Whats a good amount of students to gain per month?

How many students need to enroll per month to have a successful school?

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Permalink Reply by Franz Shihan on January 11, 2009 at 10:31pm

Great question but this is a hard one since demographics will play into this, as well as overhead. I live in a very small community with a population of 32,000 in the entire county. My competition includes three other schools but none of them are traditional as we are. Our goal is to sign up an average of two students every month but more importantly is to retain them. We have a very small turn over rate which is good. We average about 1 student a month which is twelve new students per year and lose around 3 per year so we grow at a decent pace. Please keep in mind that I live based on what the dojo makes instead of wanting to make big bucks. My overhead is very low and I have no needs to fancy cars or big houses...just to teach what I love and be able to do what I love as my career.

I think most schools that have a foucs for making big bucks need to enroll an average of 10-15 students a month to make money. My reasons? In my experience the schools that focus more on the profit are the ones that lose more students than they retain.

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Permalink Reply by Cathal Walsh on January 12, 2009 at 9:18am

I believe that too many of us have been conditioned to focus on the wrong statistics. What do I mean? Well, talk to most school owners and they will talk about the following numbers...enrolments, number of students (usually inflated for effect), and per haps gross revenue. Although all statistics have value in context, for me here are the three critical ones...

1. Growth Rate. Weather you are enrolling 5 or 50 students per month is likely irrelevant until it is considered in concert with retention. That is, over a 12 month span, how much has your school grown? Often schools with less than 100 students, subscribe to the mistaken belief that "sure I only enrol 3 or 4 students per month but my students don't quit" Really?, well 4 students per month over 10 years is close to 500 students, so why is it that you are still at 60 after being in business for a decade? You must measure your growth. Our school in Duncan has grown 50 students per year from it's opening in 2004.

2. Profit. Revenue is only important when it is greater than your expenses. $30 000/month sounds good until you discover rent of $7000/month and payroll of $15000. Costs must be controlled. A school can be profitable at less than $20000 if expenses are properly managed. A school can soar at $30 000

3. Quit Ratio. What percentage of your enrolled students quit (averaged over 1 year). There is a formula to figure thgis out. Once you know it you can work to improve it.

Remember, what we focus on expands. Focus on Growth through Retention (good martial arts for students) and Profitability for maximum success.

Cathal Walsh
www.shakumartialarts.com

Franz Shihan said:

Great question but this is a hard one since demographics will play into this, as well as overhead. I live in a very small community with a population of 32,000 in the entire county. My competition includes three other schools but none of them are traditional as we are. Our goal is to sign up an average of two students every month but more importantly is to retain them. We have a very small turn over rate which is good. We average about 1 student a month which is twelve new students per year and lose around 3 per year so we grow at a decent pace. Please keep in mind that I live based on what the dojo makes instead of wanting to make big bucks. My overhead is very low and I have no needs to fancy cars or big houses...just to teach what I love and be able to do what I love as my career.

I think most schools that have a foucs for making big bucks need to enroll an average of 10-15 students a month to make money. My reasons? In my experience the schools that focus more on the profit are the ones that lose more students than they retain.