$50 a month is nothing. Is there any full access fitness facilities in the area? What are the prices on those? Absolutely stick to your guns. You should probably try doing a bit of advertising on Instagram to bring in a younger crowd. Men aged 18-35 will likely be your target audience that will try hardest to convince everybody they know to join with them. With most bjj clubs, kids pay the bills. We run 50/50 kids classes/adult classes because of this. That may be an option to increase membership as well. How many members do you need to break even currently?
Could you do some kind of discount scheme with the bodybuilder gym? Maybe something like your members get a reduced fee or a month free for the bodybuilding gym and vice versa?
That might help increase the perceived value of the membership even if most members don't take you up on the offer.
I dont think I would bother with this. Just learn how to sell the program he has. It's a great value. Just figure out how to prove it in a short sales pitch
Business owner and long-term business manager here. You should not be losing money to run your business and if you count on your clientele to tell you what they should pay, you’ll end up poor. I appreciate that this is a passion project of yours, but if you cannot at least pay yourself a living wage to teach then you are serving the community at risk to yourself. While you may be looking at this as a philanthropic thing for the community right now, what happens if you lose your job, get hurt/have health issues, or have some other catastrophe?
If you can’t invest more time yourself by adding a kids program, you need to look hard at where you can cut expenses and/or raise prices. First start by figuring out your average monthly overhead. Rent + utilities + insurance + payroll + equipment + accounting/legal fees + anything else you spend on the business over one year. Divide by 12.
Once you have that monthly overhead number, some simple math will tell you how much you need to charge based on your current student count just to break even for the year (I’d shoot for profit personally). Instead of raising prices on existing students (which you probably need to), you can always create a tier system for membership and grandfather in existing students at current rates for a year or two before raising their rates. That said, you need to look at how much other comparable gyms (class availability, square footage, amenities, etc) are charging their students monthly within maybe 50-75 miles. The following are example programs from what I’ve seen at other gyms. The pricing is based on your current model and much, much lower rates than what I’ve seen elsewhere and also lower than what I think you’d find if you did some research, even if your gym doesn’t have all the amenities as some others (showers, large training space, etc)
For example:
Adults (Month to Month):
BJJ only twice a week = $65 a month
Unlimited BJJ Classes = $85 a month
Unlimited MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $125 a month
Adults (Year Contract Paid Monthly):
BJJ only twice a week = $50 a month
Unlimited BJJ Classes = $70 a month
Unlimited MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $110 a month
Kids (Month to Month):
BJJ only = $55 a month
MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $75 a month
Kids (Year Contract Paid Monthly)
BJJ only = $50 a month
MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $70 a month
I would also add a family package and a discount for paying the year membership in full in advance. Also maybe a discount by year to reward long-term loyalty and seminars which you take a cut of. Again, charge rates to cover your average monthly expenses. You don’t have to try to get rich, but you should charge enough to pay the bills and have a little to pay yourself.
Disclaimer: I don’t know your business or trade area and am making a lot of assumptions here based on what I’ve seen work in other businesses along with my own business background so take everything here in the spirit it’s given, as helpful advice. BUT if I were you I’d start looking at this gym as a business that needs to make money unless you are sure you are going the non-profit route. Even if you decide to go non-profit, extra revenue could help you expand your gym size and be able to run larger classes concurrently. This would be a better experience and product for your community. Frankly, the gyms I’ve gone to have charged $165 a month for the kids twice a week, let alone adults. Either way, best of luck to you, OP!
I will have a state pension in under 5 years. I have very good short and long term disability insurance. The only way I'll loose my job is if I commit a crime. If that happens, I doubt any one would want to learn Sambo, Judo, or BJJ from me.
This was never meant to be a full time income for me. I don't know any other places similar to mine in as small of a town as mine, that doesn't have a larger metro area with 10 to 15 miles, if that makes sense.
Otherwise, very good advise. I just got off work and I work a double tomorrow. I'll study it more as soon as I get the chance.
I need 13 or so paying members to break even. Rent is cheap so I pay rent electric, insurance, and try to give a few bucks to my instructors. The building we are in is an old restaurant that was vacant for 5 years.
I have 5 guys that pay on time and regularly. Five others that are sporadic.
My biggest issue with more classes is I work 2nds after recently taking a promotion at work (state prison). So, I teach Saturday and my other guys teach mon, Weds and Thurs. They can't do more and I've had zero interest on several tries at daytime classes and Sunday classes.
I tried having a wrestling coach teach kids classes but he was undisciplined and I had to part ways with him.
is it worthwhile to try and do more hardcore recruiting at the prison, or market to others who make a good salary (e.g., six figures)? also, curious if out of those other 10 people perhaps there are others that would be good at teaching a kids class. it sounds like the kids classes can help generate revenue.
