okay plat here's the info you asked for
I've had a school for 10 years. I'll tell you what you need and then tell you what I did because they are totally different.
Startup money around 30,000 to 100,000.
Know how to negotiate a lease well. Minimum square footage is usually 2000 square feet.
Equipment cost should be minimal. probably around 2 to 5K. But if you want to go big time you could easily drop 10K at wholesale price not retail.
Price structure is dependant on expenses.
Like this.
How much do you want to make = A (say 500 dollars a month)
Plus rent=B (say 1000 a month)
Plus expenses =C (say 500 a month (phone, water, electric insurance))
Plus advertising=D (say 200)
Add them together= 2200
now divide that number by the amount of expected students. say 50
That tell you that to meet the above numbers you must charge no less that 44 dollars a month.
The problem is you don't start off with 50 students. usually you start with 0. So find a place that will let you use it for free or rent it by the hour. Build up a few students there. Then Go and start doing demonstrations. (fancy stuff that looks cool. No body cares if it looks realistic) Demos=entertainment not teaching.
Then when you hit the magic number where you think you are viable go get the building and open up.
Start off inexpensively as you can otherwise you will go broke.
Plan for things to go wrong, they will.
Figure out how much it's going to cost you, then double that amount. It's going to take twice as much time and money as you think it is.
I started my first school with $200. It was rough, I made lots of mistakes and about put myself out of business every other week. I opened my second school after learning from my first for $800 and a hell of a lot of work. Within weeks I had 35 students and was supporting the school off tuition and my paycheck. ( don't do that, it gets old.)
I started charging $35 a month the going rate in the area. It almost killed me. I raised it to $65 and doubled my students and the quality of the people as well.
I later closed my first school and since they were close enough just told the students they would have to go to the main school.
I used demos, flyers, phone books, coupons a restraunts, radio, newspaper, dropboxes.
The main problem I had was I was under capitalized the whole time. So I was not always able to take advantage of everything I needed to to get my school to grow.
So that is why I said minimum 30K.
I opened my new gym with 20K and blew through it in 2 months. Then I got smart and got creative.
Don't trust luck, or skill. Whether you are a great martial artists has very little to do with your skill as a business owner. It all comes down to the bottom line.
so many people will sign up at 20 a month and so many at 100 a month
you need to find the right number at the right price that gives you the most cash, because that is what keeps the school running.
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