Considerations for opening Your Martial Art Karate Dojo or Yoga studio (2024)

Congratulations on wanting to start a Martial Art Karate Dojo! It can and will be scary. Yet it will be gratifying, too.

Here are a few thoughts I put together from my experiences to help guide you on opening a karate dojo. These guidelines are also relevant for any martial art karate school/dojo. Most of these considerations also apply to opening a Yoga studio by substituting Yoga anywhere karate or martial arts appear below..

Don’t be shy! Talk to others about how they did it. None of us are competing for the same students. We are all willing to share our expertise.

(Expertise: Knowledge that comes from failing productively)

People enjoy telling others of their successes. So ask!

Your very first decision

Why are you opening a Karate Dojo?



- just to have training partners for your personal growth,

- operate like a club and charge only a few $$/month, or

- Operate a part-time or full-time karate/martial art business?

- Are you hoping to cover costs or make a lviing from your Karate classes?

What Martial Art or Karate are You Hoping to Teach?

Ideally, you already have attained proficiency in your martial art so you have something to teach. Never fear, there are examples of Martial Art/Karate schools or dojos started by people with absolutely no experience or skills. Some of them are quite successful.

Will you teach self defense martial art karate or sport-type martial art karate?

Many believe sport karate can be combined with self-defense and claim they teach both. You do what you train. Most experienced street fighters laugh at sport karate because the scenarios fail to reflect real life. If you train in brutal self defense reactions, you can't use them in tournaments or competition. When you experience a couple self defense situations you quickly understand the difference and appreciate

"Nothing is more harmful to the world than a martial art that is not effective in actual self-defense."

-- Choki Motobu

Your Karate USP

What is Your Unique Selling Point?

• You practice Sensei Iha’s Beikoku Shidokan Karate? (Most people outside of the United States, Okinawa, or Argentina have never heard of Beikoku Shidokan Karatet and don’t care)
• You teach Okinawan Shorin Ryu Karate? (Most people don’t know what that is)
• You teach self defense karate? Ah, now they might understand, few competitors
• You teach womens self defense? There is a market for that
• You teach competitive karate to win a tournament? You now compete with many
• You teach kobudo, karate weapons?
• You practice hard and have fun?
• You are a very nice and attractive person and everyone really likes you?
• Your classes build self confidence, reduce stress, help people get fit, bully protection, etc.
• You believe you have something you can offer others? What is it?
• You believe you are a good teacher?
• Design your USP according to the students you wish from your community.

Who are you going to teach?

• Adults
• Teens
• Women only classes
• Kids
• All of the above, or anyone who walks through the door?
• Weapons?

Identify Your Ideal Karate Student (this will influence your marketing & pricing)

• - Adults
• - Women
• - Professionals, i.e., doctors, lawyers, government employees
• - Security types
• - Military, Police, First Responders

- Office Workers

- Blue Collar

- Anyone who walks through the door.

- Kids

- Teens

- Anyone who walks in the door

Where are you going to teach Karate Classes?

If you are looking at a club-type activity maybe you can find space to rent or for free at:

• YMCA,
• health club,
• private or public school gymnasium, university, or other space,
• a church,
• a meeting room space,
• A local Fire Station has a large community room but all available times are taken by Zumba classes & bingo!
• Community meeting rooms or gyms

You may also find time available for class in an established martial art dojo. Tae Kwon Do schools often like to offer useful adult martial arts. Maybe they hire you to teach and they charge members a monthly fee? Or they may take a certain percentage of your proceeds?

Do You Need Full-time or Part-time Business Rental Space for Your Karae Classes?

Are you ready to rent your own space? Start small. A 1,000 sq ft practice area is good for about 20 adults. You can always go larger if/when needed. For Reference, the Virginia Dojo mat space is about 900 sq. ft. I think the Fairlawn Dojo also has about 900 sq. ft of mat space.

You’ll see lots of Karate schools start out renting 2 or 3000 square-foot spaces and then go out of business within a year or two because the business owners’ exuberance isn’t matched by anticipated student membership and they can’t cover the rent.

