 days. Master Richards - MAST.

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Permalink Reply by Sensei Nick on May 31, 2009 at 8:22am

This a great opportunity for members of the community to help a fellow martial artist during the most important time of a martial arts school, "The Grand Opening". We would love to hear any ideas to make his opening a huge success! So let's get it started..........

I'll go first.... I have been involved in the daily operations of three Martial Arts Schools Grand Opening's. I’m talking about doing the flyers, intros, build out and all other start up processes. My first was over 14 years ago, and my most recent was two years ago. Every time you get better, learning from mistakes, and documenting what you would do next time. I agree with Mr. Gaitan, the marketing plan comes first. So here it is..........

1. Door Hangers-Order 5000. It should take you about two to three weeks to distribute all of them. Doing them your self is the best way, and now is a great item of year to do them. With the nice weather you should be able to talk to a lot people outside while your doing the door hangers. To make it simple, one side of the door hanger should be for kids the other for adults. Make sure to map out what developments or areas that you do, because after doing five thousand if you don’t write down where you did the door hangers you might end up hitting an area twice. Make sure to bring a pen and notebook, just in case you meet someone who is really interested; take down their name and number. Total cost-299 for 5000 door hangers and at least 40 hours of sweat, but well worth it.

2. How to do Flyers-The key to doing flyers knows that you will get kicked out of certain places. So make a target list of the shopping centers that you can flyer quickly and then leave. I know in New Jersey, they will issue you a warning, and then a fine. I would just flyer some cars and then leave and go to another shopping center. Doing Flyers is a simple numbers game, do 5000, get 20 phone calls, book 16 appointments, convert say 14.

3. Face Book-Our next school we will be using some type of social media. With rumors of face book starting to charge, they could lose a lot of subscribers. But for now, create an account, find your friends, request friends of other business owners in the area of your school, and start marketing. If you need assistance on this, Darren or myself can help you.

4. Set a Grand Opening Date for September. It's already June, and the most common mistake schools make is to have a Grand Opening with no students. The next three months you should be marketing, enrolling and teaching and developing a good base. Then during August have your students help you market the grand opening.

5. Press Releases-You should do a press release about you opening the school. Call all local newspapers and see if they might be interested in doing a story. Make sure to list that a Soft opening day in the press release.

6. Offering Free Women's Self Defense seminar's for members of the community, this will be a great way to get people in the school, and a good way to generate a buzz about the new school that just opened.

7. 4th of July Parade----Be THERE! A huge way to generate leads for you to call. Hand out business cards, or free passes. Every town has one. I’m not sure if you need training on how to prospect if you do, please talk to Darren, because he is the best (send him message in Leaders of the New School).

8. Local Newspapers------Look in the local newspapers about out door events where you can participate in and do a demo or set up a table. I hope you see where I’m going with my strategy; you must involve yourself in the community.

9. Local Churches----In the summer churches have outdoor events. Make sure to talk to them about doing some type of kids safety seminar and womens self defense seminar.

10. Grand opening----Offer a Free Kidnapping Prevention Seminar in Conjunction with the Event. You need a reason besides "Grand Opening" to get people interested in attending.

Other Tips

1. Your follow up skills are critical.

2. You must be great on the phone. Over half of your appointments will be made from phone calls.

3. It's not going to be easy

4. You must know how to overcome objections.

5. Be Open---Sounds easy, I'm talking about 9 to 9. Not 3-9.

6. Network

7. Use the community for questions.

8. Find a mentor.

9. Read-"Readers are Leaders." The better leadership skills you have the more success your business will have.
10. Use the Champions Way Mas Software now before you open, some people say, I don't need it yet, I'm going to wait until I get 100 students..... They are still waiting.
11. Do you homework-If you follow a model, follow one that you can see, visit their school to see if they walk the talk. Do you want your school to be like theirs if not, say thanks but no thanks?
12. Don't try to cash out everyone. Paid in fulls are not the way you want to grow your business. Put everyone on Champions Way Billing Direct, build monthly residual income. So you will be able to have steady cash flow and are able to invest in a staff, rather than having to make 5 or six kills a month to pay your bills.
13. If it sounds to good to be true, it's too good to be true----Beware of methods and guarantees of programs or people that can double or triple your income. Beware of people that come in your school and want you to advertise. Talk to someone with experience in advertising so you don't flush thousands of dollars down the drain.

14. Have Fun!

15. Love what you do......and the money will follow

Good Luck and can't wait to hear other ideas!

