So I guess our gym is losing money...

[Evenflow80]

Instructor casually brought up filing his taxes last minute and joked that since the gym ended up losing money the IRS has nothing to take from him.

Our professor is also always asking us to find more people to join and to go on websites and review the gym etc.

Should I be worried?

 

[NateTx4112]

Worried - Depends on if he's actively trying to get new students and doing it the right way. Honestly good reivews on facebook, yelp, and google are VERY Important. Also him advertising thru social media, google, and locally are important as well. Word of mouth is the biggest getting people in the door from what I have seen though.

 

[lechien]

Worried?

Nah, just another good example why people should get a job apart from making a living of teaching Bjj.

I like to see in 20 years what happened to the full time instructors that "lived" the lifestyle.

Are their mortgage paid off? Can they still physically teaching classes or they have to hire employees?

 

[EndlessCritic]

Worried? You're a consumer. Not your problem what happens to your gym.

 

[KikoJones]

A business can "lose" money but the owner can still be paid. This is only good for 5 years, after that the IRS becomes very suspicious and trigger audit.

 

[Was at Pride GP 2000]

Tell me this. How many students x monthly fees.

How many Sq feet? What's the avg cost per Sq ft of retail space in the area. It's not hard to figure it out.

Or the obvious question. Is there a kids program with 300 kids at all time at minimum? ? If so then no worries

 

[Daniel Fox]

The world has become so saturated with BJJ schools, that unless your name is Gracie, or you are a top Jiu Jitsu guy with good business acumen, the school is more likely to lose money than to make money. With that being said, whether your school stays open depends on how much your instructor loves to teach.

 

[SummerStriker]

Martial arts schools make money if they are a cult of personality, selling self esteme to codependent man-boys who desire the public show of respect a professor backed belt brings.

Does your professor have game? If not, he must just love the art, so you should support him.

By game, I mean can he sell alkaline water and Jesus prayers to people dying out of cancer?

 

[Leify]

Worried? You're a consumer. Not your problem what happens to your gym.

Speaking as someone who's trained at a gym that went under, it kind of is the consumer's problem. Not in a responsibility sense, but transitioning to a new gym, losing training partners/facilities, etc can suck.

OP, just train and foster a positive gym environment. That's basically where your role in things ends, unless you start teaching and/or take the ownership plunge.

 

[POPPA ROTZEE]

Instructor casually brought up filing his taxes last minute and joked that since the gym ended up losing money the IRS has nothing to take from him.

Our professor is also always asking us to find more people to join and to go on websites and review the gym etc.

Should I be worried?

Man, I do this for a living and can help him get reviews and do some marketing for him. But, it won't be for free. Can contact him if he we wants me to. Just let me know.

 

[NateTx4112]

Man, I do this for a living and can help him get reviews and do some marketing for him. But, it won't be for free. Can contact him if he we wants me to. Just let me know.

What kind of marketing can you do?

 

[MadSquabbles500]

The world has become so saturated with BJJ schools, that unless your name is Gracie, or you are a top Jiu Jitsu guy with good business acumen, the school is more likely to lose money than to make money. With that being said, whether your school stays open depends on how much your instructor loves to teach.

Especially in America. I hear it is more popular here than even Brazil. Maybe anyone looking to open a gym should learn spanish and go to another latin american country. I remember there was this mma fighter from the Bronx, Sean Alvarez I think. He now owns some schools in Mexico.

 

[NateTx4112]

Especially in America. I hear it is more popular here than even Brazil. Maybe anyone looking to open a gym should learn spanish and go to another latin american country. I remember there was this mma fighter from the Bronx, Sean Alvarez I think. He now owns some schools in Mexico.

If you know how to run a business, scale properly, and do it smart you can turn a profit early. I will have turned a profit my 2nd month in business. Not enough to live on but all my expenses getting started will be covered the way I set everything up.

If you go with your first lease and get the 4,000 square feet of Zebra Matted space with showers etc vs. starting out renting a room somewhere in a TKD gym then yeah, it's hard to turn a profit. It's all about knowing how to slowly grow a business with less risk.

 

[Striderxdj]

Worried? You're a consumer. Not your problem what happens to your gym.

