Entrepreneurial Adventures in the Martial Arts Business

by Anonymous

August 15, 2004 -- Entrepreneurial Adventures in the Martial Arts Business:
The great fallacies when you start your Martial Arts business
By Stephen Oliver, MBA

For more information about Growing your Martial Arts Business:
http://www.ExtraordinaryMarketing.com

When you first become self-employed there are often a series of fallacies that creep into your thinking without even being recognized or questioned. The following is far from an exhaustive set of these fallacies – but, clearly some of the major ones. To those of you who have been self employed for some period of time – I apologize for belaboring what may appear obvious to you from your experience.

1st    Now that you are self employed you get to "set your own hours"

There's a joke. Once you become truly self employed the first indication may be that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach as your payroll, home payment, lease payment all come due at the same time. My first time – to the best of my recall – was when suddenly I had $35,000+ due at the beginning of the month – with about $4,000 on hand five days before. I dare you to put in your 40 hours when you are trying make payroll and insure that the lease is paid on time.

The reality, of course, is that most small Martial Arts Business owners as they transition from employee to Martial Arts Business owner then to employer find that they go from a relatively fixed time schedule, guaranteed income, and the ability to "turn-off"their work when they leave the office to 100 hours weeks, getting paid last – if at all – and, being on – mentally 24 hours per day – 7 days per week.

For more information about Growing your Martial Arts Business:
http://www.ExtraordinaryMarketing.com

2nd.    Adding employees means I have to do less myself.

Well a great quote – I'm afraid I can't remember where I got it from – is "Always Inspect what you Expect – That's the way you get respect." Obviously - one person cannot do everything – and, the only route to growth is adding additional people.

That being said – sometimes the added value of the person is outweighed by the amount of supervision required to insure that individual's productivity and contribution.

There are two truths of employees:

A.An owner will ALWAYS care more about the results than an employee.

B.Without aligned purposes and proper supervision – any employee (with rare exceptions) will ultimately detract from rather than add to the quality of your operation.

For more information about Growing your Martial Arts Business:
http://www.ExtraordinaryMarketing.com

3rd    I'll build up my Martial Arts Business then have an asset to sell.

Sorry about the wakeup call but – really – who are you going to sell it to? I've been approached to buy schools – and, seen desperate owners try to sell their Martial Arts Businesses – but you know the reality is you can only sell a karate school to a karate instructor – usually that means a Black Belt or employee in your school.

About Stephen Oliver:
Stephen Oliver has operated his Mile High Karate schools in Denver, Colorado since 1983. He currently has 9 locations.     He is a 7th Degree Black Belt and also holds a Master's in Business Administration (MBA).

You can subscribe to Stephen Oliver's Extraordinary Marketing – Martial Arts Business - Free Monthly newsletter at: www.ExtraordinaryMarketing.com

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