Apply for an EIN with the IRS

Register with the IRS to get an Employer Identification Number, EIN. You will use it to get your business license, bank account and taxes, and other stuff. Even if you think you won’t need it apply for an EIN. It doesn’t cost anything. You can also use your Social Security Number.

This is an online process with the IRS:

https://irs-federal-ein-number.com/

What are Your tax obligations?

Search the internet for Federal, State, and Country/City tax requirements. You need your EIN or your Social Security Number

Do you need a Business License?

Clubs usually don’t need a business license. Yet businesses do. (duh!) There may be a yearly income amount required for a business license regardless of club or business status. Search the internet for your State, County, and City requirements. You will need your EIN for your business license.

Set up an LLC

Set up your LLC to protect your assets even if you don’t expect to make much money at first. Eventually, you may be making $50 to $100,000 per year and discover you haven’t set up your LLC yet.

In Virginia, LLCs are set up with the State Government. You can set up your LLC online and pay for it, too.

You will need your EIN or your Social Security Number.

Non-Profit Karate Dojo

Search the internet for rules around creating and running a non-profit dojo. There may be some benefits to setting up a non-profit.

Banking Accounts

Set up a checking account with your name and the LLC’s name on the account. This enables you to get a debit card for online purchases.

You will need your EIN

Student Payment Options:

– ACH set up with your bank is the easiest as payment is deducted from the member’s bank account monthly

– Pay Pal, Venmo, Stripe, and Apple Pay are options

– Cash and Checks are always welcome

Finding Your Own Space to Lease

If you are looking to lease a place you can contact commercial real estate agents, and look around the neighborhood. Surprisingly, I found in my area that Craigslist was a very good source better than the real estate agents that focus on renting 100,000 square-foot spaces or more because they work on commission. An area of 1000 ft.² or 1500 ft.² is just peanuts to them and they aren’t interested unless it’s in a strip mall where rent will be $4,000 to $10,000 a month, or more.

What other fees are you expected to pay beyond the rent?

- Signage

- parking (painting, snow removal)

- electricity

- water, and

- more. There is always more

Over 20 years ago, Bob Herten told me that every time he opened a new Dojo space he had a $10,000 build-out cost. It is now even more expensive. This initial build-out cost kept me from leasing my own space for years. Plus, I had to be available for immediate, unexpected overseas assignments for my full-time job and didn’t want to break a lease and pay penalties. Suddenly, upon retirement, a lease didn’t scare me (so much). One dojo owner in 2022 spent close to $20,000 to get a bare space prepared for karate classes.

Note: You may need a local license or permit to build out your dojo. This could be a city or county requirement.

Is Your rental space zoned for martial art karate activities?

Search the internet before you sign a contract to ensure you can open a dojo in the area you are considering. Check on Parking restrictions! You may find the perfect place for a Dojo only to discover that you only have 4 or 5 reserved parking spaces or the local government requires a certain amount of available parking.

Staff

Do You need to hire a receptionist, accountant, or bus driver? Or will you do it all at first?

Will you teach only Beikoku Shidokan Karate?

You may get other instructors involved to help cover rental costs and also for marketing purposes:

• Yoga
• Tai Chi
• Kung Fu
• Aikido
• Jiu Jitsu
• Even other Karate styles
• 
  

Membership Fees?

Do You set up Monthly or Weekly Membership Fees?

Most MMA schools in my area now charge $59/week fees or more.

If you pay by the week it doesn’t seem as expensive as $236/month.

Yearly fee discount: Say Get 12 months when you pay for 11.

Will you have Contracts or just pay as you go?

Will you charge a

- registration fee,

- equipment fee,

- mat fee,

- uniform fee,

- promotion fee,

- new corresponding belt with a promotion fee?

Steven Oliver, the Karate MBA, says/said you must start at $197/month, minimum regardless of your community’s economic status. People who hire him as a Dojo Advisor start at this monthly fee. Most of them focus on teaching kids. He has many $Million-earning Dojos under his program.

