MMA Eliminate Clutter to Be Better at Martial Arts Management MMA LIFE SHOP

One of most important things you can do to be a better business owner is to eliminate clutter from your life - specifically, your work area.

Many martial arts school owners have an office in our homes where we have a computer and all our student information stored. If you are a small school, you run everything from there.

So go to your office and look around. Are there several stacks of various papers laying around? One with student info, one with bills, one with books and magazines you want to read, one or two or every three "to do" stacks? Phone messages with partial information on them strewn across the desk or posted to the edge of the computer?

Clutter Creates Negative Energy

Imagine this scenario. You wake up with great energy. You have a quick drink of water then work out for 30 minutes or go for your morning run. Then shower and breakfast, then off to your office.

When you walk into your office and it is a mess your mind immediately says, "Ug!" and does not want to enter with you. You already have an up hill battle before you even sit down. You find it difficult to concentrate on any specific task. In fact, you may not even get to a task. It may be so overwhelming that you give up before you even start.

This draining feeling leads you to doing time wasting things like check email, Facebook or playing solitaire.

As a martial arts business owner, you are the one who has to make sure everything gets done. One of the hardest jobs is creative thinking - finding new ways to market your school and build relationships with your students. You can't do that in a negative environment and having a messy office is exactly that.

Positive Energy

If your office is clean and organized several things happen. First, the energy in the room is totally different. It does not weigh you done. It opens you up to clearer thinking. It allows you to focus on those things that are important - working ON your school and accomplishing your daily goals.

Second, by having a clean space to work in it allows you no excuses. You have no distractions to side track you from getting things done.

Third, you can quickly and easily find things when you want them. This cuts down on wasting time. It also cuts down on negative energy building up through frustration when you don't have to hunt everywhere to find things.

8 Ways to Eliminate Clutter

There are several things you can do to keep clutter from building up. The problem is that in order for them to be useful you have to practice what you preach. You have to have discipline if you want to be better at running your martial arts business.

Use a software tool to keep track of phone calls. There are tons of contact management systems available today. Find one you like and use it. Every time someone calls and you need to record the call put it in the system NOT on a piece of paper.

Have a file where you put bills. This does two things. One, it gets them to a single place where you know they are and it gets them off your desk and out of sight so you can focus on income rather than outgo.

Handle papers only twice. The first handling is the intake and placement of them until you are ready to handle them. Then leave them alone until you are ready to completely deal with that item.

Create a system for making lists. Again, there are software tools or you can have one - and only one - piece of paper where you list things to do, errands to run, phone calls, etc.

Do not allow yourself to start your day with any time wasting activities. They suck your energy faster than anything else. One thing can easily lead to 10 more and you've done nothing productive the entire day. Instead, the first thing should be some creative activity like planning a marketing campaign or other task that is working ON your martial arts school business.

Get rid of things you don't want. Remove anything that is just taking up space. Give it away to your students, your local thrift store, stick it on the curb and mark it free or just toss it out. If you no longer need or want it then let it go.

Take a lesson from childhood - put things back where they belong. When you take out a book to reference something put it back on the shelf rather than toss it on the edge of your desk.

File things. Have a filing system to store everything - office supplies, bills, receipts, books and magazines, everything. If you have a place to put things then as they come in you can put them there rather than leave them lying about cluttering up your work space.

By eliminating all the clutter in your office, you become more efficient and more productive. You keep positive energy with you and you can focus your energy on the important tasks of martial arts business management - growing your school, retaining your students, and getting more value from them.

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MMA Fortunes changed for five at UFC 196 - MMA Fighting MMA LIFE SHOP

Most people believe they're in the business of whatever product or service they are selling or providing. A restaurant owner believes he's in the restaurant business. A dentist believes he's in the dentistry business and a martial artist believes he is in the business of teaching martial arts.

In reality you should be in the marketing, sales and lead generation business. That is working ON your school. Basically, working ON your school :

Anything that builds your student base or builds more value from your students is working ON your school instead of IN your school. So the acts of working ON your school would include:

Working IN your business is:

That last bullet is an important one. Working IN your school also includes the act of teaching classes. Taking incoming calls and setting appointments for introductory classes is also working IN your business. This may be confusing as many people would consider this part of the sales process - which it is. However, you should not be the lead sales person you should be the sales manager. That means you should create the sales process and sales scripts for the sales person, not be the sales person. So acts of working IN your business would include:

You should focus on writing sales copy, creating marketing and sales systems, etc. because you know better than anyone you might hire what your school is about. You know what type of student you are looking to attract. So you need to learn how to get your potential students to you, how to retain them, and how to get more from the

To learn about the first and only No Membership Membership program in the Martial Arts Business Industry Click Here. PS It's FREE!

