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Marketing Vs. Retention

Marketing Vs. Retention

Which is more important for growth and profit of your martial arts studio? Well, of course they both are but they are very different problems to solve and need different tools and approaches. If you are under the age of 80 you should know the basic and modern tools for marketing for your martial arts school. I myself have been involved with my local martial arts school for almost 10 years and in martial arts since I was 15 years old. Increasing membership counts is not rocket science and following the basic marketing techniques in your local market takes very little money and energy. Understanding your potential clients, which are parents to be clear, is more important than the actual marketing efforts you put in place.

Marketing

Several tried and tested, simple cost-effective marketing methods are listed below. Of course these are just a few but has the most impact on opening the front door and should be obvious to you.

Flyers: creating a flyer is one of the most basic methods of getting your message out. Your message must be clear. 80% of your potential market is under the age of 13 but your message is not to those children but rather their parents. What benefit are you providing? Why should they bring their children? I’m not going to talk about that because you should already know that and if you don’t you better learn real fast. Black belts work really well on delivering these flyers to your local neighborhoods.
Word of mouth: Nothing more to say.
Bring a friend day: Buddy day is a great way to boost membership quickly… also, making this a contest to win a prize like an iPad has an amazing impact on motivation.
Birthday Parties: Right.
Facebook: This one takes a little more knowledge but being able to have a sponsored ad in your local area that feeds all parent with kids under the age of 13 in a 10-20 mile radius is very powerful and cost effective and worth the effort to make it happen. However, the ad has to be done correctly to make sure you are talking to the parents and what they want for their children. As a parent some of the basic I want for my children include confidence, respect, perseverance, how to handle bullying of all types because it’s not a question of whether bullying happens but how to handle it when it does.

Retention

Now that you’ve opened up the front door how do you keep the back door closed. You work hard on signing up those new students and the last thing you want to do is loose that student and the cost of student acquisition let alone the future revenue lost from that student and who they may know. You see, this is a triple loss when you lose a student; 1) the cost to acquire that student 2) the future revenue associated with their membership and 3) the potential revenue of their friends.

According to a report by the Harvard Business Review/Bain & Company, “increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25 percent to 95 percent.” Wow! Commitment to increase retention seems pretty profitable and well worth the effort.

Of course we can talk for hours on the reasons for loosing students but you have to accept that it is simply part of the business model we are in but minimizing as much as possible is HUGE for increasing profits. If you can anticipate the main reasons for loosing students, you can head those off at the pass. How do you do that? Simple, know your customers which is not the student necessarily, but rather the parents who brought their child to you. I don’t know how many times a parent came to me months later and said, “you were right, exactly what you said would happen with Suzy did happen and as you said, I’m going to teach my child not to be a quitter.”

We know exactly the life cycle of a membership and it has never been so true when we say knowledge is power (profit). We know why the parents brought their children and we need to continually remind the parents of those reason as much as possible. So what can you do? Well, one of the simplest is education and communication with the parents. When I teach class I’m not only teaching my students but I’m also teaching the parents who are watching. I even engage the parents during class so they stay interested and educated in what we are doing for their children on the mat. Always take advantage of engagement opportunities which generally happen immediately before, during and after classes.

Of course we can’t always talk to parents when we have something to say about their child but if it was important enough to have that thought, it’s important enough to be communicated in some form to the parent. Parents love to talk about their kids! And with today’s technology with mobile apps it has never been so easy to communicate with parents when you simply can’t do face to face.

One of the most important things we look at is to measure how our children are doing in school is their report card every quarter/semester. This simple form of measurement allows us as parents to see how our children are doing academically and if we need to make adjustments. Without measurement how do you know how your child is doing or how can you help?

This is true for martial arts as well and having the right Martial Arts Software that can help with membership management such as billing, attendance, scheduling etc. is critical just like having electricity for the lights. Those are simply the “must haves” in any martial arts software worth their salt. However, what about measurement of the students and communicating progress and results to the parents? As you know, the belt testing process is a very paper intensive and time consuming process. This is why the martial arts software you choose should not only keep track of current belt levels (duh) but also do end-to-end belt level management and automate the promotion process.

This time consuming process starts with defining your curriculum, checking off skills as they are mastered, inviting students to test, collecting testing fees, executing the test and grading each skill (measurement), belt order, belt ceremony and finally, most important, communicating the results of that test to the parents who pay the membership fees and test fees. In our school, when testing is done the students run off the mat to their parents not for a hug unfortunately but to grab their phones to see their test results and the grades they just achieved. Talk about engagement with the parents!