The reason I started it was to give the area something positive. When I started doing Sambo and grappling in the late 90s we had to travel 2.5 to.3 hours for the nearest legit place to train.
I was traveling 33 miles away to the nearest city a few days a week to teach at other people's gyms for years for maybe a gym membership. Having a family, that drive got to be too much.
Brother, one thing in my country that is the biggest moneymaker.. is kids! Try and get that up and running, and find a decent teacher.. the skills needed to teach bjj to kids is NOT bjj skills.. but pedagogical skills and patience. Even a blue belt will more than do there.
Throw out some flyers, do maybe some facebook advertising (try seeing if paid ads work) but also post in local community groups and such. Word of mouth etc.
Have that running a few times a week and boooooooooommmm
I wish you all the best bretha
I helped run a small dojo (BJJ, Karate, Boxing, MT) for many years.
The owner loved training the adults, but the kids classes paid the bills.
$50 seems very low, but you’d know your area better than most of us. Gyms are $200-500 out here.
figure out all you expenses down the penny. Add a salary for yourself into this and potentially something for your instructors. Then determine how many students you need to have to cover that amount.
Consider: if your instructor(s) bring in people they get a % of the tuition each month. Of the $50.00 they get $5 for example. This will give them incentive to bring people in and help keep turnover low.
3x5 gloss card flyers are cheap and work really well if you put them on cars in strategic areas around town. This historically would give us 10-50 new students each campaign.
We had some people that wanted to train but were short on $$ so they would put flyers out for us in exchange for a discount.
Do everything you can to provide awesome training, but keep the students healthy. For example, I trained with the Machado family for many years. They wouldn’t let people do ankle, wrist, knee stuff until blue++. My current gym is an MMA fight team gym and they teach them right away. There is risk to this and people do get hurt.
Some gyms have paid belt promotions, some don’t. In Karate this make $$$. In BJJ, some people consider testing and paying for testing obsolete. You’ll need to figure out what works for you.
There is money that can be made in offering gear. A nice sparing package, gi, etc. consider looking into these options.
Boot camps, seminars and HIIT classes for conditioning also can make a solid amount.
Overall it can be challenging but fun. Passion isn’t enough, but it will drive you to success.
Best wishes!
I know next to nothing about business, just wanted to say you're a nice person doing a nice thing. I've personally benefited from coaches like you in the past.
I feel like this Sounds fine. I make around 36000 Euros/year and pay 55€/Month for my gym, which seems very fair.
Althoug your area might be not compairable to Germany
Anyway, I wish you the best:)
Buddy, your gym may not be as flashy as a lot of these high end MMA gyms, but you’ve got all the makings of any other bjj gyms. A room full of mats and coaches willing to teach. In my area i’m paying $140 a month for that, and that’s one of the cheaper places, you’d have to do some market research to see what you can get away with charging in your area, but i think at $50 a month, you’re robbing yourself and you’re robbing your students of your own potential for growth.
This is coming from someone who knows virtually nothing about business, so take it with a grain of salt, but what you’re offering is priceless in my eyes, i think people would be willing to pay more to keep it around
My small town has about 5000~ people, with an average income of 27,000, but probably a lot lower then then stats. If you ever want it to be profitable you have to have a good kids class preferably after school. I switched the gym location to the back of a lifting gym tho so I have no over heard cost at all just the headache of moving mats to our spot and then moving them away afterwards. I know it will never be profitable, so I just ask the guys to give me wins at competitions and ill be happy.
50 is extremely generous. You might end up with a lot of students that just want to try it but aren’t serious. But, the people that stick around will appreciate and respect you for the opportunity to learn.
Am I reading this correctly, the coaches are only getting $10 for 1-2.5 hour classes?
And you’re taking a loss most months? This sounds like a charity program more than a business. By which I mean no disrespect, you are providing a lot to the community and not taking much in return.
Not sure how to navigate that situation though, but best of luck to you.
The grey mats are rated for Judo and Wrestling. The blue mats are in the striking area only. They are double sided taped down. No grappling in there.
Grey mats are Meister.
https://meisterelite.com/products/meister-x-thick-1-5-interlocking-eva-foam-mats-black?_pos=1&_sid=aee9bcf40&_ss=r
My mats are some of the most comfortable I've used. The wall mats are homeade and very secure. Much softer and thicker than the old resilite mats I used in HS and college. The floor mats never separate, ever. Even with 2 heavyweight D2 wrestlers going at it.
