MA Business Success 78: Different Revenue Streams

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Phil Britten:
Hey, what's up! Phil Britten here from TIMA. This is your martial arts, and we're here with the martial arts business success podcast.

Graham McDonnel:
Hey, guys. Number 78, goodness!

Phil Britten:
What do we got here for today, Graham? I think we've got a pretty cool topic. It's about helping people with different revenue streams, within their business as well.

But before we get cracking on that, we've had such great response on access to our free course that we created for 2017. So, if you don't know what that's all about, we created a free online course on our website. So you go to tima.com.au, scroll down and check out the introductory martial arts boot camp, and in there is your free course. You get access to some great videos, a yearly calendar, instructor download assessment sheets and some reception checklists, and a heap of other stuff.

It's really like the 101 of business, so if you're wondering about what we get up to and what we do and what's on offer, there's a real cool free online course, and you can get access there. So, head to the website tima.com.au. Graham?

Graham McDonnel:
All right.

Phil Britten:
19 different revenue streams. What's the G.O.?

Graham McDonnel:
Well, I guess this was spurred on by a quote that I ... or even a statement that I read the other day, and they're talking about when people complain there's not enough money or there's an economic downturn or whatever. There's those who complain and those who pull their sleeves up and find other income streams to help substitute, while that part of their business may be suffering or slowing down slightly.

So what we've done is, we ourselves think, 'Okay, for us to grow, what's our financial goal? What do we need to do?'

Now, you can only pack so many students into a programme, or there's only so much floor space or there's only so many instructors. So, then we've got to think about, what about all the other time in the day? What about the other opportunities we have? So, what we recently did is we ran a ladies-only fitness challenge, and we started with zero clients in that sort of niche-audience.

And I felt, "Wow, okay. For us to just tackle ladies only, let's give a whole new instructor team", and I don't mean martial arts instructors, I'm talking fitness trainers, and create a whole new programme in our business.

So, we decided let's bite the bullet and that's the way we go. So, we did our homework, we did our maths, and what we've done here in the three months that we've been running this sort of programme now ... We have I believe there's about 70 ladies that are now actively training.

So, when you think of zero dollars, to having 70 full paying members bringing in let's say 8,000, 9,000 dollars extra revenue a month ... There's obviously some costs involved in that, but there's definitely a truckload of profit that's left after the fact.

So, that was rather than just going, let's push our instructors of martial arts programmes more, where are some of the other areas that we can leverage other people's strengths, bring it into our business and bring in a whole new clientele that we never had before? So, that was one strategy we employed.

Phil Britten:
If, I mean, if you've got a ... We didn't want to burn our instructors out because they work really hard around the clock anyway. If you're a school that's just starting, you might have the ability to do morning and afternoon extra classes yourself, as well. So, if your staff was ready or you're all ready to do that, then that's fine, that's something that you assess.

But for us, it made more sense for us to outsource the actual programme by doing it within our walls and for us to do a different type of marketing campaign and get all those women in here training.

Which really, the end result for us is not only the profit that we get from that course, but then they get to see our martial arts school, we're a family-friendly school, so they've got kids or friends with kids. And, you know, the return on investment there, well it's really endless because it's just more people coming in your business.

Graham McDonnel:
Well, when you think about it, if we fast-forward a year, and I know from the projections that we have now, even without growing that sort of arm of the business anymore, that's an 80,000 dollar a year turnaround for something that just started from an idea, but we've been implementing. And we've spoken about this on different podcasts.

It's great to be inspired, but unless you do something with it, it's just, it's fluffy energy and it means nothing. So you guys need to really start thinking about, "What do I need to do?" Ask the questions, but then get on and actually do it. Start applying and test the measure as you go forward.

So, that's just one strategy that we actually delivered. I know we've got a bunch of guys we gave an opportunity to at the end of the year that are now delivering this same sort of course, so if you've got an interest there and you want to find out more, [email protected]. I'd be happy to give you guys a bit of a brief on that.

Phil Britten:
I literally got off the email with three or four people who are doing it, and they're all plus 20, plus 30, plus 40 new members that never knew who they were, [inaudible 00:04:46] in their system. So, you know, put your hand up in the air if you want an extra 20, 30 members in a two week campaign. [laughs 00:04:52]

Graham McDonnel:
Yeah, Definitely.

So that's was just one strategy that we use. Now, we've also gone and thought, "What different programmes or what different events can you run in your school that are quite low on being able to run the cost, but high on that return of investment or high in regards to bring revenue into your school?" What are some of the things, Phil, that we've done?

Phil Britten:
Well, we've done it in the past ... And we've continually always doing it as well ... Is, you know, different programmes you can bring in within your school.

So, let's just say you're a straight karate school and that's all you offer. Then maybe you can offer a fight-club type programme, like the Hyper, who we're partnered with. Or, you've got a real young sort of crew, maybe the tricking things from Hyper.

So, if you don't have any upgrade programmes, you can go, well now we can add an upgrade programme or an extra programme. So, then instead of going from a single star membership school, now we can become multiple-star membership school, so people can choose to train at one star or upgrade to two stars. There's an extra revenue stream. You can run seminars or six-week programmes or three-month, whatever it may be, to get some extra income in your school as well.

So, finding other programmes that you can impregnate into your current business model, and either have it as a course or an upgrade or a complete separate style, so then you've gone from a single star school to a multiple star school, which what we do as well.