In short, communication with the parents whether face to face, email, texting, report cards is critical to improving retention of your membership. And having the right martial arts software that not only does the back-office management, but also MUST include an easy way to keep track of your membership in terms of skills you are teaching them and keeping the parents that pay for and encourage their children informed. How many of you still use clipboards and cryptic ways of tracking where your students are in their current belt level? Who’s ready? How many of you have lost testing fees because the parents didn’t pay? How many parents have no clue how their child is doing?

Eric Pansegrau
Founder, JIBASoft Inc.

To Succeed In The Martial Arts Business – Eliminate Distractions

Owners of martial arts school often quote distractions as the #1 reason that affect their business productivity and success. Distractions in business come in many forms, and the most common being the administrative tasks. In a recent survey, business owners have said that the most frequent time waster is grueling administrative chores. So whether your personal vision as a martial arts school owner includes business growth, a wider sphere of influence, or simply spending more time with students, our martial arts school management software will help you reach your goals.

Daily distractions limit time for what’s more important

Some martial arts studio owner attend to tedious tasks and waste time on manually tracking attendance, monitoring membership, taking payments and so much more. Spending your precious time on these time-consuming works will not generate results. Don’t think that busywork leads to productivity. Your school needs an orderly approach to run the business so that you can focus on what matters most to you – students. One way of improving efficiency, increasing productivity and streamlining business processes is using smart technology – OnMat membership management software – after all, it’s all about smart work, not hard work.

Automate every process and save time

For martial arts school owner, every hour of their time is an investment. The only winning formula for martial arts business is – Saving more time to contribute to students’ success. From monitoring students’ attendance, tracking their belt levels, to sending emails to students and their parents, OnMat software will free your hands from these daily mundane tasks. By automating business processes you can eliminate these distractions and devote more time to networking with the martial arts community.
Say goodbye to paper documents, third party email software, attendance cards and excel spreadsheets! Only one martial arts school management software – JIBASoft’s OnMat – can help you focus on priorities and achieve your set goals.

How Martial Arts Studio Software Can Help You Manage Students’ Skills?

Martial arts schools foster important life skills in students that help them prosper in all areas of their lives. From young children to adults, students learn valuable skills through martial arts training. Even though it may be possible for you, as a martial arts school owner, to create a mental map of the skill levels of each and every student, using automated software can help you take things to the next level. Martial Arts School Management Software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, can help in effective skills management at your school and bring value to the organization. Let’s see how.

OnMat

Develop and Define Skills into Curriculums:

In any instructional setting such as a martial arts school, curriculum is the material or resource by which students achieve identified outcomes or overarching goals. Until you organize a training curriculum, you cannot define the expectations for learning and progression for each student in your school. Using martial arts studio software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, you can create a specific curriculum for each skill level. Once the curriculum is in the system, this will help you organize training programs efficiently and share expectations through software and email so students achieve their goals easily.

Measure and Communicate Progress:

Skills management is an ongoing process. Regular assessment of individuals is essential to monitor their progress towards short-term and long-term goals. With martial arts management software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, you can clearly communicate with each member about their individual level of performance and where they actually stand in terms of their set goals so that they can work upon the weak points with your help. The more students feel that they have been able to achieve their goals, the greater the retention rate and the higher the word-of-mouth will be for your studio.

A well-implemented skills management strategy in martial arts schools should bring efficiency and competitive advantage. Curriculum design and regular communication can have a huge impact on your business growth. Using martial arts studio software like JIBASoft’s OnMat to manage students’ skills, requirements and levels can make a huge difference in the success your studio.

Managing Belt Testing And Promotions Becomes Easier

Do you own a martial arts school? How do you manage the forever re-occurring process of belt testing and promotions? As an owner and a martial arts instructor, you have the responsibility to prepare, measure and provide feedback to your students as they progress through your belt structure on their journey to black belt. It’s quite a tedious, time-intensive process that is constantly ongoing and one of the most important responsibilities of a successful martial arts studio.

Belt Testing

Many martial arts management software claim to manage belt testing but simply keep track of the current belt level. The correct martial arts school management software can help you make the belt testing and promotion process a seamless part of your daily routine.

