Research Research Research

You have your mental image now. Time to really dig in and get your hands dirty.

Opening a new martial arts school or any new business requires lots and lots of research. My first school I opened I just plunked down my deposit on a warehouse and hoped for the best. Wow was that a bad idea.

For this new school I'm opening now, I'm moving clear across the country. I know the general area but not exactly. I really recommend reading "The Art of War". Contrary to popular belief its not just for presidents, warmongers and moral-less businessmen. One of the ideas in the book is to know the lay of the land so to speak. If you are looking to open in a new city, look to see what the best cities are for what you want to do. Are you targeting families, kids, college kids? (More on target groups later) From there, look within the city to see where other martial arts schools are centered. Look at gymnastics schools, dance schools, gyms, etc as well. A great tool I use is google maps. You can center in on an area and look up all the schools there. You can also put your own pins for particular schools you want to be near/far from or possible locations for your school. You can get street view as well to scout out the area.

Another good thing to research for your new martial arts school is lease rates in the area you want to open. Its kind of a past time for me to constantly pop my head in windows in shopping centers and cool buildings for lease. Get an idea for what is a good deal in your area for lease rates. Do this over a few months while you are getting all of your other things in order to open. So when you come across that "gem" you can act fast. I'm always looking at craigslist.org as well. The last school I opened I had to move a lot faster than I would have liked because of my previous lease arrangement. Thank god I had a good idea of the area. I was able to move out and into a new school in less than two weeks from start to finish. And I got one of the best deals in the area.

There are tons of things to research of course. There are interest rates on loans, equipment purchase prices, mats, mirrors, pro shop items, insurance... The list goes on and on. The important thing is to do as much of this as possible up front. This will save you tons of headaches and money in the future.