We will all face economic uncertainty at some point, it can be worrisome and throw a few headaches our way! You can get through it, and your Karate school can survive & thrive!

Here are 5 gems worth considering:

1.Stay Visible – When times get lean, many instructors cut back or eliminate all together any forms of advertising & promotions. (Worse yet they only advertise twice a year!)

A successful Karate instructor knows that to stay in the public eye is paramount ot keeping students coming in the doors. Your skill will determine if they stay (for the most part) but you MUST stay visible; that is you need to run a consistent advertising and marketing plan to keep the enrollments coming in.

You simply do not know when someone will decide they need to take Karate lessons, so you must keep a regular program going to be ‘ready’ when they come looking for lessons.

“For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does” - Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant

2.Plan your Attack – Karate defense is about tactics, you need them for your business as well. (Yes YOUR Karate club IS a business!).

- Do you have your marketing plan in place?
- Do you know what your promotional schedule will be for the next few months?
- Who is your target student, and what do they read? (a place to run your ads)
- Have you tested your ads for effectiveness?

The focus here is to be able to target and gauge where your advertising dollars will be going and if you can identify their success or weakness. Nothing could be worse then flying blind while spending your hard earned money!

3.Check your books ~ Now is the time to sit down and go over your expenses with a fine tooth comb. If you are feeling the need to count your pennies even more; this could be a good wake up call to plug any financial leaks you may have.

- Collect any overdue accounts
- Negotiate with your landlord for a reduction in rent.
- Check what you have been paying out. Is there somewhere you can trim costs?

4.Guerrilla Marketing ~ A great time to explore alternative, low cost advertising mediums. Be creative!

- Contact past students
- Direct mail (biggest bang for your buck)
- Joint Venture with local merchants

5.Give Something for free! Yes Free. Holding some sort of event, giving away free lessons, generating interest for a charity cause, etc. are all a means to generate publicity for your Karate school. A newspaper article or local news spot mention of your event and cause have many times the value as a paid advertisement. Knowing how to use free press is an artform that you need to learn!

There are of course many other ideas to help you build a strong student base even in the face of a financial downturn, any comments & suggestions are welcome and will be added to this list!

Train Hard!