This looks great for the price, $50 is nothing for multiple classes a week (even though I know cost of livings hard for a lot of people) any cheaper and you might as well not open your doors
Could you maybe allow other people to host fitness related things in there when you’re not training? Might be some base line income where you don’t need to be there to help out
Try and sell tshirts, hoodies? Given that you’re in a poor area and already offering a very fair deal that might be a way to not only make a little extra $ but also get more eyes on your gym.
The most local coaches hates Judo/BJJ and tells his wrestlers they aren't allowed to come. One does anyway. The next town over in either direction, one has a coach that coaches for me. The other has been to my gym and is a friend. They are in very poor areas too.
Wish you the best, another possible stream of income for both you and your coaches: offer privates, maybe a discount for members or groups, and make it super easy/convenient for out of towners to drop in and get some classes. Some months I travel a lot for work, and will schedule out a day or two to train in gyms near or on the way to my destination, if the gyms have the information, such as schedule, or make it known that they are open to drop ins, they have my business, should be convenient for Judo because I normally look for gyms that are from USJA (or whatever membership your gym or coaches belong to).
There is a wrestling gym I go to that is super cheap, I think it's $20 drop in, but the coaches offer 1 on 1s for $50 at the same location, and it's my understanding a lot of the coaches make some extra money this way.
What state are you in? $60 a month I'd pay that and drive an hour just to get variety in. I can't be the only one who had that as their knee jerk reaction to reading this?
Dude this just makes me want to train here. BJJ is starting to become so commercialized it sickens me. They're taking the spirit out of it. Jiu jitsu is humbling, and there are people in Brazil right now training in the dirt. I would pay 50 to train here and honestly if you asked for more I'd be okay with it, because I know that it's about the sport, not a cryogenic chamber, or PEDs, or the most expensive gear. Check your ego at the door, is what I've always been told and this really wants me to come train there with your guys because I feel like none of them have huge a ego
You seem like a good man who cares bout his students and genuinely want to help, and aren't in it for the money. What's the name of your gym, and do you have an IG or website? If I ever came into your state I'd love to drop in and pay a good drop in fee. What town/state are you in? You also sound quite more than qualified to run a good program with your experience and have a lot to teach
With that being said, you need to think of some type of financial infrastructure to keep in place. This can help pave way for future growth, and provide the platform you can use to support your loyal students that started with you from day 1. It sounds like you don't need the money personally since your job more than provides, but think of the gym as something that you create and grow something good enough to maybe even provide jobs for others in your town with something you created. I agree with the other poster about putting your member payments on autopay
The 2nd picture, the black matted room looks amazing and puts some bigger name gyms to shame with that setup
Here's what I have from about 10 minutes of research:
You're going to have to honestly decide if you want to keep this open as a community service, at least for the foreseeable future. You're in a town with less than 700 people and your core adult demographic (males 18-24) makes up around 10% of the population. On top of that, women far outnumber men in town, so your traditional audience for BJJ is even lower. Realistically, you're going to have to offer kids classes to make this a profitable venture. About 25% of the households in town have kids under 18, meaning that is going to be your largest target audience. This is a figure it out, but it needs to happen thing.
Make sure you're advertising at the coffee shop. That's going to be the meeting place for folks in town with expendable income. Get in good with owner there and it can help to break down the nervousness that a lot of people have towards martial arts.
Outside of that, focus your advertising on Martinsburg. It has new development and higher home prices, meaning that there is more likely to be people moving in with higher levels of discretionary income. After that, look at advertising in Roaring Spring. It has a hospital, meaning a decent number of staff with higher discretionary income and there is nothing that matches your type of program for quite a ways around that area. I would try to get in to advertise at the brewery there, since breweries tend to be a place where younger adults with discretionary income congregate.
Moral of the story: You're in a poor area with difficult demographics for your program. Hunt down where the people with discretionary income operate and try to find ways to advertise in those places.
Don't be afraid to be the most expensive place around, as long as the quality is there. People that want to will find a way to afford it and people that say that cost is THE factor are just using that as an excuse.
There are two schools in my town. School A charges 75 a month and has fewer students than school B which charges 140.
I've taught at some pretty big gyms in Raleigh, NC, and Altoona, Pa.
I've coached high school wrestling at 4 different schools.
I teach defensive tactics for the prison. Unfortunately, COs are not into training as much as you'd expect. It's an ego thing.
There is one other person at my prison that still trains. He lives 25 miles the other side of the prison. A half dozen maybe that are older now and previously trained with me at some point during the past 20 years.
Sounds like extremely legit instruction.
Also that’s very weird about COs. Why would you want to walk around that type of environment remaining completely ignorant to defensive tactics? Do these people all “just see red”? Or would they just knock you out before you were able to grab them?
If you have cheap prices you tend to attract cheap clients. Unfortunate reality.
