Member Question:

I’m struggling with “younger karate students” (Little Ninjas, Little Dragons….etc) who enroll and after 2 months want to “quit”.

I offer shorter terms for their age groups, but it’s frustrating when the parent’s won’t even comply with them.

Thoughts??

Answer - Toby Milroy

We see this issue VERY often at NAPMA.

Keep in mind we work with Thousands of Martial Arts Schools in 26
countries, and this is a “universal” issue.

The core of it is how you are “programing” your clients.
I saw in this post that an owner was using “month to month” tuition
agreements.

What message does this send to your students?
How are they now “thinking” about your program?
You are by “culture” teaching your clients that at the end of every
month, they are “deciding” to wither continue or quit.
(counterproductive)

In contrast, if you are asking for a 12 month commitment at the outset
of the relationship, you are now “teaching” the client that this is a
MINIMUM of a 1 year decision.

What we see with schools all over the world, is the more of a commitment
you ask your clients to make the more “serious” they take your program,
and the better your retention will be.

We all know that suing for every defaulted membership isn’t realistic,
but CERTAINLY you need to be setting the expectation YOU WANT for your
students to have.

It’s a dis-service to the entire Professional Martial Arts Industry to
structure your programs, or present any image to the client that puts us
in the same category as a seasonal “sport” or activity like Baseball,
Soccer, Football etc…..(and counterproductive for you in your school)

Our contribution to society, and our commitment to our students is so
much more significant, that we ALL need to be doing everything we can to
eliminate ANY reason for a parent to “think” about our program in the
same way. If you are training your clients to have no commitment, you
are shooting yourself in the foot, and frankly, de-valuing what we do.

At the root of it all, many school owners lack the “self-confidence” to
ask for a significant commitment (especially for younger students)or in
some way feel it’s somehow “unethical” to ask for a significant
commitment.

When in truth, you get what you ask for, and frankly, a student really
can’t learn the lessons we can really teach them in 2, 4, or 6 months.

**The “Nuts and Bolts” answer is, you should treat the 4, 5 and 6 year
olds EXACTLY the same as the Youth classes, and the Adult classes (so
far as it related to term and price etc….) there is simply no good
reason not to. The schools I speak with EVERY DAY at NAPMA that are
performing at the highest level require exactly the same level of
commitment as the rest of the students.**

-Hope the insight was helpful-

I’d HIGHLY recommend you surround yourself with people who will give you
the confidence and help elevate your expectations, and people who have
schools that consistently perform at a HIGH level year after year,
decade after decade!

Feel Free to visit:
www.NAPMAFreeOffer.com <http://www.NAPMAFreeOffer.com>

Toby Milroy
Vice President, Marketing - NAPMA
National Association of Professional Martial Artists