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Yearly Archives: 2011

Keeping Up With Customer Service

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by Dennis Schaefer

At our martial arts school every day presents a new opportunity for customer service. With our student population approaching 300 students and our parent population approaching 600- assuming most students have at least 2 adults involved most of the time- my job as school manager keeps me hopping.

Our philosophy involves parent investment and participation in assuring that their children/students are practicing the behavior and habits that true martial artists practice at home and school as well as here at the dojang. My communication with parent begins the first day the student comes to try class and continues as long as the student continues to study. That initial meeting also begins the process of customer service that keeps our retention rate at about 80%.

In that first parent conference, I give the parent a chance to speak first, to tell me how they heard about our school and what prompted them to give us a try. That way I can immediately respond to their needs by addressing how our school can meet them, rather than throwing out a bunch of information that may or may not be important to them. It personalizes the process from the beginning and starts the vital parent investment.

I do try to narrow the conversation to avoid comparisons to other schools or martial arts programs. It is much safer to explain our expertise than to get into judgments about other schools or programs. I prefer to let our school’s success – enrollment numbers and retention rate-speak for itself.

Parents are invited to take a tour of our school, to see what’s happening in other classrooms, then to watch their child’s class. Watching is encouraged, once again to start the process of investment in the program.

Our instructors are trained to spend the valuable time immediately before and after class to chat with the parents about their student’s progress and possible challenges. This includes their performance at home and school. It is also an excellent time to work with individual students on their forms. We try to maximize the number of times we recognize individual students by name.

Customer service continues with a space on each student’s test form for parent comments on both what we are doing right and areas they feel could be improved. We also do a yearly survey of parent’s satisfaction.

Communication is facilitated by a monthly online newsletter and a number of bulletin boards throughout the school. We have designated employees who handle questions on specific topics such as fees, schedules and student progress.

Each potential student who starts our 2 week free trial receives a hand written post card in the mail with an individualized message, welcoming them back. We also try to recognize birthdays. Students who have been missing from class for more than a couple of weeks receive a phone call or e-mail to check up on their status.

Keeping our facilities clean and comfortable, equipment repaired and up-to-date and staff well trained are also a vital part of our customer service mission.

There is no substitute for immediate and continuing communication with both parent and student. The sooner they realize the benefits on both levels, the more likely that you will continue a long and fruitful relationship.

 

Dennis Shaefer is the Operations Manager at the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio. www.aacdaton.com

Run your martial arts school with professional management concepts and best practices.

Identify The Best Location for Your Martial Arts School

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by Matt Pasquinilli and Dennis Shaefer

Finding a location will require a lot of research. We have known many business owners, both in our industry and other industries, who don’t do any research. Instead, they drive by an empty storefront or commercial building and fall in love with the idea of having their business there. They call a broker, sign on the line, and only realize months later that it is not ideal for their type of business or the customers they want to serve. While you might be fortunate and find a great location that happens to be near your house or on the driving route to your current day job, if you don’t do some research and take the following tips into account, you might be making success in your business an impossible or needlessly difficult task.

 

Tip 8 – Target Demographics

 

You should identify the market you want to serve and study the demographic makeup of that area.  Consider household income, number of children per household, nature of surrounding businesses, average real estate prices and turnover rates, existing recreational facilities, recent trends in population and business, etc. This information can be obtained on-line from the US Census Bureau and other more specific sources. This will help you to map the prime spots for your first location.

 

Tip 9 – Careful Consideration of Real Estate

 

Consider the fact that commercial real estate lease rates can be affected by a number of influences. Sometimes a “deal” isn’t really a deal at all. Remember that you will be serving families with children and most classes will be held after work hours. What happens to the neighborhood after dark? Will parking be a problem? Is there room for growth?

 

Tip 10 – Do Your Research

 

Talk to neighboring business owners and tenants who lease from the same landlord you are considering. Shop around for the best commercial realtor. Some landlords are willing to let you do your own renovation if the space isn’t ideal for your purpose. You can negotiate several free months of rent in exchange for doing the work yourself. Be sure to check local zoning regulations first.

 

Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio. Dennis Shaefer is a profesional martial artist living in Oakwood, Ohio.

Behavior Coaching – Breaking The Link Between Emotion and Behavior

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Inappropriate behavior in the classroom is often disruptive to the student misbehaving, his classmates, and often the teacher. It can be overwhelming to a parent who has tried everything they can to correct their child’s behavior and the problem persists or gets worse. No child wakes up and says “I am going to get in trouble at school today!” It happens though and the emotional toll on a child who is often in trouble has lifelong impact and can be just as challenging as a learning disability. I have spent a lot of time in schools, with teachers, and with parents and their children working on creating real behavior change and would like to share some of my strategy here.

