What Necessary Steps Did You Make!!

[sensei8]

Anyone who has ever opened up their own MA school has had to do whatever it took to remain opening. Anything can be quite alarming, but necessary steps, otherwise, the unforgiving doors of your MA school would be closed, even before it ever had a chance.

I've been quite fortunate in the size of my immediate student body, in which, I averaged, with having opened 3 dojo's, 300 active students, however, that took time to amass, and it didn't occur overnight. As with anything worth any value, I fought and scrapped and tolled and sweated and clawed and them some from here to the ends of the earth and back.

Here's my question....

What sacrifices have you endured to keep your doors open when first opened??

 

What sacrifices have you heard about from your own instructor whenever they first opened their school??

Some of the things I had to do with my very first dojo are...

1. Lived in the dojo.

2. Eat 1 small cottage cheese and a green onion, every other day.

3. Bathed behind the dojo with a garden hose.

4. Washed and air dried clothes behind the dojo.

No, under the city ordinances of Van Nuys, CA, Los Angeles County, I suppose that I wasn't allowed to do #1, #3, and #4, above, because my dojo was zoned as a commercial business and not as a resident or a type that's zoned as both. That first year was a scary one, to say the least; fist time owner has its problems. Btw, #3 above wasn't done in the wide open; I had a oriental screen hung in such a way that it looked as some dojo decoration, but provided adequate covering, and I opted to do that after midnight.

Trust me, I'm not recommending that any MA school owner should ever consider to do what I did back then. I, in no way, condone my actions, nor do I want to hide under the pretense that I had to do whatever I had to do to remain opened.