I don't consider myself a greedy person but I'm at a time in my life where I have to make a very tough decision - I've been trying to put this off for years but it's come to a point where I have to decide where my life is going to go. For 2-3 years now my boss has known my intent to save money and try to open up my own dojo, he's outwardly supported me from the beginning and is constantly dropping hints about one day possibly running our location when he retires - Twice in the last year he's brought me into his office to proclaim he wants to gradually move me up to roughly 20 hours a week and eventually become a full-time employee, which is not possibly from a strictly instructing point of view (not enough after school hours), but he's fully aware of my computing abilities as I've even designed an Access database for our school to use to make keeping our information easier. However, time and time again at staff meetings we're reminded that in the old days karate students did instruction for free as favors to their sensei and that our compensation is considerable compared to other local schools which apparently only pay $8-$10/hour. . .Unfortunately, this isn't the old days and the cost of living is rising. . I'm 22 and finding it difficult to find a job that can support me which'll also allow me to be at the dojo by 4pm to instruct. I've been working in my dojo, in New York, for 6 years - I started at $10/hour and now make $15/hour during normal hours. $40+tips (2hours) for a birthday party and roughly $20-25 per half hour private-lessons (which are few and far between). My school is fairly well known in the community and while the summer is going to hit us rough like it always does we always recoil and manage to average 150(summer)-300 students (rest of the year). We charge $80/month for students to attend once per week, which is where at least 75% of our students are. Out of everybody I work with I'm the 2nd least seniority in terms of whose been instructing the longest, however, due to a payroll error I received one of my coworkers checks 4 years ago and she was making $25/hour at the time, which I didn't think much of as I wasn't a black belt and hadn't been at the establishment a very long time at this point. I approached my boss 3 months ago telling him that (in the nicest way possible) I really needed his help in making good on his promise because although I was sending out resumes to just about everywhere I was having difficulty finding a supporting job and that if I couldn't find one I would have to start looking into full-time employment and leave the school, which is something I did not want to do at all - - He asked me to write him up a report of several ideas of things I could do, I gave him a list of 7 things to improve the dojo in great length, none were acted on. What I could really use is some advice in this endeavor, as I really want to see my dream realized but understand I need to bust my butt. . .As instructors (not school owners) how much are some of you guys making per hour (or if salaried, how many hours do you average per week?). . And what state/country do you live in (as the cost of living is different in many places). I know these can be very personal questions but I'm trying to do some extensive research on the topic, currently. Edit: I'm not looking to be rich. . .I'm just looking to be able to survive on my own (etc apartment, food, health/auto insurance, cell phone bill). I understand that karate instructors don't make huge amounts of money and that I'd probably need a part-time job to fill in for extra cash. However, as it stands now, I'd need a full-time job just to supplement something that takes up the hours after 4pm, which is difficult.
I didn't pay my instructors, I didn't charge them tuition or testing fees, they were quite glad just for that....
I still pay tuition - Though, I have the option of opting out 1 hour of teaching for 1 hour of class time. . Which I don't do because 1) my parents still pay for it (and I'd prefer they don't) 2) If I add up the cost based on the discounted price for paying in 3-month blocks it's cheaper for me to pay in cash. Nor am I talking about a situation where my boss runs most of the classes - I teach every single day we're open (compared to 1-2 days for most instructors, all of whom are much older and had the benefit of having a full-time job before joining) and probably teach (on my own) half of the classes offered. . As well as being given complete ownership of the 6 year old curriculum (extra work I have to do at home and not get paid for) - The adult class is only offered twice a week (the one I take) and my boss does teach them most of the time, but a lot of the times one of my coworkers is taking the reigns.
I've never heard of anything like this. The most business like dojo I've been to only had one staff member that I can think of, and that was the receptionist because she spent most of her time handling student fee's, bills, registration, ect... Everywhere else I've been has either been training has either been a church, a park, or a backyard and the instructors had full time day jobs.
The school I work at I wouldn't call enormous but has about 6 instructors or so in its employ. . We've been featured in MAsuccess magazine, but we're nowhere near the level of business success some of those schools seem to achieve (I remember an article about one "multi-school" owner who paid all of his top instructors 6 figures!). There are at least 4 other schools in the area with their own location which I can think of off the top of my head.
WhitePanda,can I assume that you are in the UK? Since I came here I realised that clubs with their own premises were the exception, not the rule. It is common in North America to find a reasonably cheap hall to have a club at. My teachers club has been going for more than 15 years in a business site. Not open all business hours and no receptionist but regular classes and its self sufficient. Yes, most instructors are not paid but then again we all received training over the years above what we might have been able to purchase. You can measure what you earn at a club in more than one way. powchoy
What I would do is to break the amount of class time down on a cost analysis based on training time divided by fees per student.. I did this when I first started teaching and was teaching a 2 hr class 3 x week x student to come up with my fees along with the commission that I was giving to my building manager for maintenance and over head.. I still made a little money, but if you are really looking at doing this full time and want to start gaining experience running a school.. I would approach the school owner and propose this type of deal for you teaching classes.. The barter system will make you come out on the losing end of the deal, so stay away from that..
Ok... here's the painful truth. It is EXTREMELY rare for anyone to make a "good living" running a Dojo... Much less working at one. To make the "BIG BUCKS" generally speaking you have to run somewhat of a belt factory. Run a high volume of students through the door and keep ahead of the attrition rate. Sure some of the masses will rise to the top and become your core group. My core group is less than 1% after 30 years of teaching. (I've never run a belt factory... I believe in "time in rank") I don't pay my black belts, they train and test for free. Brown belts however, are required assist in one class a week. Start teaching them to teach. Having said that, dojo's rarely fail because the instructor is a poor teacher. They fail because of poor business practices. (Stateside) the commercial/store front dojo MUST be run like a business. Personally, I have closed several commercial dojo's over the years. The last one I sold 3 years ago, it was absolutely awesome 4000 sf, Floating Oak floor and 60' of mirrors. In this economy I could not justify the overhead... the Dojo is you and your students, not the building. I have taken what seems to be the UK norm... I now run my program out of a community center. I have made more money (not my focus) in the last three years than I made in the previous 10 years combined. I work full time and my training is my passion. I suggest you find a job and let that job fund your passion. my $.02