There are two main points that I ask parents to think about when helping their child work on changing behavior at school. The first is the idea that if your child was struggling with math or reading or another academic area, then they would be receiving some help in the form of a tutor or mentor. When it comes to behavior struggles, children are most often punished, coerced, shamed, or embarrassed into appropriate behavior. So when this heavy handed approach isn’t working, try the tutoring route and help coach a child into the right kind of behavior. Second, when a child is struggling with behavior, the teacher will sometimes use emotional, judgmental, vague and often confusing language to describe a set of behaviors that are disruptive or distracting to the teacher’s ability to effectively do her job. As a parent, it is helpful if you see the teacher’s need and empathize with it, but you also have to be a little bit of a detective in order to learn from the teacher what the disruptive behavior looks like.

Some teachers will write a note home when a child is disruptive and include emotionally charged descriptors of character like, “disrespectful”, “willful”, or “rude.” This gives you a good idea of how the teacher might be feeling, and you can probably guess what they mean, but you need the facts without the emotion. You need to know what specific behaviors look like and when they are happening. When the teacher says your child is “disrespectful”, or “can’t get his desk work done”, call the teacher and say “I understand how disruptive inappropriate behavior can be and I want to help my child change his behavior in your class.” Then ask, “Can you think of an example today or this week where he was respectful and tell me what he did and what he was supposed to be doing?” Once the teacher says “During silent reading today, your son got out of his seat five times and was talking to another student when he should have been reading.” Now you have a specific behavior and an idea of what might be triggering it. If your son is a challenged reader, or a bored strong reader, then you can talk to him about some simple ways that he can remember not to leave his seat, and do his work even when he is bored, or ask for help in an appropriate way from the teacher. This seems like an oversimplification, but with language like “make a god choice”, or “what do you think you should be doing now?” so prevalent in schools now, it is best to start by clearly defining what has to happen in concrete terms and not vague and ambiguous character trait concepts.

 

If you would like more information on our Behavior Coaching method, click here for a free paperback copy of “Behavior Coaching” by Matt Pasquinilli and Scott Hall, PhD.

 

Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio. He is also the author of “The Child Whisperer” and co-author of “Behavior Coaching” with Dr. Scott Hall. www.aacdayton.com

www.aacdayton.com

 

 

 

 

What It Takes To Get Things Done

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“Do It Now!” I tell myself that about 1,000 times a day.  Saying it reminds me to take action, and it’s a good start, but not enough. What works best for me is starting with a specific target, identifying daily actions that move me in the direction of that target, and then focusing on what I need to do today in order to be successful. I conquer the easiest tasks first and use the resulting momentum to conquer the tough tasks, the things that no one likes to do, as I get closer to the goal. Here are some more questions that I ask myself in order to move closer to my goal, and to really get things done!

What am I doing with my life that fulfills my purpose? What a great, and scary question. You can’t answer it if you watch a lot of tv, eat a lot of fast food, and live far beyond your financial means.  What is my purpose? What does my purpose filled life look like?

What am I pursuing? Creativity, balance, strength of character, integrity, honesty, joy? Can I find any of that consuming garbage? Garbage in, garbage out. How much time do I spend pursuing happiness and joy? Does my job allow me to pursue an ideal life that fulfills my purpose? If not, how can I rework my job or find a new job?

Can I do something poorly until I can do it well? “Anything worth doing, is worth doing __________.” Fill in the blank. If I take that approach, I might miss the chance to try something new, or learn something more complex than I am used to. If I allow my self to be bad at something new while I am learning all about it, then I will be open to asking for help and practicing until I get better. Letting go of my need to be good and competent, diminishes the risk.

“What if I try and fail?” Wow, what a whopper. I get this one a lot. “What if I run out of money?” “What if no one likes my idea?” “What if I can’t finish it on time?” “What if the economy gets worse?” “What if” is another way to say “I’m afraid.” It also immediately stops the problem solving process and stalls all action. Fear is good, it can be a great motivator if you ask it to be. Next time I face the “what if”, my answer is “then.” “If I run out of money, then I will have to earn more or spend less.” If no one likes my idea, then I will find a different audience or rework my idea.” “If I can’t finish on time, then I will have to get help or make more time.” “If the economy gets worse, then I will seek more knowledge, work with more focus and energy, and look for new solutions.”

The most important thing I have learned about getting things done in the last 40 years!

The most important thing I have ever learned about achieving goals, making progress, getting things done, and finding success is: The only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is, successful people do the things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do. Successful people don’t want to do these things either, but they do them anyway because they are focused on their purpose and the outcome of the work. Unsuccessful people want an easy path and will put up with an unpleasant outcome or destination in order to avoid the discomfort of possible rejection, embarrassment, etc…

Do It Now! Pray and move your feet!

One last thought.