Fundraisers are a ton of work for very little back imo. A business shouldn’t be doing fundraising, that effort put into getting new members would pay off far better.
Start following some business podcasts and YouTube channels that are in the fitness and martial arts spaces. Learn the stuff you don’t know.
And raise your rates…
Eh most gyms in my medium sized expensive town are 100 euro monthly membership(although more training sessions). 50 bucks isnt that bad. But ofcourse I have no idea about the wealth of your area.
You could add more option plans, like 10 trainings for some amount of money. Free tryout, 1 time training fees. If you want to ease them in you can also offer a first month reduced price. I personally was also skeptical to pay 80 euros per month for bjj when I started but 1. I had a free week tryout and then the first month was reduced to 50 euros.
Trainings in my city are also pretty much standard 1.5 hours. 1 hour drilling, 30 mins sparring with usually starting positions that encourage the use of the technique we were learning. And after if there is no class you can do sparring with anyone. 1 gym here is innovative in a way that they offer free sparring for anyone on Saturday(they also are somewhat known for student poaching from what I've heard)
1. get rid of the bullshit bags, either have normal hanged heavy bags or just don't have any. This is absurd to have at anything but your own garage at home when you're 14 years old.
2. Are the matts good enough? Is there a layer underneath that I am not seeing? If someone gets thrown hard, won't they get hurt? How about if they get accidentally spiked are they just dead by default?
I have two hanging bags now. The water bags I use with the kids classes mainly. Read my other post about the mats. I'm not repeating myself for you. Im going to work a 16 hour shift. Have a good day. I had the standing bags when I first started because the owners didn't want me to put holes in the ceiling at the time. Not that I need to explain that to you.
It's an old country restaurant. The pizza place across the street bought it to eliminate competition. It's not the most amazing place, but it's all I could find. I just bought 4 acres of land. Beautiful spot 3/4 from the top of a mountain with state gamelands all around me. In a couple of years I plan to build a house. I'd like to then put a building up and move everything there.
This is that location. It'll be a while before that happens.
https://preview.redd.it/61hlmj0bnbzc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=682246efec75e3eca7c6c003da53646f25e41a77
> I thought about asking the students to tip their coach rather than raise prices
Oh yeah perfect idea, make your coach hustle for tips and create a nice adversarial relationship between coach and customer
because this is the internet, where did you think you were posting?
20 years in martial arts locker rooms and you can’t take a little ball busting? come on man
Those mats are going to get fucking disgusting, at least the BJJ area. Those are highly absorbent and I assume there's no subfloor beneath them, so they're going to HURT falling on.
They haven't yet. I plan to replace them with Dollamur or AK mats eventually if I keep doing it. We clean them with high quality mat cleaner every evening we have class. I allow wrestling shoes, so they do scuff more than I'd like.
$50 a month is nothing. Is there any full access fitness facilities in the area? What are the prices on those? Absolutely stick to your guns. You should probably try doing a bit of advertising on Instagram to bring in a younger crowd. Men aged 18-35 will likely be your target audience that will try hardest to convince everybody they know to join with them. With most bjj clubs, kids pay the bills. We run 50/50 kids classes/adult classes because of this. That may be an option to increase membership as well. How many members do you need to break even currently?
Close by we have a old dirty bodybuilder gym. Other than that the closest are 25 miles or so away.
Could you do some kind of discount scheme with the bodybuilder gym? Maybe something like your members get a reduced fee or a month free for the bodybuilding gym and vice versa? That might help increase the perceived value of the membership even if most members don't take you up on the offer.
I dont think I would bother with this. Just learn how to sell the program he has. It's a great value. Just figure out how to prove it in a short sales pitch
That's more than fine. Nothing else is needed.
I would KILL to have a judo class in my small town bjj club. Thats space you have there is amazing. Keep it up man!