This throwaway mindset is what causes schools to fail. Zero loyalty, and thinking only in selfish terms of equating your bjj training to simply buying a product... and if a more enticing deal comes along, leaving your old gym behind and taking all that mat experience with you.

I may not have to worry from a personal financial aspect if my gym fails, but Id be devastated as my instructor is both a good friend and devoted part of his life to making me better at BJJ, I wouldnt want to train anywhere else, regardless if the instructor was higher-profile, it was cheaper, or it was closer.

 

[KikoJones]

If you know how to run a business, scale properly, and do it smart you can turn a profit early. I will have turned a profit my 2nd month in business. Not enough to live on but all my expenses getting started will be covered the way I set everything up.

If you go with your first lease and get the 4,000 square feet of Zebra Matted space with showers etc vs. starting out renting a room somewhere in a TKD gym then yeah, it's hard to turn a profit. It's all about knowing how to slowly grow a business with less risk.

I've been thinking about opening an academy close to my work. The area is booming! Pros: Lots of potential, 5 Public schools, 1 VA, 1 Children's and 1 Teaching Hospital, Community college campus, 6 major community developments, avg income in the high $60s and no BJJ for 15-20 miles. Cons: Average lease is about $35 sq/ft per year.

I have a Black Belt that's willing to teach full time for a monthly salary. I'd have to have an after school program with minimum of 20 kids and 40 Martial arts students or any combination to break even. Lots to think about.

 

[NateTx4112]

I've been thinking about opening an academy close to my work. The area is booming! Pros: Lots of potential, 5 Public schools, 1 VA, 1 Children's and 1 Teaching Hospital, Community college campus, 6 major community developments, avg income in the high $60s and no BJJ for 15-20 miles. Cons: Average lease is about $35 sq/ft per year.

I have a Black Belt that's willing to teach full time for a monthly salary. I'd have to have an after school program with minimum of 20 kids and 40 Martial arts students or any combination to break even. Lots to think about.

Can you find a TKD gym, gymnastics gym, any kind of facility that has open mat space/area/room that you can rent and start small? Going full bore and getting a lease/mats/utilities etc is a much larger undertaking vs. growing organically from somewhere else. Monthly Salary for a Blackbelt is going to be a bigger expense as well for a full time right off the bat. I'm teaching all my own classes so my expense is only my own time and this is my side hustle. Starting off humble, small # of classes. Haven't even launched a kids program yet (coming soon).

 

[Uchi Mata]

Can you find a TKD gym, gymnastics gym, any kind of facility that has open mat space/area/room that you can rent and start small? Going full bore and getting a lease/mats/utilities etc is a much larger undertaking vs. growing organically from somewhere else. Monthly Salary for a Blackbelt is going to be a bigger expense as well for a full time right off the bat. I'm teaching all my own classes so my expense is only my own time and this is my side hustle. Starting off humble, small # of classes. Haven't even launched a kids program yet (coming soon).

A good friend of mine, also a brown belt, are planning to start our own thing (probably after he finishes law school, maybe before but hopefully after we're both black belts), and I think we're going to do something along these lines since we have a good relationship with a Judo school that has great mat space. If you can work out a way to start a school without massive capital investment then you have a lot more flexibility in how you run it.

 

[NateTx4112]

A good friend of mine, also a brown belt, are planning to start our own thing (probably after he finishes law school, maybe before but hopefully after we're both black belts), and I think we're going to do something along these lines since we have a good relationship with a Judo school that has great mat space. If you can work out a way to start a school without massive capital investment then you have a lot more flexibility in how you run it.

*boom* this guy gets it.

 

[SummerStriker]

Make sure that the TKD gym you get mat space from doesn't make you sign a non-competition agreement like they should, so that when you leave and steal twenty of their students, they can't do anything about it!

 

[NateTx4112]

Make sure that the TKD gym you get mat space from doesn't make you sign a non-competition agreement like they should, so that when you leave and steal twenty of their students, they can't do anything about it!

Honestly there's not that much bleed over from that from the 2 gyms I see. Most TKD students live in fairlytale land and don't want to see the truth of the ground. And grapplers tend to not want to strike and if they do it's more boxing/Muay Thai where there is actual sparring.

Kids - maybe more but I haven't seen it YET.

<-----doesn't have a non compete.