Questions regarding opening a school

[Manabimasho1]

Just as a side note, most CRNAs don't make 6 figures right out of school. The average starting salary is around 50k (the overall average is roughly 100k). Is she going part-time?

You did your Math, and I think you scared him more then I did

A Nurse Anistis (Not sure how to spell it ) is light years beyond a Certified Registered Nurse.

And yes it is a 6 figure income its a doctors and nurses title. a strange job My wife is going to be difficult and make everyone call her "Doctor Nurse McComas" Yeah its funny hehe our last name is McComas but anyways its a 6-7 year college course and she is through 1 1/2 years arleady she has roughly 5 more to go almost.

[tkdBill]

That's not all that scary...he needs just 40 students to break even and pay his home bills. $85 is a reasonable rate in most parts of the U.S. Sounds like he could do real well with 50 - 60 students. If he sells a few t-shirts and makes a few dollars in testing fees, it's definitely do-able.

I opened my full-time school 9 months ago. The most important thing I did was spend time with established school owners, observe their schools and "pick their brains".

--

[Enviroman]

I certainly think it's doable. Many small businesses are not fully profitable within the first few years. If he can simply break even (paying his home mortgage/bills AND the school's bills) that's not too bad at all.

Fantastic (read: decent and low cost) marketing tools include: giving free self-defense seminars at local high schools or the YMCA. Having a decent website with a lot of information about the school and then making sure people know about the website. Put an ad in the local Yellow Pages (including your website if you can afford a splash ad).

[jnpnshr411]

In my school we learn techniques from many different systems ( shotokan, jujitsu, filipino, alpha blocks) but at the end most of the things come from one system and the others just complement that, that is the base of your school. So that is what your certificate should say, just let your students know this is not TKD its ???. hope that makes sense

[scottnshelly]

In my school we learn techniques from many different systems ( shotokan, jujitsu, filipino, alpha blocks) but at the end most of the things come from one system and the others just complement that, that is the base of your school. So that is what your certificate should say, just let your students know this is not TKD its ???. hope that makes sense

Thanks, that’s basically what my Instructor did. We learned some form of Tae Kwon Do and learned complimentary techniques from other styles. Now I’m leaning more toward Kenpo, and Kenpo is a pretty broad term anyway, maybe I could just call it Kenpo featuring kickboxing, Jujitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Arnis, etc.

[CloudDragon]

A CRNA named McComas? Oh no, I'm not even going there.

Sorry for the bad joke, but being a nurse, I find morbid humor fascinating.

Anyway, I think all of the replies have been great, but being from the midwest, I would think that some adjustments of the numbers would be needed.

First, expand your "direct" and "secondary" competition radius to a much larger area. I personally look at the average drive in miles to a super Wal-mart. Then from talking to folks I kind of figure out who goes to what Wal-mart and roughly figure they will travel about that distance for training. Since there aren't that many schools in my area I didn't use a secondary radius. In my school, the average student drives 2-15 miles for lessons, with several that drive about 20.

Second, really consider if the location is worth the $$$, in population dense areas, location is more important, as word of mouth is less abundant, but you can use word of mouth to save alot of money and find a place a little off of main street. The biggest caution is well lit parking close to the school. Parents don't like seeing little Johnny survive his first sparring match, only to bust his lip open because he tripped in a pothole on his way to the car!

Third, Use local newspapers. They are a great marketing tool, and best of all, they are free! Everyone wants to see little Johnny and his friends in their uniforms with nice shiny trophies. Take a photo and send it in with a few words about them and your school!

Fourth, consider local community centers, and churches. One of the nicest Dojangs I have been to as far as work out space, was a club that was in a church gym. The town had 7,000 people and a beautiful new church with a great gym that the instructor got for a song!

So there you have it, if I can be of anymore assistance please let me know.

CD

[thekuntawman]

you know the saying about a baby bird learning to fly? as long as his feet are on the ground, it could be that he will never learn to fly. but if you throw him from a cliff or a tree, he will fly, because theres no way back. do or die, you could say.

business is like that. i know people who worked a job and a school, and it took them years to go full time. i know some people who did it for 20 years, and they still are not full time. i do not understand that one at all.

i am a foreigner, uneducated, and i am not rich. but i came to california, which is a very expensive place, i worked for 6 months 2 jobs, then open my school, and when i did that i quit both jobs to recruit and teach full time. when i need extra money, sometimes i will work for a few months. most of the time i will go on the road to teach in other cities (this weekend i am going to washington DC, $2500). the money making part of the school is not the teaching, its the recruiting. since i am cheap and i dont like to advertise ( do small ads in the yellow page only) i have to be the advertising, and a job will prevent me on doing this.

my advice for you brother, is to work two jobs, give yourself 6 months of eating at your mom house, taking your lunch, live off 1/2 of one job, and save the other 1.5 of your money. in six months (start advertiseing on the 4th month) quit both job and open your school. do or die.

you will need good flyers to get people interested, and BIG banner to be seen, and you better be in good shape. students need to be excited to join, and they have to see his own progress (lost weight, muscles getting stronger, get more flexible) in order to stay. students who quit is like losing hours on your job.

i know what the experts say, but its very possible to be successful. but you cant put half your butt on the seat, you have to sit all the way.

[whitematt]

A lot of students left the school when it changed Instructors. I know I could get a lot of those old students to come back to me.

Don't assume you can make this happen. I took over from my instructor and thought the same thing. I did a direct mail campaign that targeted every student that had ever been on record - even offered an incentive for them to come back.

I didn't get a single person to come back.

Realize that when people move on, they move on and often find other interests.

[SenseiKeith]

So far I have seen a lot of good advice. I will make a suggestion for you pick a location you want to teach in or a few locations you would like to teach in and start some programs in the school systems, YMCA's, adult education programs and any other avenue you can teach a program. Not all have to be free either you can charge for some of them. This way you build up a potential client base before you go and rent / buy a place. I have had friends that ran on going programs at YMCA's then built a client base up and went and rented a nice store front without going into debt. This way you not only can do that but you can get a feel for the area to see how well you can actually do.

Anytime you would like to pick my brains please feel free if you have a headset and can setup ventrilio client we can chat online on my pals vent server and I would be more then happy to give you a strong foundation in information that might help. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

[scottnshelly]

I’ve been thinking a lot about teaching lately. I’ve come to realize that a school is probably not in my near future, but I’ve got the teaching bug. I know of a couple people that seem interested in learning. I’m considering asking them if they’d be interested in learning in a one-on-one type environment, either for free or for very little. I don’t want to make money from anyone; I just want to spread my knowledge that was generously passed on to me.

I’ve got it in my head that if I start teaching one person, then he’ll tell his friend, then he’ll tell another friend and pretty soon I’ll have enough people chipping in to rent a building. Has anyone gotten started by teaching just one person, then using the “tell-a-friend” method?

Thanks for all of the advice so far.