BJJ instructor salary

[cneely717]

How much do you think these guys are pulling in a year? I know a lot of things come into play..but what about your BJJ instructor who has a good amount of students (lets say 50), as well as running a kids program?

I thought about this, and assumed it would be a good amount of money due to the price ($100-150 a month in a lot of places)... but wasn't sure after thinking about other costs you may be responsible for

what do u working guys think..these guys making a killing, or not really?

 

[lechien]

The average BJJ instructor is not making a killing.

teaching every night and not been able to spend time with wife/kids can a turn off for some people.

 

[ro1em0de1]

i dont own the school but make 30/class and teach 3x per week..

 

[Mad Sweeps]

I have a bad feeling my teacher is getting raped...

 

[MMA Genius***]

]
teaching every night and not been able to spend time with wife/kids can a turn off for some people.

im pretty sure thats ALL full time jobs..

 

[cneely717]

How so? Is it because they need to cut their profits with the gym owner

 

[SMillard]

50 students and a kids program? Unless you have a couple hundred kids your BJJ instructor is probably the owner and he isn't making a killing.

The owner of my school has about 250 students, teaches four nights a week minimum and still has a full time job during the day.

Believe me he's doing it for love of the sport not for the paycheck.

 

[gatsby5555]

I think you're assuming that ll the money the instructer is making is going straight to his pocket...once you figure in the expenses just for owning or renting a place plus utilities and then paying any other instructers you might have... probably not making bank

 

[lechien]

im pretty sure thats ALL full time jobs..

not sure what you meant by above.

You teach BJJ for a living.

You will work every week evening and likely a saturday as well so you are looking at working6 days per week.

You could end up doing a split shift as well. teach 2 classes per day at seperate time and hopefully you can add a couple of privates in between so you do not have to drive by home for a rest.

 

[trn450]

50 students and a kids program? Unless you have a couple hundred kids your BJJ instructor is probably the owner and he isn't making a killing.

The owner of my school has about 250 students, teaches four nights a week minimum and still has a full time job during the day.

Believe me he's doing it for love of the sport not for the paycheck.

Here is what i find hard to believe. Most people pay about $130/mo for BJJ classes.

250 x $130 = $32,500/month. Lets be safe and just assume this particularly gym averages only $100/mo per person and call it $25,000.

Most BJJ gyms are in studios, often in business parks. I doubt the rent exceeds $3,000/month.

A gym needs a phone line and a computer plus lights. Add another $250/mo.

He's also going to need insurance, and I have no idea how much that would be. Lets just call it $1,000/month (probably very high).

He'd also need to very rarely purchase mats. Mats to cover an entire gym will probably run $10,000-$15,000, and lets just say he is paying those off in monthly installments of $300/mo.

Total expenditures are probably less than $5,000/month, and total income is probably around $25,000/mo. That's $20,000/mo left over without including retail sales and privates.

Maybe, I'm missing something, but IMO it would appear that an instructor with 250 students would be doing very well for himself, even if he employed someone an assistant instructor and/or office staff member him at a decent salary.

IMHO a BJJ business owner with a legit gym has every right to earn a good living, and I Hope they do. They put a lot into their training, took a major risk starting a business, and they work hard and work generally unpleasant hours (IMO). I just don't see why anybody with 250 students would ever "need" to hold a full time job in addition to their BJJ school.

 

[lechien]

50 students and a kids program? Unless you have a couple hundred kids your BJJ instructor is probably the owner and he isn't making a killing.

The owner of my school has about 250 students, teaches four nights a week minimum and still has a full time job during the day.

Believe me he's doing it for love of the sport not for the paycheck.

hard to believe! how much is your fees?

 

[An end for]

phone line and a computer

Not really.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

Not very much. It's hard to keep a small business like that running. On top of that, it's extremely time consuming and tiring.

 

[trn450]

Not really.

If they want to operate a legit and successful business it'd be in their best interest to have a phone number and a computer. Granted, I guess they could just have the computer and use Google Voice or something like that to save some cash.

 

[gatsby5555]

I would think that with 250 students you would probably be doing alright...most schools arent that big though right?

 

[cneely717]

I bumped a thread with a lot of info in it..whether good or bad info of course, take a look at it if u have questions on it


http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f12/anyone-made-teaching-bjj-career-1045634/

 

[KJGould]

The more accomplishments you get the more you can use that to market yourself, so that certainly helps.