Parents will often more readily pay more money for their kids than for themselves.

My first marketing advisor told me to charge $200/per month. That was in 2004. I couldn't do it. It seemed like way too much money. Yet you must put a value on your time and effort. What is the difference between teaching karate, versus teaching piano or violin? Put a value on your time.

Now 20 years later our monthly membership fee is $197/month and I have more students than ever in my adult and teen-only Dojo. While some claim it is due to my good looks and witty comments, I suspect it is more because we are the only non-jiu jitsu adult self-defense martial arts school in the area.

Will You Provide Membership Discounts?

- High School & College students,

- Active-Duty Military,

- family members

- first responders, &

- teachers

Karate Dojo Competition:

I have 20+ Martial Art and Karate Dojos competing for students within a 9-mile radius of my Karate Dojo. Most of the competitiion are Tae Kwon Do schools focusing on kids plus adult jiu jitsu schools.

What will you do to stand out?

One very successful local Kempo Dojo has no lineage.

The owner just made stuff up as he attended seminars.

His homepage refers to a lineage tracing back hundreds of years. Yet if you look closely and talk with his students there is no lineage. He had no substantial prior training in Kempo, Karate, or Kung Fu. He just opened a business and is good at it.

He has 5 dojos with 150 to 200 students in each dojo.

- He charges a $249 registration fee.

- Then charges at least $249/month, depending on the length of your contract,

- $100/month equipment fee,

- $150 - $300 for sparring pads and weapons

- a half-hour private class each week with a Brown Belt instructor is encouraged for another $100/month.

- the special Black Belt Club Class is another $100/month.

- Special Black Belt Club Member Uniform is another $100

- monthly promotions cost $50/month and

- $50 for the corresponding belt.

Everything is included in a contract that is for a minimum of 3 years.

Breaking the contract, or buying out the contract, incurs an 8 or 9-month penalty.

Students pay around $500/month with all the add-ons. His dojos are filled with students focusing on 30 to 45 minutes of physical exercise and running around the block before they get to practice martial arts which is often taught by a teenager. Parents are convinced this is the best martial arts school in the area.

Feel free to visit or call competitor schools to see what they are charging for membership. You may have to pose as an interested student.

Insurance policies.

Get a liability insurance policy to cover any sort of injuries or death.

You want an insurance policy to cover yourself, other members, and your LLC in case of an accident. Most companies for sports-related events will offer a $2 million coverage for a minimum of $500 or $600/year that covers 50 students. Restrictions are no sparring, no MMA, and there are some other things.

Is there a best insurance agency? It’s a competitive industry, and most people have very similar policies and costs. Look around for maybe something that fits your needs better than others.

(Note: We should canvas dojos to see how much they pay for insurance to see If one is better than another. Maybe through the association we can get a discount, etc.)

Your Personal Insurance

Fear the legalities of a seriously injured attacker in a self-defense situation. It won’t happen in the Karate Dojo so your business insurance won’t cover you. Even a random bar fight or car rage incident can lead to severe and costly consequences.

Right after you are attacked, report it to the police. Give full details as best as you can remember them. Get the names and phone numbers of witnesses just as you would for a car accident.

You may get arrested.

Many attackers, or their families, will sue you, especially if medical costs are involved.

Imagine the scenario of a guy in a cast and crutches with his head bandaged standing in front of a judge claiming you unnecessarily attacked him or used unnecessary force on him? Who will the judge believe?

I found USCCA for SELF-DEFENSE LIABILITY INSURANCE! While this is mostly for concealed carry gun holders, they provide a lawyer for non-weapon situations and also have insurance to cover you for $30 to $50/month. I think this is a great deal and rest easier at night with this insurance.

Your Home Page

Set up a Home Page. A one-page landing page is all that is necessary. Yet once you start you may wind up with many pages. It is very easy to do now. Think about what pages you need on your site to attract customers. Visit the karate homepages of your competitors and association members.