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Permalink Reply by Sifu Stephen Mcdonald 斯蒂芬麥克唐納 on May 31, 2009 at 11:37am

You can do 45 MIN to an hour Stranger danger Seminars at public schools, show and tells, and safety seminars, with principles and teachers approval. To different grades K - 12 during their PE / Gym times at the end of the course/seminars you can give them certificates of attendance and free one or two week trials. Or give them a really special deal that would be locked in. for example our original fees would be $ 55.00 to $75.00 per month, offer them the classes for like $ 40 or $45.00 per month and add extras like' there will be no contracts ( parents like this). This is just a small example of how we offer to our public school system and it has been very successful. we have Received approximate of 150 students at just one of our location in 2008 to present and teacher still call and schedule stranger danger courses. The rest is word of mouth. But what ever you do don’t make it sound like your just wanting to teach martial arts it has to have a purpose of safety seminars.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Creighton on May 31, 2009 at 2:51pm

Do you have any students already?
What I do is have door hangers printed. On one side you place your ad, the other side you sell off to either one or more companies in the area for the total cost of your printing.

If you have students already, or if you are willing to do the delivery yourself, other companies will think your ad space is a great price because it includes the delivery costs... You don't need to tell them they are paying for all of the printing costs of course, but chances are they won't even ask. I usually get 3000 door hangers made up each season for $480 canadian. I do the art work myself, but if you aren't good at that kind of thing it's worth hiring some one to do it for you. Even if it cost you a little extra out of your own pocket.

Door hangers are great because you don't have to worry about people having mailboxes, and you don't have to leave them on the ground like fliers. Personally, I think of anything left on the ground at my front door as garbage, otherwise who ever left it would have taken the time to put is somewhere safe.

Shawn
Milton Academy of Martial Arts
905-593-1550
www.amadojo.com

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Moriniere on May 31, 2009 at 5:03pm

Everyone has such great advice. I do most of the same things. I would add Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube Groups and any othre social group to the mix and make as many friends as possible. Put your schedule and information and map on your social network page, and a demo video, etc. Have fun opening your school, and don't put too much into those pricey ads at first. Sweat a lot, by distrubuting flyers yourself. I am currently about to just go setup a table on a sidewalk by a shopping center. With big poster's on the side of the table that have the name of my school and bright colors. We will just sit there and pass out flyers and schedule appointments. Not sure about laws in US for this anymore. I am in Okinawa, Japan.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Tucker on May 31, 2009 at 6:59pm

Co-marketting with other area businesses is a low cost way to help. Ask other area businesses owners to display your flyers and in return promise to display and distribute their marketting materials to your students

Stan Lee
www.blackbeltprinciples.com

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Permalink Reply by Franz Shihan on June 1, 2009 at 12:22am

Along with all the great ideas you have posted here don't forget that community involvement is a huge priority. Create a press packet and introduction letter to send to all the local schools, civic groups and Rotary. Get to know these people as most of them are local business owners just like yourself. Make friends, offer them free classes so they can see what you have to offer and build a relationship with them. This is one of the best low cost marketing ideas you will get.

Consider sponsoring a community event. We have sponsored the following with great results:

1. Free Movie Nights at a local youth center, library or church youth group.
2. Contact your local police department and sponsor the Child Identification Kits...attach a special coupon to each one (this brings great results because people think safety & self defense when they are using those kits).
3. Offer a special program through your local parks n rec department aimed at self defense for kids, teens and women.
4. Contact the school board and get permission to send home flyers in the kids packets.
5. Set up booths at local events, side walk sales and school open houses...this works great for leads.

No matter what anyone tells you about promising to double / triple your income if you join their group keep in mind you need to be the one to run the school, manage the marketing and be a spokes person for what you offer. Even if you join NAPMA, MAIA or other consultants it is still up to you to make it happen. NAPMA was a great thing when I was first trying to build my schools but as time moved on their ideas did not mesh with the image I wanted for my business / dojos. I learned some great marketing ideas from them but in reality there was little pay back in it for me (but I am in small town USA). If you do not have any background in business management sign up at your local college and take some classes...this is also a great marketing resource if you use it to your advantage (self defense classes at the college and so forth).

In terms of it being illegal to place flyers on cars you may want to contact your local chamber and find out if a permit is available to do so. In my area they sell permits that will allow you to market this way for $25 and they last for three days. You also are required to have the same permit to place door hangers out. With the value of the return you get it is worth it to purchase that permit. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Paradis on June 1, 2009 at 4:08am

Hello Frank
You could try your local video store. Ask if you can put a small flyer in they're DVD boxes. You can negotiate the payment a free month or a cash payment for every new student this will generate

If the homes in your area have mail boxes, go for a walk and go home to home, or ask all of the small business if they want to share the price on distribution thru the mail. Hair salons
and massage therapy type of places are a good start. They are always looking for inexpensive ways to advertise.

Congratulations on your new club. And good luck!
Marc Paradis Soke Dai