I am a Self-Defense Specialist who has developed tried & true methods to train people how to effectively deal with crisis situations like Bullying, Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence, Stalking, and Self-Defense from A-Z including handgun familiarization to threat houseclearing, & how to best respond when caught in an Mass/Active Shooter Situation. My professional background is I was a Military Intelligence Officer (U.S./Korea/Germany) followed by being an Electrical Engineer in Oil & Gas, and Finally at NASA. I have taken several martial arts over the years, & I, like Bruce Lee, do not have a Black Belt, although being raised in Chicago have experience with street life threatening situations which I was creatively able to overcome. I was crosstrained by a Special Forces A-Team (Green Berets) while stationed at Ft. Devens where I also accomplished completing the SF Airborne School. Airborne! I do offer a Free Demo where I demonstrate my skill sets including doing a One Inch Punch & a Khaordo signature innovative non-threatening grappling technique that shows what I can do. That Free Demo has proven to be very convincing. I am currently a semi-retired stop-gap Security Manager which allows me time to take on a few long-term clients & do Tai Chi/Self-Defense Workshops. The goal is to open up Training Centers for Self-Defense/Life Skills & niche Career Field Exposure & Preparatory Training.
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Something that I have seen to be very successful is the melding of Martial arts and child care, aftercare. Many families need good aftercare as well as child care with two parents working and you can offer a good safe location along with physical martial arts training. You can offer a niche type market where children can start your program before entering formal school in a child care/martial arts program and continue on once they get into school with after school care/martial arts until the parents get home from work. For the parents it is a win win in having a safe spot for the kids where they can get some physical exercise while they play with other children.
You have the classic marketing problem. For any business to prosper you need to grow revenues. There are three and only three high level possibilities. Get More Clients/ Increase the Value of Transactions you Do with Clients/ Increase the frequency of transactions. You need strategies in each of these areas to grow your business consistantly. You already know that you must select the right niche markets. Let me talk to you about a higher level strategy that you may want to consider. It is called the "Blue Ocean Strategy" versus the "Red Ocean". The Red Ocean is where your thinking is currently. You look at all your competitors; ask what are they doing; how can you copy their sucesses; what do they charge and how should you charge a little less to be competitive.
The Red Ocean is the shark infested waters where all your competitors are.
The Blue Ocean Strategy asks a unique set of questions focused around how can you fish in waters where there is almost no competition? How can you uniquely position yourself in these markets.
Let me make up a scenarior to make my point. In most markets there are different niches. Since yours is children why not select children from well to do families? What do we know about them? They want to be able to tell their friends that they pay the most. They send their children to exclusive private schools not because the education is so far superior but because they want their children to hob nob with other rich kids. Don't the parents want to make sure that their child can protect themselves since rich kids are always a good target.
As part of your program can we create a unique experience for the parents? Is it education on what they need to know about what you are teaching their children? Is your facility like what they expect when they visit their Country Club? What are the feelings you want them to experience? What do you want them to tell others that will help you to build your business via this exclusive clientel? What kind of personalized relationship are you delivering to these clients. What event can you run where you invite your clients and they bring people they know who could benefit from your services? I think you can see with roughly the same effort you can build a business that is ten times larger than what your competitors are doing. Begin with Blue Ocean thinking and you will get to a much better place. When i work with my business owner clients I take them thru this kind of thinking before we ever build a business plan. Hop this helps. Good luck.
Thank you for your service Danny. When you have something new you created in a saturated space that's a good thing. Martial artists love to learn another discipline. The core of your issue is your core competencies. What seperates you from another art. You have to articulate that on paper using the right copy. Also do video demos. You need to establish social properties. (Facebook Page, YouTube, Twitter, and Linkedin). Use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to a funnel. (Clickfunnels). This way you can target area, age, interest, and income based upon the video you put together. This way not a dime is wasted pushing traffic to your target market.
Merchandise your new dicipline as well. Offer a free tshirt and ship for $9.99. hopefully the shirt cost you $5.99 this way you make money on the free item. You do this with your Khoardo Kata Guide (ebook), etc. Helps you get the word out and setup memberships that auto bill the student. Offer a free class with the t-shirt and membership (dues) there after. The key is your videos, Kata Guide, and merchandising using a formal casual design so people wear it everywhere. When marketing you remarket to the same people becoming a celebrity within that circle. You need 150 students per month to take care of all your expenses and to thrive. Thriving maybe starting a vitamin or supplement that attaches to your new discipline. If you are spending $25 a day on FB ads and monthly Khoardo dues might be $120mo worst case you need just 7 members in a 30 day period to cover your advertising that goes out to thousands. You should get that easily doing it right. You need at least 30-50 members a month using that advertising.
My Sensei retired and I wish more people could experience his way of teaching. In any event I also have 25yrs experience with building websites, mobile apps, and small businesses. Reach out if you want to have a free consultation. I can help you.
Elliot Young
(917)708-5199
eyoung@uniworldbusiness.com
Danny, hi.
Thanks so much for your service!!
Bob had some really great advice in terms of "fishing alone .v. in a crowd!
You mentioned a video, that can be a great way to help build awareness of your business- even think about creating a few for distribution or even sale.
If you don't have a website yet - get one- here are a few places to go:
Go here to buy a domain name and setup WordPress hosting
https://www.godaddy.com/
Go here to buy themes/templates for your WordPress website.
https://themeforest.net/?_ga=2.118817024.806101354.1517928226-1534567730.1517928226
Here's another one that lets you build free websites. That doesn't use WordPress.
Good luck, Martin
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