Back to School – Back to Business – Ideas for Growth for Owners and Instructors of Martial Arts, Gymnastics, Dance, Cheer and Swim Schools

Back to School – Back to Business – Ideas for Growth:

1.) Wherever you are, BE THERE. Now that the kiddos are heading back to school, owners have the opportunity to dedicate (or re-dedicate) themselves to their businesses. That doesn’t mean ignore your family. What it DOES mean is that if you are at work – WORK. If you’re with your family – be with your family. 100% Commit to giving your all to whatever task is at hand, and your life will be dramatically more fruitful.

2.) Make it FRESH! Remember you first day of school? You got a new haircut, new sneakers, new jeans, new backpack, etc? Well, it’s a fresh new year, and you once again have the chance to re-invent yourself. Clean up your school/gym/studio, etc. Make it spotless and organized. Your people will notice. You will notice and odds are you will become more organized and professional in the process. Now’s the time!

3.) Figure out what makes your business special! In marketing terms, we call this your unique selling proposition. It’s important. What makes your program the BEST? What positive thing are you known for? Are you confident that everybody in your area knows that’s exactly what you offer? Is it on every piece of your marketing material? Is it prominent on your website? Does your staff know exactly what to say about this? If not, now’s the time to work on that. Is it that you teach an amazing personal development system in addition to a world class physical program? (this is the U.S.P. of many of my Powerful Words Clients as it attracts an amazing kind of parent and child!) Keep in mind that there is only one you! Determine what your SUPER-POWER is and let’s spread the word.

4.) Plan your Work and Work your Plan: Remember people, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary, right? You absolutely, positively MUST plan out where your business is going and growing if, in fact, you do want it to grow. Make sure you are implementing a Marketing Calendar. I urge all of my private coaching clients to have 15 marketing events scheduled by the 5th of every month. That means that over the course of the month, you’ve got at least 15 different marketing opportunities happening…consistently every single month. This is a biggee!

5.) Fix Your First Point of Contact: Does your website do an amazing job of getting people interested in your program, collecting their information, and then getting them to take the next logical step to joining? If not, then unfortunately, you have a brochure site rather than a site that actually helps you enroll new members. This makes it so that your site is actually an expense rather than a profit center. HINT: Your site MUST BE a profit center for you if you want to truly run a successful business that fires on all cylinders. If you need help in this regard, message me and we can chat – I’m happy to help you.

6.) Fix Your Follow Up: Do you have systems in place to successfully follow up with folks who have visited your site and requested more info? Or, do you have to do it all manually. Now’s the time to leverage the technology that’s out there. I’ve discovered that it’s easier to implement the proven follow up systems that many of the top businesses in the world use than to have to try to do it all by hand. This way, a prospective member NEVER slips through the cracks…ever. It’s such an easy thing to do and it provides such a powerful return for your business when implemented properly.

7.) Get a Coach: Let’s face it, all of us has or has had a coach who helped us to get to the top of our game physically. It might have been a teacher, instructor, coach or trainer. Who it was was irrelevant – the fact that “it’s impossible to pull ourselves up by our own hair when necessary” rings true and that special somebody held our feet to the fire when we needed it, and probably held our hand a bit when we needed that as well. Coaches rock. I would like to suggest that if you are serious about making this year your very best year so far in your business…that you find and quickly hire the best business coach that you can. Find somebody who is not afraid to share the “hard truths” with you when necessary. Somebody who can show you what you’re doing right and what needs work. Somebody who will kick your butt into gear when you need it so that you never have to suffer a “bad month” again. Seriously. Do it. Do it now. I’ve always heard that Experts don’t need to be taught, they need to be reminded. Find somebody who will remind you on a regular basis how to take your business to the next level of success.

8.) Have fun. Smile. We have the coolest jobs in the world. People trust us with their most valuable asset (their kids!) The more fun you have, and the more fun your members (and their families) have (while also building valuable skills), the more successful your business will become.

Alright folks – get out there and make it a great time of year. Please let me know how I (or the teams at Powerful Words Character Development or AllStarCheerSites.com) can be helpful to you.

best,
Jason