When looking for the right martial arts management software you need to choose a system that manages the promotions through your belts from beginning to end. The only mobile, cloud-based platform called OnMat by JIBASoft can do these tasks:

Define skills and organize into your curriculums: With OnMat, each belt level in martial arts has its own meaning and a set of skills defined into a curriculum. No matter your belt structure (color scheme), you simply define the skills you teach and then organize those skills into curriculums for each belt level. Students are then measured on the curriculum for their current belt with student progress updates as you see fit.
Track students progress against those curriculums: As students come to class and learn and demonstrate proficiency on skills, you as instructors simply check off those skills in their member profile. This task is made easy as instructors can simply take the App, OnMat, On the Mat with them. And from the parent portal, the students and parents will always know their current status and eligibility for the next belt testing.
Pay belt testing fees anytime, anywhere: Once a student has demonstrated a level of proficiency, OnMat will automatically send out an invitation for belt testing and invite them to pay the belt testing fee at their convenience keeping track of who has paid and who has not.
Grade skills on test day: On test day, use OnMat to grade each skill as they are performed in front of the judges. Once the student is passed they are automatically promoted to the next belt level and comprehensive report card is emailed to the student and parent providing the much needed feedback.

With 85% of Martial Arts Practitioners under the age of 13 years old, it is critical that we educate and communicate to the parents of our members. A happy, educated parent about the life skills we are teaching their children is a happy, paying and most importantly, a renewing customer!

OnMat’s end-to-end belting testing management and Parent Portal, OnMat Now, increases your efficiency 10 fold with this tedious, time-intensive process of belt level management freeing up your time where it is most needed; with your students!

How Martial Arts Studio Software Can Help You Manage Students’ Skills?

Martial arts schools foster important life skills in students that help them prosper in all areas of their lives. From young children to adults, students learn valuable skills through martial arts training. Even though it may be possible for you, as a martial arts school owner, to create a mental map of the skill levels of each and every student, using automated software can help you take things to the next level. Martial Arts School Management Software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, can help in effective skills management at your school and bring value to the organization. Let’s see how.

Martial Arts Studio Software

Develop and Define Skills Curriculum

In any instructional setting such as a martial arts school, curriculum is the material or resource by which students achieve identified outcomes or overarching goals. Until you organize a training curriculum, you cannot define the expectations for learning and progression for each student in your school. Using martial arts studio software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, you can create a specific curriculum for each skill level. Once the curriculum is in the system, this will help you organize training programs efficiently and share expectations through software and email so students achieve their goals easily.

Measure and Communicate Progress

Skills management is an ongoing process. Regular assessment of individuals is essential to monitor their progress towards short-term and long-term goals. With martial arts management software, like JIBASoft’s OnMat, you can clearly communicate with each member about their individual level of performance and where they actually stand in terms of their set goals so that they can work upon the weak points with your help. The more students feel that they have beenable to achieve their goals, the greater the retention rate and the higher the word-of-mouth will be for your studio.

A well-implemented skills management strategy in martial arts schools should bring efficiency and competitive advantage. Curriculum design and regular communication can have a huge impact on your business growth. Using martial arts studio software like JIBASoft’s OnMat to manage students’ skills, requirements and levels can make a huge difference in the success your studio.

3 things you must consider before buying management software for your Martial Arts Studio

Generally, martial arts studios involve high investment in the beginning as well as general maintenance costs all year round. To make your martial arts studio more profitable, you need to embrace the mantra – Manage well to double up your revenue. Without effective management software for your studio, it’s impossible for you to keep up with the grueling administrative tasks and business growing pains. So, choosing the right management solution for your studio is necessary to facilitate good growth. Check out 3 critical elements you must consider before buying martial arts studio management software:

Martial Arts Studio Software

Is it simple, easily operated?

Make sure the management software you’re going to buy maximizes your free time and eliminates management headaches. It should be simple, easily operated & easy to integrate into your business. In today’s world it should be part of a mobile, cloud-based platform. The software should have a user-friendly interface as well as ability to support all types of devices, with a secure 24/7 access from anywhere, whether you’re at home or studio .

Is it comprehensive and flexible?

You must purchase a martial arts management software that is comprehensive and flexible to meet the specific needs of you member-centric business. The software should have a complete feature set to help you efficiently manage memberships, schedule classes, track attendance, conduct online registration, take payments, automated billing process and end-to-end belt testing.

Is it scalable?

You should select a solution that can be customized to the specific needs of your studio, whether you own a small studio or a larger school with multiple studios / locations. The management software must be scalable to help you manage more members coming through your doors and support your desired business growth.If you’re ready to integrate martial arts membership management software into your business, do consider these essential elements for making an informed purchasing decision. Make sure you purchase a studio management software that helps you achieve your business goals, just like you help your members achieve their goals!

