Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 1

BUSINESS BUZZ
Statistics, Part 3
by Grandmaster Lawrence Arthur
There are certain key numbers you should keep track of.
These numbers will help you maintain control and know if
you’re doing the right kind of work to make your school successful.
Remember, “What gets counted gets done.”
Gross—Know where you are all the time. This isn’t something
you add up at the end of the month. You have to know
where you’ve been to enable you to project where you’re going.
You need to keep your eye on the pulse of your business
to know if you need to speed up or pat yourself on the back for
achieving your goals. Each day, make your plan and take the
necessary steps to make sure you’re on track to ask for whatever
amount of money you need to hit your daily,
weekly, and monthly goals. We use a daily
report to keep track of statistics numbers
one through nine, plus ten. The daily report
also has a reminder list for times of the day,
days of the week, and certain days of the
month. There’s also a daily planning chart
where you plan where, whom, how much
you’re going to ask for that day. It includes
all nine areas of income:
1. New enrollments
2. Merchandise
3. Upgrades
4. Tuition compressions
5. Graduation fees
6. Seminars
7. Activities and
events
8. Past-due purchases
9. Past-due
tuition
By planning
in advance
whom and how
much you’re going to ask for, you’ll collect more. Chances are
you will collect 20% of what you ask for.
Goal—What’s your monthly goal? To be in the top
10% of schools nationally, you have to gross $30,000 per
month. The average school grosses $70,000 per year!
There are different sets of problems for schools trying to
gross $10K a month and those trying to get from $50K to
$80K per month. Your goal should start with your minimum
gross that you need to take in before you enjoy any
profits, including rent/mortgage, utilities, payroll including
yourself, supplies, marketing (3–10%), and miscellaneous
expenses. After you meet minimum gross, you can start
giving/receiving bonuses and commissions for additional
incomes. The best way to figure what you should be grossing
is to average your last three months’ gross, and then
add 20% as a goal. Unless you change things drastically,
you’ll probably do the same thing this month as you’ve
been averaging. We use a Monthly Revenue Goal Projection
form that will help keep track of our goals and income.
Make a list of the following items and then add it up to see
what you’ll gross this month:
1. How much is your monthly tuition income?
2. Do you have any postdated deposits to make?
3. How many beginners will you enroll?
4. How many of them will prepay (20%)? Or the amount of
enrollment fees?
5. How many upgrades will you enroll and get them to prepay?
Or enrollment fees?
That will give you your membership revenue total. List
the numbers of equipment packages you’ll sell based on
the numbers of enrollments and upgrades (80%). List how
many belt promotion fees you’ll register including multi-belt
prepays. Finally, project how many people will register for
your monthly seminar and activities. I have one school that is
projecting to gross $30,000 next month just in seminars and
activities! This one idea will put $50,000 to $100,000 in your
account this year!
GRANDMASTER LAWRENCE ARTHUR has been a martial artist, specializing
in Karate, Kung Fu, Kenpo, Shotokan, and Goju Ryu, since 1968. He owns 40 Super Kick Karate
locations and is founder of the American Freestyle Karate Association (AFKA). A world champion
and hall of famer, Lawrence also runs the Black Belt Success Systems consulting firm, which trains
martial arts instructors on proper business practices and is used by schools all over the country.
94 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 1