Has the economy had an efect on your dojo?

In general, we are having the best year since 2000, when the world didn't end with the Y2k bug. The war in Iraq had much more of an impact on business than the sub-prime credit crash. January is always our biggest month for new enrollments and we had a great month at both of our clubs this year. I think the numbers have remained strong through May 1 now, because people are starting to get out of the house again.

The downside has been a drop in PIF's (paid in full) for the annual membership. Our pro shop sales are also still down. We haven't added any new stock, and we used to order every quarter. Our response was to move the pro shop into the personal trainers' offices, giving them a larger space as private instruction and physical therapy are in high demand.

The ad campaign for 08 has been stress management and weight loss, with an emphasis on "have fun" "enjoy yourself", "look great, and feel even better".

We have not raised or lowered rates. But, we are going to start promoting our "summer specials" at the end of this month. The promo will be $99.00 for a 3 month, "mornings only" membership. This is our slowest period of the day anyway, and a good number of these people will upgrade before the end of summer break anyway.

Business is generally good. The club business has historically been called "recession proof", as if anything is. In my experience when people are concerned about their job, mortgage, and other heavy factors beyond their control, they need us more than ever. It is our duty to provide a positive atmosphere where people can manage stress with exercise and genuine interaction with social peers. This is an old axiom, and is even more true during times of uncertainty, like right now. We will not be investing in any new equipment until this recession passes and the dollar rises again.

In summary- I don't think cutting rates is the best medicine, at least not for us. We are dealing with inflation too, and going into debt is not an option. Maximizing the space you have under lease is the essential adjustment. I look forward to the best year of this decade.

As of yet, we have not made any changes, and I don't think that we are planning on it either. We haven't had students leave because of it, but we are seeing a small decline in new sign-ups. That may or may not be because of the economy, it is usually a little slow near the end of the school year. Traditionally May and June are pretty strong, so we will see how/if it affects us during those months. We have such a strong base of Intermediate and Advanced students that we can survive with those alone, though the lack of growth will hurt over the long run when all of the business expenses increase (like they always do)

Currently, the situation is pretty mild, especially in our area. We lost one large company, Goodyear (which I used to work at), but the rest of the area sucked them up pretty well. The biggest issue right now is the price of gasoline/desiel. I can definetly see people that live on outlying areas would hurt from that. Food price increases have been relatively small so far, and will only affect the larger families with limited income. Unfortunately, those people rarely can afford to put their children into MA, so that shouldn't have much of an effect either.

It would be nice to see the government dis-allow the trading of Crude as a commodity. That would help quite a bit.

Hello Frank!

My old school that was a Marine-Academy use to be the real deal, it had a very good economic-backround until our Grandmaster left unexpectedly and the prices doubled for monthly, then people slowly left until it was about 20 members compared to 50 or 60! and we had very little instructors because all the others did not appreciate the loyal ones. So we started losing flexible hours and we could hardly pay the rent because the point of our school was to teach, not necessarily money. Now it's all empty and closed down, only one of the instructors out of that batch of people teaches at a park every tuesday. For me, i go there every once in a while, but now i'm enlisting in Wing Chun, we train at my masters house! and they don't care much about the economy either, it's all about teaching and passing down the lineage. And luckily it's in a house and not a rented area, so it's easier to keep hold of!

Thanks for your time.

Luckily for me, I merely teach in parks or at private residences, otherwise, I am sure I would be feeling the pinch. My sifu certainly is, as higher gas prices coupled with rising food prices and an ever-weakening dollar has caused many students and/or their parents to begin making cut-backs. Unfortunately for my sifu, martial arts tends to be a peripheral that is one of the first things cut. He is the propriator of a single school in a mountain community which is fairly close-knit, so his business has never been what I would describe as "thriving", as he teaches for the love of teaching and martial arts. He'll get by just fine.

Another school to which I used to belong and teach is also hurting right now, though, and this is part of a small chain of schools consisting of five or six locations. Unfortunately, at the location I used to attend, some assistant instructors were given the option of less hours (pay cut) or permission to stop being assistant instructors - not a harsh ultimatum, but some assistant instructors merely taught weekends or a few hours a week anyway. Along with this, the sifu has begun to take on many clerical duties himself with the release of his "secretary", who hasn't been practicing in the school herself much anyway. Some extra programs/events have also been planned to help drum up business or supplemental income. He has just had to tighten his belt.

As times grow increasingly more difficult for many, non-essentials are being trimmed out of the family budget. Sadly for many schools, martial arts doesn't rank as a necessity for most.

The economy is having an effect on me be able to open up a dojo!

I currently teach at the YMCA and I see many people who want to enroll in my class but don't because it is an extra fee, aside from the YMCA membership.

If you really look at it, it is a tremendously great deal but they just see two fees.

People don't like to look beyond the surface of things.

It's the same with kata <--- I had to stick that one in there!

But it is hard for people to dish out even a few dollars.

It hasn't yet, but then, the economy hasn't really crashed around here yet. The county I live in is still growing, albeit slower than it used to, but there is still growth. The housing market is all that has really been affected so far.

I'm aware that it is comming, so I'm making plans, but I'm limited by what I can do when the time comes. Hopefully, the economy will turn before I have to make any drastic changes.

my dojo has had to be on it's toes concerning memberships, rates, class times and content ever since it's inception. additionally, i live in Michigan, so we have had to tighten our belts for quite some time now. our "bread and butter" has always been Judo, Jujitsu, boxing and Escrema, but we have had to run aerobics, MMA circuits, and alter when we do each class throughout the week to accommodate our students. fortunately, we have a great group of senseis (of which I'm proud to be counted as one) that have really picked up the slack and held the dojo together.

nicely if we are in such dire straights as you discribe. fairly of cuting our social courses and have our voters go through. Why no longer cut back off the BILLIONS in help we waist (according to annum) in giving to the United international locations and different international places. Your surprising we could be squaddies, yet we do think of and have self belief it or no longer maximum persons understand to study. What we study interior the paper is sufficient to make you contemplate whether all and sundry at abode fairly is prevalent with what is going on. You ask your self touching directly to the growth of India, China and Russia. Compaired to the U. S.. only seem in any respect the U. S. agencies that are shifting their opperations and jobs there. Their economies are turning out to be by using fact of yank agencies are shifting there. Cheeper hard paintings and working expenditures. those international places are no longer doing something greater suitable than us. only cheeper. So as quickly as returned that's funds that is going over seas and not being spent interior the U. S.. areas of those international places are so damaging that their financial device can do no longer something, yet develop. If we come abode with out seeing this by. Will my next battles with terrorist take place in my place of birth. i could a lot fairly combat them of their backyard than mine

What i know is that the dojo where i used to go goes from worse to worst due the high taxes (Greece).Too bad....its the only ninjutsu dojo around here...

The place where I usto go is closing down cause of this...

It suck's,

now I have to rely on my ability's to make new things to practice so I can still learn one way or another T_T