Making Time For The Tasks That Never Get Completed
As a business person and an owner of multiple locations and businesses I personally understand the meaning of “short on time”! However, as the owner of my locations it is my responsibility to put an effort into not only ensuring that my classes and curriculum are the best that they can be, but also that my location is experiencing growth and is not being neglected in anyway. There are some things that get done every day, week or month like clock-work. Perhaps because they are there staring at you, perhaps because they are priority level items, or maybe we just enjoy doing these more than some other tasks. All of us got into this industry because we love the Martial Arts, and we love instructing our students on the way of our Art. The following are items that are often overlooked in our daily processes. Take this time to read through these items and determine which of these are not getting completed, or need some work! Clean House: Sift through all of the operations in your school. Analyze all the systems that it takes to make your school run and see if there are any cracks. For example: are you not performing your 2-4-6 week calls? Do you not have a scheduled day to send out birthday or “we missed you” cards? If there are gaps in your process take the time to fill them in. The slightest misstep in these simple processes allows students to disappear from sight.
Get Rid Of All Safety Hazards: Take the time to identify any dangerous areas of your school. Things like sharp edges of tables or walls, loose nails, leaky faucets, or ripped mats can be a serious liability. Make a determined plan to fix all of these items so as to protect yourself against any potentially harmful situations.
Organize A Clearance Sale: Do you have used gear or overstocked items collecting dust in your storage area? Significantly discount these items and hold a clearance sale, then take the proceeds and purchase new gear. Used Wavemasters, Kickpads or any other gear that needs updating would make a welcome addition in the homes of your serious students, and can mean providing the room and income that you need to invest in new equipment and pro-shop items!
Analyze Your Drop-Out Stats: When, where and why are your students quitting? If you cannot quickly deduce the reasons that drop-outs take place, then you need to put in the effort to uncover them. You may even have to call each and every student to find out why! Encourage them to tell you honestly why they lost interest in your program. After discovering the answers to this question it’s important that you break down this information to analyze at what rank, age and duration of training you are experiencing the most losses. This will help you to identify trends in the drop out rate and correctly adjust your curriculum or staff to aide in overcoming this challenge.
Take A Hard Look At Your Curriculum: This task directly ties into number 5. If a majority group of students are quitting at 12 year old yellow belt, for example, maybe the curriculum is not exciting enough or too challenging for that age group. Perhaps you have a teacher instructing class that doesn’t mesh well with children of this age. This type of information can only be figured out with intense analysis and research after your stats have revealed where the majority of your age group or groups drops out. It is also important to interview past and present students within this group for their opinions on the program.
Open The Lines Of Communication: Start investing the time into getting your student’s email addresses and phone numbers. Communicating regularly through email, newsletters and the phone plays an important part in retention. This is also an excellent way to market, build referrals and to just keep a finger on the pulse of your school.
Each of the items above hold an integral part of the processes of a successful school. Being informed and proactive in instituting and repairing these systems within your school can mean the difference between purely opening your doors each day, or achieving the successes that every Martial Art School Owner has the power to achieve.
Posted by Allie Alberigo - Kyoshi at 7/28/2010 6:15 PM 
Categories: Systemization of your business
Tags: organization Task setting Time management Time slicing business systems Goal setting
Categories: Systemization of your business
Tags: organization Task setting Time management Time slicing business systems Goal setting
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