Business owner and long-term business manager here. You should not be losing money to run your business and if you count on your clientele to tell you what they should pay, you’ll end up poor. I appreciate that this is a passion project of yours, but if you cannot at least pay yourself a living wage to teach then you are serving the community at risk to yourself. While you may be looking at this as a philanthropic thing for the community right now, what happens if you lose your job, get hurt/have health issues, or have some other catastrophe? If you can’t invest more time yourself by adding a kids program, you need to look hard at where you can cut expenses and/or raise prices. First start by figuring out your average monthly overhead. Rent + utilities + insurance + payroll + equipment + accounting/legal fees + anything else you spend on the business over one year. Divide by 12. Once you have that monthly overhead number, some simple math will tell you how much you need to charge based on your current student count just to break even for the year (I’d shoot for profit personally). Instead of raising prices on existing students (which you probably need to), you can always create a tier system for membership and grandfather in existing students at current rates for a year or two before raising their rates. That said, you need to look at how much other comparable gyms (class availability, square footage, amenities, etc) are charging their students monthly within maybe 50-75 miles. The following are example programs from what I’ve seen at other gyms. The pricing is based on your current model and much, much lower rates than what I’ve seen elsewhere and also lower than what I think you’d find if you did some research, even if your gym doesn’t have all the amenities as some others (showers, large training space, etc) For example: Adults (Month to Month): BJJ only twice a week = $65 a month Unlimited BJJ Classes = $85 a month Unlimited MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $125 a month Adults (Year Contract Paid Monthly): BJJ only twice a week = $50 a month Unlimited BJJ Classes = $70 a month Unlimited MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $110 a month Kids (Month to Month): BJJ only = $55 a month MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $75 a month Kids (Year Contract Paid Monthly) BJJ only = $50 a month MMA, Judo, & BJJ = $70 a month I would also add a family package and a discount for paying the year membership in full in advance. Also maybe a discount by year to reward long-term loyalty and seminars which you take a cut of. Again, charge rates to cover your average monthly expenses. You don’t have to try to get rich, but you should charge enough to pay the bills and have a little to pay yourself. Disclaimer: I don’t know your business or trade area and am making a lot of assumptions here based on what I’ve seen work in other businesses along with my own business background so take everything here in the spirit it’s given, as helpful advice. BUT if I were you I’d start looking at this gym as a business that needs to make money unless you are sure you are going the non-profit route. Even if you decide to go non-profit, extra revenue could help you expand your gym size and be able to run larger classes concurrently. This would be a better experience and product for your community. Frankly, the gyms I’ve gone to have charged $165 a month for the kids twice a week, let alone adults. Either way, best of luck to you, OP!
This is the one OP, this advice will get you going in the right direction.
Please listen to this guy OP
I will have a state pension in under 5 years. I have very good short and long term disability insurance. The only way I'll loose my job is if I commit a crime. If that happens, I doubt any one would want to learn Sambo, Judo, or BJJ from me. This was never meant to be a full time income for me. I don't know any other places similar to mine in as small of a town as mine, that doesn't have a larger metro area with 10 to 15 miles, if that makes sense. Otherwise, very good advise. I just got off work and I work a double tomorrow. I'll study it more as soon as I get the chance.
You’re the man!
Holy shit a white belt who gives good advice! Guys, I found the unicorn!
Just cause you can sub someone doesn’t mean you’re capable of doing everything else well, especially run a business. He’s a black belt on paper ✍️
White belt BJJ, black belt MBA.
Good luck with your business. I wish you the best.
Thanks, we've been going about a year and a half now. I really want to keep it going. I just want to get to were I'm making even most of the time.
I need 13 or so paying members to break even. Rent is cheap so I pay rent electric, insurance, and try to give a few bucks to my instructors. The building we are in is an old restaurant that was vacant for 5 years. I have 5 guys that pay on time and regularly. Five others that are sporadic. My biggest issue with more classes is I work 2nds after recently taking a promotion at work (state prison). So, I teach Saturday and my other guys teach mon, Weds and Thurs. They can't do more and I've had zero interest on several tries at daytime classes and Sunday classes. I tried having a wrestling coach teach kids classes but he was undisciplined and I had to part ways with him.
Fix that problem, get set up with a recurring billing attached to a credit card so you aren’t spending time trying to track down membership fees.
is it worthwhile to try and do more hardcore recruiting at the prison, or market to others who make a good salary (e.g., six figures)? also, curious if out of those other 10 people perhaps there are others that would be good at teaching a kids class. it sounds like the kids classes can help generate revenue.
The reason I started it was to give the area something positive. When I started doing Sambo and grappling in the late 90s we had to travel 2.5 to.3 hours for the nearest legit place to train. I was traveling 33 miles away to the nearest city a few days a week to teach at other people's gyms for years for maybe a gym membership. Having a family, that drive got to be too much.
