Discover how to define and target your ideal martial arts students and their families. Learn to evaluate their value, optimize your time spent with them, and create a strategy to attract more of these ideal clients to your school.

Understanding Your Ideal Martial Arts Student

Because so many of our students are kids, when we identify our ideal student, we need to include the family in the equation.

1. What is your ideal family for a child student? Get very specific.

  • Income level: Determine the financial capacity of the families you want to attract.
  • Stay-at-home vs. working moms: Analyze which type of family structure benefits your enrollment and retention rates.
  • Common benefits sought: Identify what families are looking for in martial arts, such as discipline, fitness, or self-defense.
  • Decision criteria: Understand the primary factors families consider when choosing your school.
  • Proximity to the school: Gauge the importance of the family’s home location relative to your school.
  • Referrals: Track the number of referrals the family provides.
  • Special events attendance: Note how frequently the student attends school events.
  • Equipment purchases: Assess how much the family spends on martial arts gear beyond the basic requirements.
  • Duration with the school: Monitor how long the family stays enrolled.
  • Payment preferences: Find out if families prefer to pay in advance, take payments, or cash out.

2. What is your ideal adult student?

  • Gender: Determine if your ideal adult student is male, female, or both.
  • Marital status: Note if they are single or married.
  • Income level: Identify their financial capacity.
  • Education level: Consider the education level of your ideal adult student.
  • Proximity to the school: Evaluate how close they live to your school.
  • With kids or without: Determine if they have children.
  • Referrals: Track the number of referrals they provide.
  • Special events attendance: Note their participation in school events.
  • Equipment purchases: Assess their spending on gear beyond requirements.
  • Decision criteria: Understand what is most important to them when choosing a school.
  • Duration with the school: Monitor how long they stay enrolled.
  • Payment preferences: Find out if they prefer to pay in advance, take payments, or cash out.

3. Keep a journal next week of how much time you spent with the ideal students/families and how much you spend with the “less than ideal” students.

4. Create a strategy that allows you to spend more time with the ideal students for retention.

5. Create a marketing strategy that will target that ideal student and/or family to bring more of them into the school.

Valuing The Student / Family

Knowing your student value is valuable to you for many reasons:

  1. You can project future earnings.
  2. You can know with certainty how much to spend on marketing.
  3. You can plan more effectively with real numbers and expectations.

Student Value Calculation One:

Take into account the average dropout rate, lessons, testing fees, seminars, and equipment purchases. Below is an example of one year:

  • Enrollment fee: $75.00
  • Lessons ($65/month x 12): $780.00
  • Seminars (avg 1/yr.): $35.00
  • Testing fees (3/yr. $25 ea.): $75.00
  • Equipment purchase: $190.00
  • Total for one year: $1,155.00

This is the worth of each new student if they stay for one year. If you estimate that you will enroll 250 new students each year and determine that only 40% of those students will last the year (resulting in a 60% attrition rate), your figures will look like this:

  • Worth of each student (1 yr.): $1,155.00
  • Times 250 new students/year: $288,750
  • Less 60% attrition rate: $173,250
  • Total net worth for the year: $115,500
  • Divide by 250 total sign-ups: $115,500 / 250
  • Adjusted worth of each new student: $462

The total adjusted worth of each new student after factoring in the dropout rate is $462.00, not the original figure of $1155.00. This value helps you determine the net gain if you boost enrollment figures, how much you will spend to acquire new students, project sales, and more.

Student Value Calculation Two:

This simpler formula is used by the Jhoon Rhee system:

  • Total gross divided by the number of first intro lessons.
  • If you are doing 10 intros per month that’s 120 per year. Your gross should be no less than $120,000 which is a student value of $1000 per student.

How to Use Student Value Information:

Let’s say your goal in the next 12-months is to gross $100,000 and you are currently grossing $50,000. You currently have a student value of $500.

Since you want to increase gross by $50,000 you will have to enroll and keep 100 new students to produce that additional $50,000.

If your student value was $750, you need just 66 new students. If your student value was $1,000 you would need only 50 new students to reach that goal.

Student value provides a unique way of planning for the future and if you think about it, this too can give you a way to monitor yourself to see if you’re actually reaching your goal.