You can hire an agency, or someone, to set up your website if you don’t have time or are intimidated by it, or

Just Do it yourself. It is easy.

Use your USP in your homepage. Forget about your trophies and awards. No one cares. Really. Bury your ego.

What will bring people in the door to pay you money to practice martial art karate at your dojo?

You can set up your website/homepage using a WordPress account. Yet even easier is using Weebly, Duda, or any other web hosting service that enables you to easily set up and edit your webpage. This permits you to change and modify your website based on Google and Ubersuggest feedback. Plus things change. Your special offer will change, and your class times will change. You will grow hair or go bald and may want an updated photo.

Previously, Google Search Engine algorithms gave more weight to website titles. Now Google search algorithms focus on keywords, terms, and backlinks in the website so that a website name alone won’t put you at the top of searches.

Some people spend $3,000 or more to have someone set up their website. These professionally prepared websites all look very similar and seem sterile.

I hired professionals set up websites for my dojo twice. The first was a professional agency that set up a nice Word Press site that even with many changes and suggestions still lacked soul. It eventually got hacked so badly that I couldn’t get into it.

Another time a National Karate Promotional Agency set up a landing page and website, too. It was a nice-looking site. In the 18-month contract, I received zero clients from the nice-looking site. It was a complete waste of time, effort & money.

Marketing Your Karate Dojo

I have spent lots of money and time on marketing. I have vast experience at often-expensive, well thought out, unsuccessful marketing activities that seemed like they would bring in lots of new students. Hopefully, I can spare your wallet some of the large expenditures that provided no results. However, if something seems like a good opportunity for you try it out!

Many Karate Marketing Professionals say you should spend about 3 hours per day marketing your Dojo. Wow! Many days I do, other days I don’t.

Your marketing will be dependent on your location within your community. If you have a lot of foot traffic in a shopping mall, you won’t need to advertise much. If you are in an out-of-the-way location or hold classes in a school gym, YMCA/YMJA, or something similar, you will need to advertise and use your Homepage or Landing Page! (See above)

My dojo is on the 2nd floor in an office building complex. We get zero foot traffic. People come in because they found us on the internet or heard about us through a member. I have over 20 competitor dojos within a 9-mile radius of my dojo. Nearly all of them focus on teaching kids. That is where the money is!

Steven Oliver, the Karate MBA, recommends you set up a Dojo Marketing Patheon rather than rely only upon one marketing or advertising source for new students.

Some of my Dojo marketing Pantheon includes Google Ads which is the main source of new students for our dojo.

I access everything else for FREE, or 'get a portion of the proceeds' deals, like Groupon and Class Pass:

Karate Dojo Marketing Sources (also see student retention section)
- Google Ads is by far the most expensive, yet consistently brings in new students for us. After a while, you can calculate your costs for bringing in a new student and then determine how long a student stays with you on average.

- Marketing agencies usually work for national and international marketing results. You want to focus on local marketing. Your advertising focus May be within a 5- or 10-mile radius. You will probably know more about the local market opportunities and what works than an agency will because they just use a template, the same for national marketing campaigns. (Look your webpage got 47 visitors from Brazil and another 50 from the Philippines! Great! When are they coming in for a class?) Maybe a local marketing agency will work for you. It hasn’t brought me any students.

- Go2Karate.com sets up a Free Landing Page for you. You may never receive a lead from them, yet, it is good SEO. You need to spend 20 minutes on the phone. He may try to sell you one of their website promotional packages. I did it once for $3600 and felt very optimistic about it. I didn’t get any leads from it but felt good for the first week or so.

- Google Maps. Get your Dojo listed on Google maps. You get SEO credibility for your Website and your website is easier to find, too. (This used to be Google My Business, GMB) Get some 5-star reviews on Google Maps, too. You and your existing students can post reviews. Ask other members of the Association for a review. Reviewer names appear, not their location. No one knows if the Dojo reviewer lives 1500 miles from your Karate Dojo. Do not pay for reviews! If someone reports that you are paying for reviews you could get banned by Google Maps. ugh.

