Page 1 of John Graden's writing

1. Masters on Change The Masters on Change Here are some quotations regarding styles from three of the most influential martial artists in history: "The art does not make the man. The man makes the art." Gichin Funakoshi "You limit a style by labeling it."... (posted by John 2 years 167 days ago.)

2. How to Make Cash Outs Work to Your School’s Advantage If you can keep a steady flow of new students coming in, an ideal situation is high cash outs and high monthly billing. This is being accomplished by some schools that take a somewhat unconventional approach to their cash out and upgrade... (posted by John 2 years 167 days ago.)

3. Can You Really Teach Confidence? Schools today talk a lot about teaching confidence. They have words of the week and life skills training, which is great. I wish my instructors had taught me about goal setting when I was a kid. But I don't think confidence can be taught. It's... (posted by John 2 years 172 days ago.)

4. How to Determine Your Retention In consulting with school owners for more than a decade, I can pretty much predict how the initial conversations will go. I ask how many students the client wants and then how many he currently has. When he gives me his current student count... (posted by John 2 years 172 days ago.)

5. The Motivational Daycare Center As stated in one of my previous articles, I don't feel that the movement towards character development has been bad for martial arts schools. Actually, it's been great. On the other hand, when schools drift away from their core values, they... (posted by John 2 years 172 days ago.)

6. How to Set Your Tuition In 1974, the tuition at the Florida Karate Academy in Largo, Florida, was a 12-month contract at $25 per month. If you just raised tuition three percent per year from that point, you would have tuition of about $60 per month in 2004. When I... (posted by John 2 years 181 days ago.)

7. How Much Is Your Tuition Really? This is a little drill that can make grown black belts cry. Here is an audit you can do to help you understand how much tuition you are really collecting each month per student. 1 Total Tuition Collected: Take last year's total tuition... (posted by John 2 years 181 days ago.)

8. Who’s Going to Build your Martial Arts School? When you are negotiating a build-out, be sure the lease specifies how the credit is going to be paid. Will the landlord pay the builders, so you have no out-of-pocket expense? Will you pay, and then get a credit in free rent? That might mean less... (posted by John 2 years 193 days ago.)

9. Your Sign and Its Role in Marketing your Martial Arts School Not only do you want to know what zoning limits you have on signage, you have to know what rules the landlord may have for signs in his plaza. Being in a great location is not good if you can't let people know about it. Your school sign does... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

10. What Demographics Are Best For Your School? A lot has been written about which demographics are best for a martial arts school. In virtually every case, the answer has been presented as though all schools are the same, so the answer has been a "one size fits all" answer. If you know... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

11. Positioning Your Martial Arts School For Success One rule of design that most guys don't know is that, when you hang a picture, you want the picture to complement the frame and the frame to complement the room. Though this article is not about school design, this example illustrates the three... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

12. Create Profit Not Poverty I have learned that you can't honestly give yourself to anyone unless your needs are met first. Initially it sounds selfish, but it's a healthy kind of selfishness. In the safety briefing before a flight, the attendant reminds you to fasten your... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

13. Warning: You May Have Black Belt Eyes Has a spouse or significant other made a suggestion about your martial arts school or how you teach? What was your reaction? I know mine was essentially Who the heck are you to tell me, the black belt, about martial arts?' The key, though... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

14. Value What You Do One time I had a guy come into my school with one of my flyers. The offer was three months and a uniform for $249. He said he stopped by another school by mistake. When he presented the flyer to the school's owner, his comment was, "I can tell you... (posted by John 2 years 200 days ago.)

15. Black Belt Eyes In the early months of NAPMA, my art director Scott Kelby and I created a black-and-white ad of a student throwing a great jump side kick under a great headline, "Kids Don't Seem to Mind Our Summer School." The ad was a big hit. Schools reported... (posted by John 2 years 207 days ago.)

16. Your Martial Arts Ensemble I have written several articles about Finding Your Own Voice as a martial arts professional. Id like this article to focus on some typical martial artist characters. When you meet these guys youll know they have not yet found their own... (posted by John 2 years 319 days ago.)

17. We Revere the Innovators of Change Gichin Funakoshi, the father of Japanese karate, is renowned and deservedly so for making massive changes to Okinawan karate so it would be more acceptable to the Japanese. We have great systems like Shotokan today as a direct result of his... (posted by John 2 years 319 days ago.)