Teamwork and collaboration are vitally essential to living a purpose filled, worthwhile life. You might need new teammates at times, or you might need to lead your team with more force than you are comfortable with. When I lead my team through solution finding exercises, I ask them to make a list of all the ways we CAN achieve a goal or desired outcome. I also let them write all the reasons why we CAN’T be successful, but I ask them to write it on their worksheets in the column labeled “Why we CAN’T.” They see immediately how much I value their fears and negative thoughts, when they look down at the paper and see the column is filled with a giant X with no room to write. It quickly refocuses them to become solution focused instead of problem focused.

 

Matt Pasquinilli is the Executive Director of the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting Started in The Martial Arts School Business

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by Matt Pasquinilli and Dennis Schaefer

Most owners of martial arts schools start as students of the martial arts, often having grown up in a school, and so have an idea of what a martial arts business looks like. While it is good to have a starting point based on your perspective as a student, many martial arts schools are poorly run, so just following in your instructor’s footsteps is not always a good idea.

 

We are assuming that you have already decided that you want to be in this industry as a school owner and so we are not going to waste your time talking about the pros and cons of owning your own martial arts business. It is also our belief that martial arts school ownership is a great way to build wealth and serve your community in a very meaningful way.

 

So let’s get started.

 

Tip 1 – Self-Assessment

 

Take some time to think about and write down what assets you have to invest in your martial arts school. Starting with financial assets, list your cash on hand, cash you might have coming in from another job or investments, and your ability to get credit, or your credit score. It is best to have as much as possible in this category, but don’t despair if you don’t have the healthiest financial picture. A lot of businesses are started on a hope and a prayer.  You should expect to have a hard time starting out this way, but you can always find solutions to any problem if you are persistent, ask for help, and keep a positive mental attitude.

 

After determining your financial strengths, start to assess your less tangible assets like whom you might know that can help you plan and organize your efforts to get started on the road to opening your school. You will meet the most success with a team behind you, but be careful to steer clear of negative people and those who have little faith in your ability to succeed.  A successful team should include anyone you know who is already successful in business; professionals like attorneys and accountants who might help you for free or a discounted rate, and anyone who believes in your dream or believes in you. Sometimes having someone to talk to about your plans helps you to find solutions faster and gives a different perspective to how you might be thinking about an issue.

 

Tip 2 – Reality Check
We believe that anyone who has a passion for teaching the martial arts should have the opportunity to own their own school. However, they should also have a foundation of good skills to start with, have as much experience as a student and as a Black Belt or equivalent, as possible, have impeccable ethics, and a strong moral compass.

 

Of course, anyone who is intimate with the martial arts business knows that our industry is littered with goof balls, hacks, and people who are just plain bad. Every industry suffers from this problem at some level, but it is more upsetting in our field because many martial artists come from a tradition of self-discipline, honor, and respect. While many school owners start with good intentions, without a professional approach and strong ethic, a school can become mediocre or worse and exist that way for a long time. There are good schools also operating in our industry and, when you find them, we suggest that you take as many notes as possible and think about what makes them so attractive and successful.

Tip 3 – Be Disciplined in Your Planning

 

Apply the discipline that you developed through your martial arts training to planning your business. Set aside time every day to write out a daily agenda or task list and prioritize your work according to what needs to be done the most. Don’t avoid the hard work or the things that you dislike or that make you nervous. Just like you trained hard as a student in martial arts and overcame many obstacles that took you out of your comfort zone, you will have to embrace the challenges of starting and operating a professional business in order to make progress and reach your goals.

 

Tip 4 – Write a Business Plan

 

This can be a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be. There are many books that guide you through the process, and many free examples and templates are available on the internet. If you are not the type to spend hours and hours writing and researching, then don’t try to write that type of business plan. Start with a brief outline first, and then fill it out as you think about your plan and gain knowledge and experience by talking with your support team. If you don’t have a support team, build one.

 

Tip 5 – Seek Professional Assistance

 

Talk to an attorney and decide what type of business you want to operate. There are several appropriate business structures for martial arts schools and an attorney or accountant can help you decide which will work best in your personal situation. Tax issues are often taken into consideration during this stage so unless you already have another business or work as an attorney, accountant, or tax adviser, you should seek professional help. The small amount of money you invest in getting this type of assistance can save you a lot of money and headaches in the future.

 

Tip 6 – Naming Your Business

 

Decide on a business name and register it with the state. You can research names on the internet or have your attorney do it for you. Think of the most simple, normal sounding, and easy to pronounce name you can. A good name should be short and describe the business as clearly as possible. Of course, some martial arts schools have long or exotic sounding names and others are very hard to pronounce. You could certainly use those during class and inside the school on brochures and other printed materials and signs but, be warned, most people will not know what you are in business to sell and you will make marketing and advertising your business profoundly more difficult.

Matt Pasquinilli is Executive Director of the non profit Asian Arts Center Taekwondo School in Dayton, Ohio.

Dennis Schaefer is a professional martial artist and author living in Oakwood, Ohio.

Karate for Kids and Adults www.aacdayton.com