*Note: Asking other dojo members for a link on their website and a recommendation might be a good thing to do in general for all our Beikoku Shidokan Karate Dojos to increase our SEO scores as well and interest in our Dojos. We should also ensure we have backlinks to all our member dojos as another way to increase our homepage SEO scores for internet searches.

- Maximize your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

This is what makes Google rank your homepage higher than your competitors. So focus on SEO when you have time. Be wary of the agencies that promise you will be ranking #1 for your top keywords within a few weeks.

- Lessons.com charges $2 or $3 to answer people's requests for training information. I have gotten a few students through Lessons.com. It does provide a good backlink for SEO.

- Class Pass - students come to try a class for X amount. I had one student that stayed 3+ years with Class Pass. No one else ever signed up. The income from that one student covered all my Class Pass expenses for years. Maybe I will get another one!

- Groupon - People are looking for a training deal. At the end of their training period, they will go practice somewhere else. Yet I have two students who recently become members after starting through Groupon.

- Set up a Facebook Business page for your Dojo, too. It will be connected with your personal FB account, yet there is no crossover or other issues. Another SEO backlink.

- FaceBook + Facebook ads - Great for focusing on Moms bringing in their kids. For Adult students, it isn't so useful. At the beginning of the year, I focused on Spanish speakers and enthusiastically spent much more than I should have because of the amount of interest expressed through messenger and texts. One guy purchased a one-month trial membership. Another very expensive learning experience.

- LinkedIn also provides a business page for your Dojo linked to your profile. This is mostly a business-related site. There are many international martial artists on LinkedIn. You get another valuable SEO backlink. Don’t expect any students.

- Nextdoor (post dojo info or promotion now and then with a link to the webpage). A aood Dojo promotion activitiy plus a good SEO Backlink

- Patch (You can post Dojo information as news). A aood Dojo promotion activitiy plus a good SEO Backlink.

- Yelp - Great for restaurants, not for Karate Dojos, but it is a backlink for SEO. I have never gotten a student through Yelp and have advertised for over 12 years with them. They will call and offer special advertising and marketing deals. Martial Art Karate Dojos are buried under a Sports & Recreation sub-heading. Yelp has many paid services, too. They will promote your site, and remove competitor ads, and other stuff. All at cost. I tried them all. The results were a fantastic zilch, nada, nichts, daipori. I spent lots of time talking to an enthusiastic salesperson and then money spent for nothing. There is even a person that will look at your site and provide comments on how to improve it for SEO. While nice suggestions, the results were the same as those others for Yelp. Few look to Yelp for Karate Schools.

- Referrals are golden for many schools. Especially, for young students. Adults, not so much.

- Yext (For $500/year or so, you get listed on 50+ location websites including Bing, Yahoo, and a few more so you don’t have to do it yourself. This is great for SEO optimization as you have 50+ valuable links for your investment. If you cancel later they do not remove your info on these sites.

- Bing, remember Bing, the Google wannabe? Get listed on Bing, too. Good SEO backlink. Let us know if anyone ever joins your dojo because they found you on Bing.

- Instagram/, TikTok, X, whatever, and other social media have valuable SEO advantages. I never got a single student through this media.

- Century Martial Arts has/had a monthly program (used to be $100/month) for good student materials for teaching kids. They promote your website link on their homepage every month! I only had a year's subscription to Century yet I had over 200 backlinks from Century.

- Community Outreach & Demonstrations: I haven't done any public or school demos for years. It feels great! Yet we never got any leads. NONE. It depends upon who you target. We did a demo at a military base at their request. They promoted it around the base of over 15,000 employees. Three people showed up. I also did a newspaper ad in the military base newspaper for over a year. Our dojo is right down the street from the base. We got zero interest. One guy with a CAC card, so he could get on base, would come to class once a month or so. He said it was cheaper for him to work out with some lower-ranked guys on the base for free than to pay to attend our Dojo.

- Demos at schools. If you are teaching kids, this is a great source for continued membership.