MMA Create Profit Not Poverty MMA LIFE SHOP

I have learned that you can?t honestly give yourself to anyone unless your needs are met first. Initially it sounds selfish, but it?s a healthy kind of selfishness. In the safety briefing before a flight, the attendant reminds you to fasten your own oxygen mask before you help someone else. You will be in a much better position to help people in your black belt school if you are grossing $30,000 per month, because you are taking care of yourself first, rather than grossing $10,000 because you are ?helping the children.?



The reason you sign the lease, risk your money, risk lawsuits, risk losing everything is not to help the children. The reason is to build wealth for your family.







This is a key mindset, and the top black belt school owners are crystal clear on it.

The purpose of your school is to build wealth for your family and to maintain a career in the martial arts. You accomplish this by becoming the best teacher in your town and having a strong business system to support your teaching, so that you can reach and help more people. You create wealth by helping people.



Imagine you are the owner of a television network. You don?t take a risk like that just to have shows that will help the children. You offer some educational programs in the public interest and others that are pure entertainment. But you bought the network to create wealth for your family. You do that by hiring the best talent, equipment, and programming possible.



This is especially true when you have a family. It?s simply not fair to drag your spouse and children through the life of a martial artist if you are not going to build a future for them.



The purpose of launching your martial arts business is to send your kids to good schools, to provide your spouse with a feeling of security and certainty that things are going to be OK financially and to give you the opportunity to retire in dignity. You accomplish this by being the best martial arts school owner and instructor in your town. Once you adopt this attitude, business becomes less stressful, because it?s easier to make decisions when you have Clarity of Purpose.



Chase your passion but don't chase away profits or your families' future doing so.

As Abraham Lincoln put it, ?We can?t help the poor by becoming one of them.? I heard one of my mentors, a plastic surgeon, speak on the phone with a patient who asked for a discount or payment terms. He said, ?Miss, this is how I earn my income. You can make payments and, when they are all done, we can do the surgery; otherwise, we?re going to have to wait until you can afford it.? That is Clarity of Purpose. Plastic surgery, like martial arts, is a choice.



Western society will never take martial arts seriously as a business, activity, or potential career if we all live hand to mouth. How can you teach the success life skills so popular today if you have never experienced success as a teacher? Would you want someone to teach you how to run a martial arts school who has never even owned a business, much less a martial arts school? I hope not.



Cardinal Rule ?Never sacrifice the needs of your family for your students.

The most successful school owners are crystal clear that the purpose of their school is to build wealth for their families. Create profit ? not poverty ? from your passion.

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If you run a martial arts school, or dojo, that is targeted towards children, you know how very challenging this type of martial arts marketing can be. You want to attract the children, but the parents are the ones who pay, so you must attract them as well. What works to attract the kids might not work for the parents. Marketing is imperative to the success of your school and deserves careful thought and planning.

The key is to garner the enthusiasm of the kids and the dollars of the parents. To attract the enthusiasm of the kids, they will need to see your art in action. This means demonstrations or participation in a class. For the parents, they need to see information about martial arts in general, your dojo in particular, and the reasons why learning a martial art will benefit their child.

Six Ways to Market Your Martial Arts School to Children

Printed Flyers: Many schools, both public and private, will distribute flyers to all students at no charge beyond your cost of printing. This is probably the best way to blanket all the children in an area with information about your school. Many schools also allow ads to be placed in their school newsletter as a way to cover costs. This should be explored if they do not allow flyers to be sent out.

Free Demonstrations: There are so many opportunities to provide free martial arts demonstrations - along with information about your school. Some examples include school functions, community events, and private club functions (such as the YMCA). Seeing martial arts in action, especially if children are participating in the demonstration, will surely attract more kids. Make sure you have a special offer such as a free introductory course ready for everyone in the audience.

Gift Certificates: You can donate a gift certificate to a school fundraising event, such as an auction or raffle. This gets the name of your school in front of all the parents and will give one child (and parent) a chance to try out your school with a free month or free private lesson.

Buddy Day: Having current students invite a friend for one free session is a great way to sign-up new students. The parents like the "free" part and the kids will want to participate in an activity with their friends. This works best by having a contest or a prize for every student who brings a friend.

Printed T-shirts or Sweatshirts: Having current students wear the emblem of your dojo to their school is like having free walking billboards. Also, the kids like the idea of advertising their involvement in something special.

Special Events: Offering self-defense classes or birthday parties can attract the parents, who in turn will sign up their kids for your school. Moms will come to a self-defense for women class and will take you up on your suggestion that teaching defense to their children is a great idea. Again, have a special promotion for all the participants to try your martial arts classes at a special reduced rate or for free for a month.

Martial arts marketing is all about identifying the customer and catering to that niche group. In this case, the children and their parents are your target. The parents will want to know that their child is in the best hands to learn not only the martial arts but most parents are looking for character building aspects as well. Your mastery of your art is imperative to the quality of your instruction. Your mastery of martial arts marketing is imperative to the success of your school.

To learn about the first and only No Membership Membership program in the Martial Arts Business Industry Click Here. PS It's FREE!