And it's amazing to go ... To see ... When someone joins and you go, "Well this is the single star membership, but for an extra so-and-so amount, you can do these two styles as well," and they're like, "Well, that's a no brainer."

Graham McDonnel:
Guys, there's two things that we do on a regular basis that has brought both income and new students to the programme. And one that we're running currently at the moment while we're during our school term or the school holiday period is holiday programmes designed just for kids. And we run this two mornings a week, so this is outside of our normal class time. It doesn't interfere with any of our classes, but what we do is we have, you know, averaging about 30 to 40 kids per day. Obviously, the right instructors and the right people are there to help out.

But that's a whole new income stream ... When you're talking about 50 dollars for the 9 a.m. till 2 o'clock for that day ... It's a great way to really look at bringing some good cash flow to your business for minimal staff hours and minimal staff burnout. So, quite an easy one there that we've been able to do and we've been doing this for years. So every school holiday, we'll offer a couple of times throughout the week, on that sort of holiday period, and it's a great way to bring some great income into that school.

And number two ... Is something that we had some great success with at the end of last year ... Was our four-hour workshop, a self-defense workshop. So, rather than doing a one-off, it was done on a Saturday afternoon ... And to be honest with you, this was a great one because it brought a whole different clientele to it.

Yes, we marketed to our students, but it wasn't so they could do it. It was so they could let their friends know that they could do a short four-hour style bootcamp, self-defense training, knowledge training, they didn't have to be experienced, and we made sure they left after the fact feeling energised, but feeling safer.

And, look, I'm sure you guys would agree that the world is not getting any nicer, and a lot of people want to be able to just learn some good skills but not necessarily commit to a full martial arts programme.

So, that was a great way that we had 50 people, yes, 50 people, in our business for this four-hour workshop. And when you're looking at a cost of about 150 dollars, you guys do the maths behind that. That was a pretty good turnaround, when you're looking at a four-hour workshop.

So, these are great ways to go, what strengths do you have? How can I leverage the skills that you have, but also going to reach a different audience to one, get you more income, and two ... I guess brand exposure? Brand awareness. So there's a couple ones there that we did for kids, and definitely an adult-focused one as well.

Phil Britten:
It's also worth mentioning ... I know that we ... this is a global podcast so people in America, UK and everywhere else will tune in and listen as well ... So it's worth mentioning that another avenue stream ... It's not really right for us and I haven't seen many people in Australia do it well ... Is the after-school programmes. I know it's quite big in America, I'm not too sure if it's big in the UK, but after-school programmes is another revenue stream.

But, this is what I'm weary. You know, when I got into business to do martial arts ... and then if you turn into an after-school care then it changes the theme and the focus of your school.

Some people get fantastic results, they love it. Some people do it and go, "Why did I do it?" It's really up to you, but it is an extra revenue stream.

It's worth the mention if that's something that's up your alley. I can put you in touch with people who are doing it really well in America.

Again, I don't think it works real well in Australia. We looked at it - didn't fit our model. That's why we just did school holiday camps, which Graham mentioned as well, so that was our version of it.

Graham McDonnel:
Guys, I want to shout out to a couple guys that really helped us recently, and they're guys from the Hyper. So both Jason and Roland. The guys there have got a wealth of knowledge, both from a martial arts perspective, but also a business perspective. And what we do is we partner with the guys to help give you guys the rewards that we've had for the last couple of years working with the guys.

They offer not only a curriculum and a programme to run classes in your school that add value ... For example, we do a Hyper fight-club. It's a great sort of teams focused programme, great for adults. Yes, some of the little kids will do it, but mainly for those big guys, which is really exciting. It's a Hyper pro ... But also, too, they've got some great material, similar to what we give you guys, about how to, again, run some great add-value programmes, great income-stream-boosters into your business.

So, if you want to check out the guys go and download, or go and check out the Hyper, Hyper website. Go and check out for the Hyper pro-schools.

If it sounds interesting, punch in TIMA, T-I-M-A, into the area where it has the code, and they'll give the discount of a hundred dollars a month, discount on their premium pro, which is absolutely outstanding.

So guys, check it out, can't recommend it enough. We use it, have done for many years, and it's definitely worth time.

Phil Britten:
Absolutely. And for all you podcast listeners and viewers out there, we've had a lot of feedback from our 'Try Five for Five' programme that we've been doing. We really wanted, in 2017, to lift the bonnet of what's behind the doors on our online content.

So, we have the complete martial arts boot camp, which is valued at 99 dollars a month. There's a lot of things you get within there, not just the content there, but a member's monthly webinar, as well.

What we decided to do, so you can have a peek inside, a bit of a look, is just for five dollars you get access for five days. So 'Try Five for Five'.

So, if that sounds interesting to you, head to our website, tima.com.au. Go check out, scroll down to where it says, "The complete martial arts boot camp." It's 99 dollars a month. Type in promo code 'try5', T-R-Y and the number 5, 'try5', and you're gonna get five days for five dollars to take a look, and download heaps of stuff in there guys.

So, I don't know what other excuses you've got to build your business, there's a great opportunity to get some fantastic access.

So, get in there, let us know how you go, we'd love to get some feedback. Go get it this week, have fun. Remember: don't just take the information, but like Graham said, "Start implementing the things in your business. Take action and success will come your way."

Have a fantastic week guys, ciao, see you later.