 

[Devils Haircut]

The average BJJ instructor is not making a killing.

teaching every night and not been able to spend time with wife/kids can a turn off for some people.

im pretty sure thats ALL full time jobs..

not sure what you meant by above.

You teach BJJ for a living.

You will work every week evening and likely a saturday as well so you are looking at working6 days per week.

You could end up doing a split shift as well. teach 2 classes per day at seperate time and hopefully you can add a couple of privates in between so you do not have to drive by home for a rest.

My wife and I are both active duty military. We have been apart forever, and when I get home next week I'll have a few days with her before she ships off to Afghanistan. We have a kid, so finding time to train will be really hard. I'm not saying that BJJ instructor hours are easy, but if I have to spend time away from my family I'd atleast rather be doing something I love like BJJ.

 

[rowdstar]

cheap cheap commercial spaces in CA are $2,500 a month. A decent sized place is $6,000 a month.

Also if they are playing by the rules and are self employed the taxes and insurance with the federal and state government. My wife is self employed here in CA and we have to set aside 45% of her monthly income to cover our taxes.

And the example of 250 students i find somewhat untrue. as very few places will have that many people locked into a year contract where it is getting auto-deducted from their account.

it seems more popular to have people month to month, and we all know how tenuous that is.

it seems like you really gotta hustle and sell your fame, if your lucky to have it in the bjj world to make money. i don't see them making what even a family practice doctor makes......

 

[SMillard]

Here is what i find hard to believe. Most people pay about $130/mo for BJJ classes.

250 x $130 = $32,500/month. Lets be safe and just assume this particularly gym averages only $100/mo per person and call it $25,000.

Most BJJ gyms are in studios, often in business parks. I doubt the rent exceeds $3,000/month.

A gym needs a phone line and a computer plus lights. Add another $250/mo.

He's also going to need insurance, and I have no idea how much that would be. Lets just call it $1,000/month (probably very high).

He'd also need to very rarely purchase mats. Mats to cover an entire gym will probably run $10,000-$15,000, and lets just say he is paying those off in monthly installments of $300/mo.

Total expenditures are probably less than $5,000/month, and total income is probably around $25,000/mo. That's $20,000/mo left over without including retail sales and privates.

Maybe, I'm missing something, but IMO it would appear that an instructor with 250 students would be doing very well for himself, even if he employed someone an assistant instructor and/or office staff member him at a decent salary.

IMHO a BJJ business owner with a legit gym has every right to earn a good living, and I Hope they do. They put a lot into their training, took a major risk starting a business, and they work hard and work generally unpleasant hours (IMO). I just don't see why anybody with 250 students would ever "need" to hold a full time job in addition to their BJJ school.

Normally schools pay a square foot price, here in south florida you can be paying as much as $8.00 a square foot. Normally you need about a 1,000 square foot school, you need to pay electric, water and phone figure roughly $200 a month, figure in marketing costs, I go to an American Top Team school so I'm sure there's a franchise fee he has to pay to the main school, insurance from what I've heard is very expensive (look at it this way, you are training people in something where injury is expected) and taxes. Add to that any assistants/receptionist/sales type people you have, normally one person. We have a few other people that teach, but from what I've gathered from discussions most of them teach in exchange for gym membership and coaching/cornering for fights. I've heard $15,000 to $20,000 being a normal monthly operating expense.

You have to remember kids are usually paying less than adults.

In smaller markets I'm sure the expenses are lower although I'd expect the membership fees to be lower too. I'm sure in some places they can make it work as a full time job. I've spoken to my current instructor and the instructor of another school I went to and both indicated that for a gym to make it in the South Florida market 200 students is the break even number with a large portion of that being a kids program. I guess if you had 250 adults then maybe you could make that your full time job.

I do know my instructor is trying to find another place something larger since he wants to have larger mat space and a weight gym. Funny thing, my last school the instructor put some weights in a corner along with a assisted pull up station but didn't let anyone use it. Finally one day I asked him what was up, he said if you have "weight training" at your gym you get a lower insurance rate. Don't know how true that is, just what he told me.

hard to believe! how much is your fees?

$135.00 a month for unlimited including taxes, they also have some people that pay $100 a month for 3 classes a week.