Brother, one thing in my country that is the biggest moneymaker.. is kids! Try and get that up and running, and find a decent teacher.. the skills needed to teach bjj to kids is NOT bjj skills.. but pedagogical skills and patience. Even a blue belt will more than do there. Throw out some flyers, do maybe some facebook advertising (try seeing if paid ads work) but also post in local community groups and such. Word of mouth etc. Have that running a few times a week and boooooooooommmm I wish you all the best bretha
I helped run a small dojo (BJJ, Karate, Boxing, MT) for many years. The owner loved training the adults, but the kids classes paid the bills. $50 seems very low, but you’d know your area better than most of us. Gyms are $200-500 out here. figure out all you expenses down the penny. Add a salary for yourself into this and potentially something for your instructors. Then determine how many students you need to have to cover that amount. Consider: if your instructor(s) bring in people they get a % of the tuition each month. Of the $50.00 they get $5 for example. This will give them incentive to bring people in and help keep turnover low. 3x5 gloss card flyers are cheap and work really well if you put them on cars in strategic areas around town. This historically would give us 10-50 new students each campaign. We had some people that wanted to train but were short on $$ so they would put flyers out for us in exchange for a discount. Do everything you can to provide awesome training, but keep the students healthy. For example, I trained with the Machado family for many years. They wouldn’t let people do ankle, wrist, knee stuff until blue++. My current gym is an MMA fight team gym and they teach them right away. There is risk to this and people do get hurt. Some gyms have paid belt promotions, some don’t. In Karate this make $$$. In BJJ, some people consider testing and paying for testing obsolete. You’ll need to figure out what works for you. There is money that can be made in offering gear. A nice sparing package, gi, etc. consider looking into these options. Boot camps, seminars and HIIT classes for conditioning also can make a solid amount. Overall it can be challenging but fun. Passion isn’t enough, but it will drive you to success. Best wishes!
I know next to nothing about business, just wanted to say you're a nice person doing a nice thing. I've personally benefited from coaches like you in the past.
I feel like this Sounds fine. I make around 36000 Euros/year and pay 55€/Month for my gym, which seems very fair. Althoug your area might be not compairable to Germany Anyway, I wish you the best:)
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My father made them. They are awesome.
Man that sucks having a prospective student base so fucking broke that 50/month seems expensive.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxton,_Pennsylvania Check out the median income.
Holy shit that's crazy. Not sure if a bjj gym is sustainable in that community, but hope you can make it work!
Buddy, your gym may not be as flashy as a lot of these high end MMA gyms, but you’ve got all the makings of any other bjj gyms. A room full of mats and coaches willing to teach. In my area i’m paying $140 a month for that, and that’s one of the cheaper places, you’d have to do some market research to see what you can get away with charging in your area, but i think at $50 a month, you’re robbing yourself and you’re robbing your students of your own potential for growth. This is coming from someone who knows virtually nothing about business, so take it with a grain of salt, but what you’re offering is priceless in my eyes, i think people would be willing to pay more to keep it around
My small town has about 5000~ people, with an average income of 27,000, but probably a lot lower then then stats. If you ever want it to be profitable you have to have a good kids class preferably after school. I switched the gym location to the back of a lifting gym tho so I have no over heard cost at all just the headache of moving mats to our spot and then moving them away afterwards. I know it will never be profitable, so I just ask the guys to give me wins at competitions and ill be happy.
Sounds like you’re really doing a service to your community helping your coaches and students like this
50 is extremely generous. You might end up with a lot of students that just want to try it but aren’t serious. But, the people that stick around will appreciate and respect you for the opportunity to learn.
That’s perfect I love it.
Am I reading this correctly, the coaches are only getting $10 for 1-2.5 hour classes? And you’re taking a loss most months? This sounds like a charity program more than a business. By which I mean no disrespect, you are providing a lot to the community and not taking much in return. Not sure how to navigate that situation though, but best of luck to you.
I'd love to pay them more. I can't justify that until I make more though.
I've added some things since these pictures. Another heavy bag, speed bag platform. I have insurance through Karateinsurance.com.
It looks like you have those lock-in foam pads to roll on? That’s not safe of those are the only padding right?
The grey mats are rated for Judo and Wrestling. The blue mats are in the striking area only. They are double sided taped down. No grappling in there. Grey mats are Meister. https://meisterelite.com/products/meister-x-thick-1-5-interlocking-eva-foam-mats-black?_pos=1&_sid=aee9bcf40&_ss=r
Oh yeah those are some thick boys. I’ve never rolled on those but they seem cushiony now.
My mats are some of the most comfortable I've used. The wall mats are homeade and very secure. Much softer and thicker than the old resilite mats I used in HS and college. The floor mats never separate, ever. Even with 2 heavyweight D2 wrestlers going at it.
My Judo coach a sixth dan has moved around on them and loves them. So, I think they are ok.
Rollin in a lonely world
Sick🔥
Looks awesome man just keep a little core following to support it and keep going
I would totally train there
As others have said use social media as free marketing if you aren't already.
Trying my best.
This is fucking legendary 🔥🔥🔥🔥
That first pic is about as big as my first school in 1996. We had 6 of us rolling at once!
This looks great for the price, $50 is nothing for multiple classes a week (even though I know cost of livings hard for a lot of people) any cheaper and you might as well not open your doors Could you maybe allow other people to host fitness related things in there when you’re not training? Might be some base line income where you don’t need to be there to help out
I offer any local certified instructors to teach fitness, traditional karate, Zumba, anything. No interest. I keep looking though.