Top 3 Tips for Running a Successful Martial Arts School

Starting and running your own martial arts studio is an exciting proposition but it also requires a huge commitment, great planning and good management. But, do you know what it takes to grow your business? Well, surprisingly, the keys to success in growing martial arts school are based on the pillar of scalable management models. There are many practical management strategies you can adopt to grow your martial arts school and make your business successful:

#1 Spend less time in the office and more time with students

After all, you’re running a martial arts studio to impart martial arts skills to your students. You need to spend more time with your students on practice sessions and high valued activities. If you spend most of your time doing time-consuming administrative works, you’re deviating from your original mission. Automate your business and complete administrative tasks more easily and efficiently by using martial arts school management software.

#2 Understand the business side of the school

However, you need to understand the business side of your martial arts school in order to operate it efficiently. New student registration, billing, scheduling, previewing payment, checking pending payments and so much more; there are many financial activities that you must manage effectively while growing your business! An all-in-one martial arts management software will transform your operations related to payment collections. Never allow money slip through the cracks!

#3 Keep track of everything!

Keeping track of everything is critical to the success of a business. Organizing all members data is essential for your martial arts business. With martial arts management tool, you can save all students information and keep track of their activity, attendance, performance, payment, class schedules and much more.

If you know how to simplify your workload, you can easily expand your capabilities. With smart and powerful martial arts studio management software, you can grow your business using smart business practices and insights.

How Martial Arts School Management Software Can Change Your Business?

Every high-growth organization grapples with the decision about how to manage its expanding business. Often, lack of planning and proper management results in inefficiencies across different functional areas of a business. The biggest mantra for achieving success in business is – ‘To Get Organized.’ For organizing your business in a better way, you need to invest time. But in business, time means money. As an owner of martial arts school, you’re already investing time for providing quality teaching to students who want to empower themselves. So, why waste your precious time in organizing daily activities of your martial arts school? With the help of martial arts school management software, you can take your martial arts school from just good to exceptional.

Manage your school on the go: A fully, cloud-based digitized management software provides you the easiest solution to manage your students, classes, groups, Emails, attendance and much more – anytime, anywhere.
Go paperless! Streamline the operations of your martial arts school by eliminating paperwork. This type of management software for martial arts school come with online registration, integrated billing, smart dashboard, staff management, membership management and other online management features that give you and your customers the convenience they crave for.
Become Flexible: Simple yet powerful management software for your martial arts school gives you the power and flexibility for managing day-to-day administrative tasks with better performance and control.

Now, you have the option to master the arts of management with martial arts school management software and allow your school to shine through.

Use Martial Arts School Management Software to Eliminate the Hassles You Face while Growing Your Business

Being a successful martial arts school owner, you’ve already invested a good amount of time and money in providing quality instruction to your students who are there to learn a way of life. With 85% of your students under the age of 13, it is important that you provide better facilities, better instruction, better feedback, better billing and just overall better automated business processes as compared to your competitors in the market. At the end of the day it’s the parents of your students you are aiming to please! With that said what have you invested to empower your business to provide these superior features and qualities? Are you using martial arts school management software to eliminate the hassles you face in those day to day activities with your growing business? If so, is the software using today’s modern technology expected by your clients?

Well, automating the above mentioned daily tasks and keeping track of the growth of your business is the foremost thing you can do to take your business to the next level. You might be thinking that for such activities you could hire someone and/or you could do it all with spreadsheet on your own, which you must understand, will take time and money at the expense of quality and efficiency for your members. But rest assured, with the help of membership management software, focusing on your business objectives and getting organized has never been easier and just might be the one thing you can do to make your school stand out from the competition.
Martial arts school management software can easily and quickly manage your business and the best part is that it typically doesn’t cost you more than 1 student’s membership fee per month or between $3-4 /day! The paper and ink saved by using such software will pay for it alone! Such a minimal cost for all the automated value provided such as:

Track individual attendance
Track individual progress
Managing multiple locations
Automated, end-to-end belt testing and promotion with immediate feedback to the students and their parents
Real-time communications with your members using today’s technology
Scheduled classes online via apps and web
With integrated billing, collecting membership fees gets a whole lot easier

The benefits of martial arts school management software doesn’t end here. You can enjoy a lot more incredible features by choosing the right software provider. The other consideration when choosing membership management software is to choose the latest and greatest using today’s modern technology. And by today’s standards, with companies like Apple, Google and Amazon, you will want to choose a company that incorporates mobile, cloud-based technology. You now have the choice to truly get organized with a cloud-based, mobile technology and allow your business to thrive!

How much time do you spend to manage your martial arts business?

Just Check it out here for Best Martial Arts Members Management Software