Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 3

COVER STORY
you. They are excited about the lesson and in many cases,
they bring a friend or family member to train with them from
the start. We’re really excited about this because we’ve
expanded to more locations, expanded our instructor base,
and didn’t have to wait for children to grow up.
MAWN: What do you see as the major benefits from the
iEnroll way of marketing in contrast with some of the previous
kinds of traditional marketing that you used to use?
MB: It has actually saved me a lot of money as opposed
to the old style of marketing. In relation to some of our
other marketing tactics, it’s actually very cost effective. For
example: we have a team that goes out Tuesdays and Thursdays
to promote four or five hours a day. So you’re paying each person
$12 an hour. I have an event planner who goes out on a weekend
to promote and I have to pay her. They’re not paid solely commission
on all those things, they need motivation, and still have
to come in to teach class. I also spend close to $800 a month on
marketing materials.
Now we have appointments in the morning and the money
that used to be spent, I used to give my staff a raise. Also, we use
that money to have a staff meeting once a week and they all go
to lunch. So now my instructors are motivated, I never really knew
“School owners need to figure out how
to move themselves into the CEO role
rather than just the head instructor,
marketer, manager, janitor, etc.”
“…we’ve expanded to more
locations, expanded our
instructor base, and didn’t have
to wait for children to grow up.”
how much they hated going out there to promote.
MAWN: You have kind of touched on it, but how has your role
in the organization changed?
MB: Well I’ve been elevated to a position of CEO in my organization
from being a frontline operator of a Martial Arts School
who did everything including the janitorial tasks. Now I can
focus on enrollments, renewals, retention, and quality. Before
I had to spend too much time on
tasks that are being done for me
even while I’m sleeping or on vacation.
With automated marketing, we
get better results and my staff is
not burnt out. School owners need
to figure out how to move themselves
into the CEO role rather than
just the head instructor, marketer,
manager, janitor, etc.
MAWN: When you’re a part of
a team that’s growing, that’s pretty
exciting. Do you have any advice to
give school owners that might be
sputtering, but really want to be on a
growth curve?
MB: First, you have got to ask
yourself, “Am I a black belt in business?”
If you’re not, you have to get
on the right path and get with a mentor,
somebody that’s going to help
you focus on growing. This will help
you grow. You also want to work on retention within your school,
and focus on motivating your team, because if your instructors are
not motivated, the back door is wide open in your school. It doesn’t
matter if you get one or two enrollments coming in each day,
they’re going to go right back out.
I noticed that once we leveraged all these
lead generation and marketing systems, the
instructors could focus more on classes. Now
the classes are more fun and beneficial as well.
Daily we have 4 to 5 new appointments, so we’ll
keep on growing. We are still growing so much
that we went from a 10,000 sq. ft. to a 20,000
sq. ft. building.
MAWN: Thank you for sharing these great experiences,
ideas, and strategies for our readers.
46 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 3