Why Strangers Make Good Martial Arts Business

As children we've all been told, "Don't talk to strangers." As
parents, we've all said the same thing to our own children. But
hearing it from your parents does not carry the same impact as hearing
it from someone "in authority." Stand Alone Stranger Awareness Program
Having a stand alone program that teaches children how to deal with
strangers is a perfect compliment to any martial arts school. It
provides a valuable service as well as offers the perfect opportunity
to bring students into your school.There are many programs that offer
stranger awareness. But few are created with self-defense in mind.
Often, these programs focus on simply telling children to avoid
strangers.What you need is a program that focuses on self-defense. One
such program is SafeChild which was created by Jim Mather - a leading
expert in self-defense and martial arts.This program has the students
going through a variety of roll playing scenarios to teach them not
only anti-abduction techniques, tactics, and strategies but also
methods for instilling the physical and psychological skills in
children necessary for them to effectively and efficiently prevent or
escape an abduction attempt. How To Offer Your Stranger Awareness
Program As a martial arts business manager you want to offer a
stranger awareness program with the best possible opportunities to
bring students into your martial arts school.There are several ways
you can offer such a program. Some include:Community Education
At your school on a Saturday
As an after school program at local elementary schools
As a seminar at community events like home shows
To groups such as scouts, little league teams and church youth groups
You can choose to offer your program for a fee or not. I have found
that offering SafeChild as a community service to groups like the
scouts and moms clubs gets me in the door easier and also allows me a
lead in to my follow up. Follow Up Offering a stranger awareness
program can bring in new students to your martial arts school if you
handle the program and the follow up correctly. You do not want to be
pushy and make the class nothing more than a sales pitch.Instead you
should offer a full program - beginning it and ending it with just a
few comments about your school and the work you do to help children
build confidence, self-discipline and so forth.Your follow up actually
should come before the class starts by having all the parents fill out
your standard waiver that has all of their contact information on it.
This way, you can follow up with them using either direct mail
promotions or phone calls.At the end of each stranger awareness
program that I teach I tell the students that as part of the program
we offer each student a free month of karate classes. I then tell them
that they will receive a certificate in the mail explaining the
offer.I then send them all a letter that is very short and colorful -
telling them about the free month of karate. In the same envelope I
include a letter to the parents that goes into great detail explaining
our karate school, its programs and how it can benefit their
child.Next I follow up with a phone call to those that do not respond
to the letter. I start by introducing myself as the guy that taught
the stranger awareness program and ask them how they and their child
liked it. Then I remind them about the letter and the offer to take
classes.Finally, I send a post card to those that I may not have
contacted and or are still not sure about coming in for the free
lessons.By having a stand alone stranger awareness program and having
a solid follow up offer and process in place you can increase your
student count. If you do not have such a program in place you are
missing out on a great martial arts business strategy.To learn about
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