- Direct Flyers/distribution/Mailers, etc: I haven't done it in years. Usually, you hand out 10,000 flyers to get maybe one inquiry.

- Wikipedia is great for SEO if you can get a link. Add something interesting enough so that the Wikipedia super editor doesn’t take it out and the grade of your website will go up a notch or two.

- Newspaper Ads, TV, and Radio ads are nice - and expensive. The media is often searching for a story. Help them out. I have been interviewed on local Spanish television a few times. I was disappointed as I expected at least some interest in classes after the programs were viewed. Yet, nada.

- Yellow Pages. At one time being in the Yellow Pages was key to your business success. When you are looking for a business or service do you Google it or look at the Yellow Pages? The Yellow Pages is a quaint product like landlines and dial telephones.

- Email/text blitzes & snail mail. Some people are still high on these sources. I have had limited success with snail mail. Marketing experts say it takes 5 marketing events (text, email, snail mail) to get prospects in the door. When a request for information comes in via a homepage email or phone call, I often follow up with up to 5 responses spread out over 5 weeks. There are software packages like Constant Contact that will automatically send specific emails or texts you set up to your contacts relieving you of the duty of remembering and sending.

- Former students - send them texts and emails now and then to update them on Dojo activities. You may be able to get a certain number of them back into the dojo.

- Hand out business cards to everyone

- When Steven Oliver or his clients open a Dojo they go to shopping mall parking lots and approach everyone they meet promoting the school, handing out information, and even signing up for weekly or monthly trials. He says he regularly signs up 100+ new students on a weekend. Again his focus is on kids.

- A local ‘women only’ gym advertises only on Facebook and Patch. The gym is usually filled and has a membership waiting list.

- Other internet options:

As you can see I have spent a lot of time and money on many marketing options. Reportedly, nearly 70% of internet use is on p*rn sites. I have seriously considered posting a dojo promotion video on major p*rn sites. If we are wearing masks, and fully clothed, people will watch it just to see the action. Unfortunately, the action they see won’t be what they expect, but at least they will watch the video until the end! This is either the stupidest idea in the world or incredibly brilliant! I am thinking it is brilliant at this moment, yet hesitate to implement it. I will let you know.

- The Follow Up Ninja can be connected so that all webpage inquiries are captured. You then modify your message to the client. It will automatically send 5 or 6 follow up messages, schedule intro classes, and reschedule in case they missed their intro class because, until you mark that they signed up or came in for an intro class. Avoid arguing with them, you want to pull them in because you want a training partner, or you want their money, or both! Constant Contact can do the same.

-Birthday Parties, Summer Camp, After School activities are all great for marketing to parents. You can even offer a special time for parents to drop their kids off so they can go Chrtistmas shopping, or something.

You received a phone or email Lead! What do you do now?

If your lead is a phone call or an email you want to convince them to come visit your Dojo by focusing on your USP. Let them know what you do in class, how it is structured, What they should wear, should they be ready to spar the first day?

First Karate Dojo Visit or SHOWTIME!

This is what you have been waiting for. If you are teaching a Karate class, turn the class over to your senior student, or recognize the person and have them take a seat to watch class. You may even have a student or two designated to help (rope in) prospects so you can continue teaching.

Explain your class structure,

your USP,

show them the dojo without interrupting class.

“The Law of Reciprocal Returns” Marketing gurus say you want to give them something that seems to have some value and they will feel an obligation.

We give visitors an 11-page folder (Note: provide an internet link for this) with

- a Welcome Letter,

- Dojo Waiver,

- Dojo Information,

- Class Schedule,

- How to Tie a Belt,

- Links to the Homepage and on-line katas,

- Japanese terms used in class, and

- promotion requirements.

- Plus a big 8”x12” picture of me. I may even sign it with a flourish in their presence with a Sharpie! (oh, I discontinued this)

- We also give them a super-duper ink pen with the dojo name, phone, and website.

Ask your prospect questions and listen to the answers!

Why they are interested in your karate classes?

What they want to get from you and your karate classes?

Explain what you can provide them ensuring you address their questions.

