Stuck in the mud!

[liger]

Another thought with the flyers post them on bulletin boards around the town. Create a facebook page for free webpage for your school then share it with your friends who shares it with their friends.

That sucks to not have funds for advertising have to resort to free means then. I wish you luck. Businesses are in hard times now of days.

[Luther unleashed]

Thanks sensei8. Well I'm in a 3 year lease and I didn't sign up to quit at the sign of struggle. There is a time to quit though so I hear you but the time is not here. My first location does great, but it's not enough to make a living at it, and since I left my 16 year career as a mechanic after repeated back injuries, this is it. It's this way and, well, this way. Today I put balloons on my A-Frame sign to make it more noticeable, I had a customer walk in, and so far I haven't had walk ins lol, funny!

Thanks ligear, I have a website and I'm very active on Facebook. I have been around a little bit so I'm set up, I just don't have funds to really purchase things like banners or things of that nature.

Tonight looked nice, I had some students to teach, and it was a fun night of sparring! I shouldn't complain, I have accomplished my dream after 22 years of "thinking about it"! Now I just need to maintain it or I'll be teaching people on the street haha!

[Lupin1]

Do some special summer programs for kids and adults. Make the kids' program a camp like theme with a special price for the entire summer and maybe a special Karate Camp 2016 t-shirt or something. Do more games and fun stuff in the summer and advertise it as such-- maybe have a barbecue or a full day of training once or twice as part of the program and advertise that as included. Try and make it different than a regular testing cycle as your week to week attendance probably won't be good enough for a lot of people to test on time. If you can, change the hours to have more kids' classes during the day when parents will be looking for things to do with the kids. You could get a lot of kids for the summer that'll stay on in the fall. Don't be afraid to do a more laid back summer program for adults, as well. People want things to feel more laid back in the summer and people will be doing thing with their kids, so again-- week to week attendance may suffer.

Advertise a LOT. Get on Facebook with lots of pictures. Find out if there's a local Facebook group (my town has a Facebook group and businesses that have gotten in good with that group have seen crazy growth. There's one cake place that makes cupcakes twice a week, posts in the morning as soon as they're done, and sells out within hours every single time). Try to get a group together for a demonstration at any town fairs or get a group to march in any parades this summer. Even setting up a booth at a fair can be helpful.

Contact your local libraries. I'm a children's librarian at a public library and this year's theme for summer reading across the US is "on your mark, get set, read!" which all about health and fitness and sports. I'm having a local Ninjutsu instructor come in and teach an hour long class for kids at my library, which will probably get him a new student or two. Contact every library in your area and see if you can come in and teach an hour long class focusing on health, exercise, and personal safety without violence. Libraries do the summer reading theme for adults, as well, so you could offer to do a separate hour long class just for adult patrons one evening or on a Saturday if you have time. If they can squeeze you in soon at the beginning of the summer, you could advertise your summer program during the classes and get some sign ups that way.

[Luther unleashed]

Lipin1, cool ideas thanks. To start with I actually have a scheduled "Women's self defense" class coming up. It's an opportunity to get some exposer as well. It's in about 2 weeks. The only draw back is I am not allowed to promote my business unless they ask me specifically, which is strange and I can't think of a good reason they make it that way, but what can I do.

As for advertising I'm all over Facebook and have that locked down I believe. I post a great deal of pics and vids. Tonight was testing, I posted 8 or 9 really good pics and wrote some things encouraging to students and prospects alike. I also post on a few local Facebook pages specifically designed for the area.

I am running a summer special of 50% off the first month. Not the same as your suggestion but similar, although I like the angle of making some summer classes with more emphasis on fun the the norm, the t-shirt idea and the like are all cool ideas.

Lastly the fair thing, excellent and I'm sure that would make an impact. In all honesty I ha w never done a demo, I just never have been interested. I'm more of a private person but obviously as I have grown into owning a school, I am constantly challenged to step out of my comfort zone. You are right, I need to look into doing something like this.

Me and my son who's only 9 but a great helper, put out another 100 fliers or so tonight after my testing while we were on the Walmart parking lot. Really hoping al the fliers are helping get a little bit of notice from the community. We will see!

Thanks for all the good ideas.