The 5 Mindsets of Martial Arts School Success, Part 1

By Dave Kovar

There are a lot of things that go into running a successful martial arts school. And there are a lot of different ways to be successful in this industry. For you, success might be having a chain of schools. Or, it might be running one supercenter or having a small but very efficient single school.

In the United Kingdom, there are a lot of people that have great success running once a week programs out of churches and school halls. With that said, there are some commonalities between all schools that are universal for success, regardless of your business model.

I believe that the level of success in virtually any school is directly related to the level of consistency that operators practice in “The 5 Mindsets.” That’s why, in our schools in California and New Jersey, we really try to focus on making these mindsets a priority in our daily actions. They are simple to articulate, but it takes time and effort to get in the habit of practicing them consistently.

The 5 Mindsets are:

1. We are the friendliest place in the town.
2. We are the cleanest place in town.
3. We only teach great classes, never just good ones.
4. We are excellent at student parent/ communication.
5. Every day, we look for opportunities to enroll new members.

This month, I’ll discuss the first three mindsets.

1. We are the friendliest place in town. In my travels, one of the most noticeable commonalities

that I see in successful schools is the friendliness of their students. Of course, that starts at the top with the head instructor and works its way down through the ranks.

But, it’s not enough just having the head instructor be friendly, hoping that everyone else follows his/her example. Creating a friendly environment takes conscious effort on the part of the whole team and should be discussed even at the student levels.

We teach a term called “friendly on purpose.” One of the ways we might practice this is reminding our current students to go out of their way to introduce themselves to people they don’t know and welcome them to the team. This one practice can transform a school in a matter of just a few months!

2. We are the cleanest place in town. It’s important to remember that there is a direct link between cleanliness and perceived professionalism. Simply put, people have more confidence in a clean school than they do a dirty one.

Most successful school operators that I know have a very specific “cleaning kata” that they follow on a daily basis. I would challenge you to go through your school with fresh eyes and look for ways that you could improve upon the cleanliness of it. If you can’t find much, that tells me that you already are very mindful of this function. If you find a lot, then perhaps you should re-create your “cleaning kata.”

3. We only teach great classes, never just good classes. Of course, this is an “intent” more than it is a reality. Chances are, pretty much all of us have taught our fair share of mediocre classes. For whatever reason, sometimes your classes are just better than other times.

I would like to think of myself as a very consistent teacher that can deliver a good student experience on a regular basis. With that said, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked off the floor thinking to myself, “What the heck happened?”

That is going to happen every now and then. But regardless of that fact, every time we step out on the floor our intent should be to teach an excellent class. Remember, that’s really our product.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how friendly our school is. It doesn’t matter how clean our school is. It doesn’t matter how good our website is or how slick our sales processes are. If our classes are only mediocre, people are not going to stick around for very long.

Next month, I’ll address the final two mindsets. Until then, start applying the first three.

You can contact Master Dave Kovar at [email protected].