Are you finding it difficult to draw the line between employer and employee at your dojo? At most martial art schools it is common for former students to become instructors. It is important to remember the chain of command. Here are tips for ensuring positive relationships with your employees while still showing who’s boss.  Stay Structured with Regular Team Meetings It is important to have a constant flow of communication throughout the dojo, especially between the owners, managers and instructors. This means regularly touching base with each other and ensuring everyone is on the same page. Staff meetings are a great way for martial arts owners to communicate with their employees as they allow for questions to be answered and brainstorming about the future and now.  TIMA co-founder Phil Britten says he and business partner Graham McDonnell have penciled various meetings into the work calendar, including a management meeting once a week, a team meeting once a month...

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-13-training-great-instructors

Alex: Today we're talking about how to approach instructor training. I guess you have to have this nailed if you're going to have consistency across your schools. Particularly for you when you own three schools and you've, that consistency is absolutely essential. So Graham, where do you start with this? Graham: Look, it's a daunting task when you talk to instructors and go, "Aw jeez, I want more instructors. I want to, you know, free up some time so I'm not doing every single thing but where do I start?" Again probably one of the key factors is having a look, if you do have a leadership program available to you. Whether you've got your own or you've got then the resources to find one and it’s important to have that program. But then when you go through the program, we have a great sort of little phrase when it comes to hiring and obviously that's the pointy end of sort of the product...

How often have you asked students to copy your movements on the mat? A question we frequently get asked by martial arts business owners is<span>,</span>"<em>What are your secrets for converting enquiries to business?"</em> Little do they know the first step to successful enquiry conversion is something they’ve been teaching for years.

In addition to being a great training technique, the ability to mirror and match behaviour can <span>be </span>incredibly useful in a business context, as it is a <span><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5894462/use-mirroring-and-matching-to-build-a-good-rapport-and-become-more-persuasive" target="_blank"><span>proven method of building rapport</span></a>.</span><span> </span>
<h2>An unconscious preference</h2>
Humans instinctively like and trust people who are similar to them<span>. W</span>hen people are faced with the prospect of...

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-12-dojo-learning-portal

Alex: Today, we are talking about TIMA's favorite teaching tools. Come on, kick us off, Graham. What is this all about? Graham: All righty. Well, this next thing here that I am going to talk about is our learning portal and has so many different facets to it and to explain from an instructor's point of view or a boss's point of view, having this forum where all of your IP, all of your intellectual property, all of your systems and procedures are hosted. Now, as we enter the information age and modern era, it's really vital to make sure that we stay current. Gone have the days of having a big lever arch fall with all of your systems written down and thumbprints all over it that your staff can maybe look at or learn from. What we've done is actually taken everything over the last, goodness, five years that myself and Phil have created and put it into an online platform where all of our staff have...

How do you rate your communication skills? Whether it’s speaking to one, to many, over the phone, in a webinar, in a team meeting, or with a new client, communicating professionally is an essential skill for any martial arts business owner.  But this is easier said than done. According to Glen Croston, Ph.D in Psychology Today, most studies indicate people fear public speaking more than death. However, public speaking is a simple skill and the key is to replace fear with confidence. Here are 8 tips to help you overcome your fear of public speaking and begin communicating confidently:  1) Know Your Audience The first step to communicating confidently is defining the audience you are addressing. Whether it’s a large group of business owners at an international summit, a web conference with a potential client, or a weekly staff meeting at the back of your martial arts studio, it’s important to understand whom your target audience is so you can tailor your...

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-11-industry-benchmarks

Alex: Today, we're talking about martial arts industry benchmarks so Phil, kick us off with this. Phil: Sure, well look, in every industry, I suppose, there are benchmarks which you need to, I suppose, keep in mind, because it helps you understand where you're tracking and with statistics or benchmarks, it's important that as you're reading those statistics, that you can see the curve before it happens. So I know in our industry, we have certain benchmarks that we have, I suppose, that are renowned around the world for the martial arts industry, for example, we're talking about quit rates, join rates, the average student fee, over-the-counter sales, all that sort of stuff that we in our business basically align ourselves with or check off with and see where we're tracking. And obviously we want to try and be ahead of the game and be the best in the world, so that's why we come with quit rates. I'm...

How do you feel about leaving your comfort zone? Do you avoid it or embrace it? For any business owner, leading a team through unchartered territory can be a daunting prospect. But it is an essential experience in any entrepreneur’s pathway to growth. As the owner of a martial arts school, you’re bound to feel a personal connection to your clients as well as the team you lead. This personal connection can be the barrier dojo owners encounter when it comes to breaking free from their comfort zone. The thought, ‘what if I let my clients down?’ can scare you into inaction. According to a recent article published in Forbes, having the confidence to leave your comfort zone is especially important for people who are self-employed. If you try to view the experience as a chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors and create a lasting impression in the mind of your customers, your positive attitude will frame your results.

What about the risk?

We...

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-10-low-cost-martial-arts-marketing

Alex: Graham McDonnell and Phil Britten are here from TIMA, the Institute of Martial Arts, and this time, some advice on martial arts marketing on a low budget. So, Graham, dispel the myth. We don't actually have to spend thousands on marketing ourselves, do we? Graham: Not at all, it's being effective with the money that you do have. You know, for years and years and years, I've looked at marketing and they say, "Look, you know, you should be investing 10% of the income that you make into marketing your business." Within reason, that's sometimes it's not always as effective. You know, you think, "Okay, all I have is $500, how can I utilize this for the next five weeks?" Or it could be three months, whatever it may be. But one of the easy ones is referrals. Having a referral campaign or a referral generating system in your business already. Because there's nothing better than actually...

How do you keep your staff on the same page? Many martial arts school owners start small, often with only one or two people running the business.  They expect processes will become easy once they finally hire a team to help them. One of the main challenges a business owner faces is managing an expanding team. In a martial arts business, organising your staff can be challenging.  Your instructors will want to command and lead a team. If you can instruct a team of instructors in a professional manner, your business operations will be smoother across the board. To help you on your way we’ve compiled a list of eight industry tips for running effective staff meetings at your dojo.

1) Know your subject and know your objective

One of your first steps towards running an effective staff meeting is making sure the subject of the meeting and your intended objectives are clear to your team. This step is important not only during the meeting but before it even happens. When...

If someone were to ask you, “What is holding you back from achieving your ultimate business goals?” how would you respond? Would you say that it was a lack of time, money or resources? We frequently find when speaking to business owners the main barriers stem from a fear of failure or a lack of self-belief. TIMA co-founder Phil Britten recently ran a two-day ‘Master Your Destiny’ workshop to help people push past these mental barriers to unleash their true potential for success.

Mind Over Matter

Achieving your goals may seem far off. You can start the process by changing one simple thing – your mind. From your experience in martial arts, you are already aware of the benefits a focussed mind can have on your physical state. Likewise, in your business there is no tool so powerful for achieving your goals as a changed mind and a changed perspective. An article published on Forbes concluded, “Succeeding as a leader boils down to two things:

1. ...