Don’t be afraid to tell them that:

you don’t provide what they are looking for, or

you can’t guarantee them a black belt in one-year like the Tae Kwon Do school down the street offers (unless they are willing to cough up $3,000! Then it becomes do you want your name on that, too?) A black belt on Amazon can be purchased for only $7.95. A golden colored sharpie $4.65. So $3,000 - $7.97 - $4.65 = Hey, do you want two?)

Mention your special deal that is only available for a limited time, even if it is the same deal you have used for 10 years.

(It is limited because maybe you will change it one day.)

Hopefully, it is a match. Swipe left, or right, I don’t know which is the right way to swipe on those dating apps.

Karate Student Retention is Key to your successful Dojo.

Be nice to your members/customers.

Some non-class retention and marketing activities are also marketing activities. A local Tae Kwon Do marketing agency promotes bi-weekly activities in the Dojo to get an extra $10-20 per participant per activity from parents. Here are some of their activities:

Birthday parties

Breaking seminars

Pizza parties

Christmas parties

Self Defense seminars

Share a Book

First Aide

Girl Scout cookie tasting

Baby sitter instruction, etc.

Open House

Special Promotions

Summer Camp

Special Camps or Seminars during School vacations

Retention assistance: We hold a monthly Friday night ‘get together’ in the Dojo for bourbon, whiskey, rum, or sake tasting. Sometimes the focus is cigars. (Be careful if you teach mostly kids!) We also conduct any necessary Dojo business at these meetings. We call them “Directors’ Meetings”. I used to hold them with just the senior students. I now open them up to all students. It is important that someone take notes because the next day few people remember what was discussed and if anything was decided!

Karate Student Acquisition Cost (SAC)

Calculating Student Acquisition Costs helps you evaluate your marketing and advertising activities. Economists always say, “if you write it down you can measure it.” If you don’t write it down you can’t measure your success to determine if maybe you should be flipping burgers instead of teaching karate.

.

After a few months in operation, you can start calculating how much money you laid out in advertising and other fees per student in your Karate Dojo. After 1 year or so you can compare your student acquisition cost versus the income they bring in.

In the past, it cost me about $500 for each student who signed up in our Karate Dojo. Yet I would receive at least 18 months of fees out of them, or roughly $3,000. So while I spent $500 to sign them up, through advertising, I’d make $2500 off of them. You can even include your sunk costs in that calculation, rent, utilities, staff salaries, and taxes to get a better understanding of how much you are making per student.

My acquisition costs have gone down as students tend to stay for about 3 years now.

The most valuable intangible in the SAC is the deep friendships you develop over the years.

Karate Uniforms & Martial Art Equipment Sources

There are lots of sources. Ask around to see what might work best for you.

Shudreido is a great source of higher-quality uniforms. When I practiced Shotokan everyone had to have a Tokkaido uniform. Very similar to the Meijin heavyweight gi. For higher quality uniforms, we now purchase the Meijin Tropical karate gis that are very similar to the Shureido yellowish tropical-weight karate gis. Yet cost half as much. I probably purchased over 100 Meijin Tropical gis over the last 6 years or so. Meijin embroiders Shidokan Kanji on the chest. Then I have a local embroiderer put the Beikoku Shidokan patch on the shoulder. Meijin also offers a heavyweight gi similar to the Shureido and Tokkaido heavyweight gis. Shureido and Tokkaido cost about the same.

In the 90’s I sourced karate gis and equipment through Century Martial Arts. Recently, I sourced my uniforms through the Asian World of Martial Arts. The student uniforms were of decent quality, but shipping costs during the pandemic became ridiculous. I purchased some uniforms and belts through Amazon. Still, kind of expensive and the quality wasn’t too good. Mason and Mitch recommended a supplier in NJ, Proma. Even with shipping costs the student uniforms are excellent in price and quality. The medium-weight uniforms are about the same quality and weight as the Shureido and Meijin Tropical Karate uniforms at a much cheaper price. I haven’t yet used their embroidery service.