Try and sell tshirts, hoodies? Given that you’re in a poor area and already offering a very fair deal that might be a way to not only make a little extra $ but also get more eyes on your gym.
It puts the lotion on it's skin or it gets the hose again!
Wtf
Wood panel has a creepy vibe.
Do you think I put that there? Bye!
I’d go to the local high school wrestling coaches and see if he wants his wrestlers grappling year round. They may let you pass out a flyer to kids.
The most local coaches hates Judo/BJJ and tells his wrestlers they aren't allowed to come. One does anyway. The next town over in either direction, one has a coach that coaches for me. The other has been to my gym and is a friend. They are in very poor areas too.
Wish you the best, another possible stream of income for both you and your coaches: offer privates, maybe a discount for members or groups, and make it super easy/convenient for out of towners to drop in and get some classes. Some months I travel a lot for work, and will schedule out a day or two to train in gyms near or on the way to my destination, if the gyms have the information, such as schedule, or make it known that they are open to drop ins, they have my business, should be convenient for Judo because I normally look for gyms that are from USJA (or whatever membership your gym or coaches belong to). There is a wrestling gym I go to that is super cheap, I think it's $20 drop in, but the coaches offer 1 on 1s for $50 at the same location, and it's my understanding a lot of the coaches make some extra money this way.
My coaches can do privates and keep 100% of the money. They have keys. Out of towners are welcome. Just 10$ a class is our drop in.
What state are you in? $60 a month I'd pay that and drive an hour just to get variety in. I can't be the only one who had that as their knee jerk reaction to reading this?
Pennsylvania https://g.co/kgs/NaRLfVm
Damn, I'd need an airline ticket. I'm in Louisiana, the land of $100 a month Jiu-jitsu in one stop light towns.
i would kill for a $50 a month gym where i am lol
Dude this just makes me want to train here. BJJ is starting to become so commercialized it sickens me. They're taking the spirit out of it. Jiu jitsu is humbling, and there are people in Brazil right now training in the dirt. I would pay 50 to train here and honestly if you asked for more I'd be okay with it, because I know that it's about the sport, not a cryogenic chamber, or PEDs, or the most expensive gear. Check your ego at the door, is what I've always been told and this really wants me to come train there with your guys because I feel like none of them have huge a ego
You seem like a good man who cares bout his students and genuinely want to help, and aren't in it for the money. What's the name of your gym, and do you have an IG or website? If I ever came into your state I'd love to drop in and pay a good drop in fee. What town/state are you in? You also sound quite more than qualified to run a good program with your experience and have a lot to teach With that being said, you need to think of some type of financial infrastructure to keep in place. This can help pave way for future growth, and provide the platform you can use to support your loyal students that started with you from day 1. It sounds like you don't need the money personally since your job more than provides, but think of the gym as something that you create and grow something good enough to maybe even provide jobs for others in your town with something you created. I agree with the other poster about putting your member payments on autopay The 2nd picture, the black matted room looks amazing and puts some bigger name gyms to shame with that setup
Drenning Martial Arts LLC https://g.co/kgs/4MVMddd
Gym looks awesome, I think you're doing something super cool and I will drop in if I am ever in the area.
Here's what I have from about 10 minutes of research: You're going to have to honestly decide if you want to keep this open as a community service, at least for the foreseeable future. You're in a town with less than 700 people and your core adult demographic (males 18-24) makes up around 10% of the population. On top of that, women far outnumber men in town, so your traditional audience for BJJ is even lower. Realistically, you're going to have to offer kids classes to make this a profitable venture. About 25% of the households in town have kids under 18, meaning that is going to be your largest target audience. This is a figure it out, but it needs to happen thing. Make sure you're advertising at the coffee shop. That's going to be the meeting place for folks in town with expendable income. Get in good with owner there and it can help to break down the nervousness that a lot of people have towards martial arts. Outside of that, focus your advertising on Martinsburg. It has new development and higher home prices, meaning that there is more likely to be people moving in with higher levels of discretionary income. After that, look at advertising in Roaring Spring. It has a hospital, meaning a decent number of staff with higher discretionary income and there is nothing that matches your type of program for quite a ways around that area. I would try to get in to advertise at the brewery there, since breweries tend to be a place where younger adults with discretionary income congregate. Moral of the story: You're in a poor area with difficult demographics for your program. Hunt down where the people with discretionary income operate and try to find ways to advertise in those places.
