It’s amazing to me sometimes what concerns school owners of small and barely profitable schools.

You see there’s a big difference between the way that successful school owners think about issues big and small versus how failures think about the issues in their business.

Recently when speaking at a NAPMA  event I was inundated with comments and questions from small school owners that belied two common problems:

•  A lack of an abundance mentality, and

•  A focus on saving pennies rather than earning dollars.

First,

Most school owners have expectations that are way too low for their business and lack faith in their own capabilities to achieve a high level.

They ask how to run their school more effectively while holding a full-time job in some other career. Rather than looking at the real potential of their business they try to coordinate their day job to support their life-style needs while working at the school 40 hours a week also.

While they are struggling along with their two jobs other schools are thriving.

Just this month three of my close friends had schools gross over $100,000 in a single month. They are spread out across the country. Have different programs, different curriculum, different strategies for attracting new students, and much different personalities. However, each of these school owners are not just surviving – they are thriving.

It is important for the school owners to make a decision that they are going to not just survive but, thrive in their school. School owners who are running their school on a part-time basis must decide to thrive then “jump off the cliff” and run their school and a professional, full-time basis.

Second,

Saving pennies rather than earning dollars works in two specific ways.

First, doing everything themselves rather than farming out critical support items. School owners go through their daily routine looking a small incremental gains in their business and hoping to save a few dollars here and there.

School owners who are grossing $5,000, $7,500, $11,000 or $13,000 patiently explain how they are saving $1 or $2 per payment by doing their billing in-house rather than farming it out to a service provider or, explain that they do all of their payroll and bookkeeping on their own rather than pay the $60 or $70 per month that a service firm like Paychex or ADP would charge.

Focusing on items like billing, payroll, or accounting and taxes takes up valuable time that could better be spent on the important elements of growing a school.

Every school owner must master three key elements for their school:

•  Marketing to generate new students;

•  Sales – enrollment processes and renewal or upgrade processes;

•  Motivational teaching.

These three elements must be attended to effectively every day.

Really the owner’s main role is in marketing his school and then monitoring for quality student service – everything else is secondary.

Second, failing to invest in crucial points for growth.

Every school owner must spare no expense on two items:

•  His or her own education as a martial arts business person;

•  Marketing and advertising their school.

When speaking with owners of small schools they often patiently explain to me how attending a worthwhile seminar is just not in their budget. They just are not willing to spend $1,500 to $5,000 on their own education – even if they might learn enough to add 10 or 20 times the investment. Often, I see even a more perverse spin on this where martial artists will spend huge amounts of money on curriculum oriented training developing their own athletic talents but those same individuals fail to see the value of business education to support their school’s growth.

Next, the most frustrating aspect of attempting to teach school owners about marketing is their lack of willingness to invest effectively in the growth of their own school. Proven concepts with a 3 to 1, 5 to 1, or even 10 to 1 return on investment are ignored or derided as too expensive or too ineffective. Smaller school owners often combine unrealistic expectations with a lack of willingness to invest effectively.

In conclusion, we are in a wonderful business. The more students we have and the more effectively we develop our students then the more income we will earn. Financially successful school owners are impacting high numbers of students in a very positive way.

In order to grow your school you must have a belief in the opportunity provided by your school and be willing to invest in both your own education as well as in marketing your school.