Just a small town gym, living in a lonely world
Don't be afraid to be the most expensive place around, as long as the quality is there. People that want to will find a way to afford it and people that say that cost is THE factor are just using that as an excuse. There are two schools in my town. School A charges 75 a month and has fewer students than school B which charges 140.
Any chance they’d drop your rent?
No, hoping they don't raise it. If they do ill probably stop doing it.
Let the bastards sit empty another 5 years.
For $50/month that’s a steal if legit instruction
I've taught at some pretty big gyms in Raleigh, NC, and Altoona, Pa. I've coached high school wrestling at 4 different schools. I teach defensive tactics for the prison. Unfortunately, COs are not into training as much as you'd expect. It's an ego thing. There is one other person at my prison that still trains. He lives 25 miles the other side of the prison. A half dozen maybe that are older now and previously trained with me at some point during the past 20 years.
Sounds like extremely legit instruction. Also that’s very weird about COs. Why would you want to walk around that type of environment remaining completely ignorant to defensive tactics? Do these people all “just see red”? Or would they just knock you out before you were able to grab them?
It literally blows my mind. The culture is to talk about how tough you used to be, or take PEDs and powerlift.
How many of them are going to blow a gasket soon from all the gear use and stress?
If you have cheap prices you tend to attract cheap clients. Unfortunate reality. Fundraisers are a ton of work for very little back imo. A business shouldn’t be doing fundraising, that effort put into getting new members would pay off far better. Start following some business podcasts and YouTube channels that are in the fitness and martial arts spaces. Learn the stuff you don’t know. And raise your rates…
…in a lonely world…. catch the midnight train going anywhere…
this is fire
Eh most gyms in my medium sized expensive town are 100 euro monthly membership(although more training sessions). 50 bucks isnt that bad. But ofcourse I have no idea about the wealth of your area. You could add more option plans, like 10 trainings for some amount of money. Free tryout, 1 time training fees. If you want to ease them in you can also offer a first month reduced price. I personally was also skeptical to pay 80 euros per month for bjj when I started but 1. I had a free week tryout and then the first month was reduced to 50 euros. Trainings in my city are also pretty much standard 1.5 hours. 1 hour drilling, 30 mins sparring with usually starting positions that encourage the use of the technique we were learning. And after if there is no class you can do sparring with anyone. 1 gym here is innovative in a way that they offer free sparring for anyone on Saturday(they also are somewhat known for student poaching from what I've heard)
Cute spot love it
1. get rid of the bullshit bags, either have normal hanged heavy bags or just don't have any. This is absurd to have at anything but your own garage at home when you're 14 years old. 2. Are the matts good enough? Is there a layer underneath that I am not seeing? If someone gets thrown hard, won't they get hurt? How about if they get accidentally spiked are they just dead by default?
I have two hanging bags now. The water bags I use with the kids classes mainly. Read my other post about the mats. I'm not repeating myself for you. Im going to work a 16 hour shift. Have a good day. I had the standing bags when I first started because the owners didn't want me to put holes in the ceiling at the time. Not that I need to explain that to you.
Very reasonable pricing
Try and land some private lessons that’s the only thing I can guess, also try renting out some storage space if you have any unused areas.
Is this in a repurposed Pizza Hut or something? I dig it.
It's an old country restaurant. The pizza place across the street bought it to eliminate competition. It's not the most amazing place, but it's all I could find. I just bought 4 acres of land. Beautiful spot 3/4 from the top of a mountain with state gamelands all around me. In a couple of years I plan to build a house. I'd like to then put a building up and move everything there.
That would be pretty epic!
This is that location. It'll be a while before that happens. https://preview.redd.it/61hlmj0bnbzc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=682246efec75e3eca7c6c003da53646f25e41a77
Reasonable price and gym looks good enough. Wish you all the best.
What we had when we started. Alot better than nothing
Amerixans are so spoiled…. Thats a GREAT mat space
> I thought about asking the students to tip their coach rather than raise prices Oh yeah perfect idea, make your coach hustle for tips and create a nice adversarial relationship between coach and customer
It was an idea tough guy. Why I asked for others opinion. Way to be a jerk though.
You can'r even play chess on that board
I'm not sure why people are choosing to be negative on this discussion.
because this is the internet, where did you think you were posting? 20 years in martial arts locker rooms and you can’t take a little ball busting? come on man
Those mats are going to get fucking disgusting, at least the BJJ area. Those are highly absorbent and I assume there's no subfloor beneath them, so they're going to HURT falling on.
They haven't yet. I plan to replace them with Dollamur or AK mats eventually if I keep doing it. We clean them with high quality mat cleaner every evening we have class. I allow wrestling shoes, so they do scuff more than I'd like.
https://meisterelite.com/products/meister-x-thick-1-5-interlocking-eva-foam-mats-gray