Please dont flame me Im new and looking for good people

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by Heroacademy, Jul 18, 2016.

  1. Simon

    Simon Administrator Admin Supporter MAP 2017 Koyo Award

    I'm subject to the same Terms of Service as every other member, so you can use the report function of you think I'm trolling you.

    I don't know you, but as I said you've made a cold call and the onus is on you to sell yourself as a potential partner.

    We have many outlets and are also looking to grow, we're just not about promoting others unless MAP can also benefit.

    Anyway I wish you luck.

    Simon.
     
  2. The Iron Fist

    The Iron Fist Banned Banned

    There are really two different 'Lau Gar', one is UK based and modern, and probably the one you're referring to.

    The other is Lau Gar Kuen, one of 5 famous, traditional Southern Chinese family styles with Shaolin influences ( Hung Gar, Choy Gar, Mok Gar, Li Gar and Lau Gar).

    I really don't know anything about the one created more recently in the UK except what I've read on here, but I think there was some connection between the two, even though the actual arts themselves varied quite a bit. I don't believe the UK Lau Gar has a confirmed lineage with Lau Gar Kuen, but I could be mistaken.
     
  3. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    In my opinion if you are looking to go into business and deal with people on a day to day basis, you will need to develop a thicker skin. From what I have seen here, no one one MAP has been less than polite. What are you going to do when you encounter the inevitable unhappy customer or instructor?
     
  4. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    You are "offering to advertise for people and pay the hall hires" yet you won't pay a substantially smaller amount to advertise and promote your endeavour on MAP?

    Seems legit......
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2016
  5. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    It's like he doused himself in gasoline and lit a match and screamed at us "PLEASE DON'T SET ME ON FIRE!"

    This thread went exactly as I would have guessed, except much faster.
     
  6. Latikos

    Latikos Valued Member

    Given how he named the title, I thought he was having similar experiences already.

    Given the attitude maybe rightfully so.

    But he also got a bit of attention and promotion, so mission accomplished?
     
  7. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Really? Would anyone reading this really be inspired to go into a business arrangement with OP? I don't think he promoted himself very well.

    Someone who gets that easily offended isn't going to be easy to work with IMO.

    (No disrespect intended to OP, but I just don't think you presented yourself optimally.)
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016
  8. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Hey guys I've taken all you have said on board. I apologise for being so easily offended when I hadn't even explained my idea in a professional manner. For the time being I will be reassessing the idea and I hope to give you all an update in the future. I guess I do need to develop thicker skin to get my partnership idea up and running. I will never promise to be perfect or stay Zen 100% of the time because I feel passionate about this idea and where it could take mine and my family going forward. I am also looking to hopefully meet a gem of a teacher or two with good skills and with a passion to give their own career and family a boost.

    So basically I apologise for getting so wound up when people questioned my idea.
     
  9. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Don't worry about it man. It's the Internet after all. Good luck in your future endeavours. We hope you stick around anyway, to discuss martial arts with us :)
     
  10. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    This Is the first place to hear my idea in its early stages and this has taught me a great deal. I grew up in a family of very intelligent graduates and successful people and I have always been the one who struggled at school with dyslexia and didn't really amount to anything other than a lucky break in media sales when I left school. All I want to do is be a hero to my son and wife and make my family proud.
     
  11. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Didn't realise until reading that back now it sounded like an xfacter sob story lol
     
  12. Smitfire

    Smitfire Cactus Schlong

    Isn't the hall hire and advertising basically the easy bit?
    The hard bit is doing the years of training to get the experience to actually teach.
    Halls local to me are fairly reasonable to hire for a couple of hours. The main problem is finding a slot between the local WI, Yoga and dog training classes. :)
     
  13. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Oh yeah that's the easiest but by a mile you are right. I'm also playing around with the idea of buying all the equipment needed as well. But you are correct yes but hopefully it will take the sting out of getting a new teacher or class up and running
     
  14. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    You already are - trust me on this :)
     
  15. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Thanks , don't feel like it much to be honest. My wife is a primary school teacher for special needs ,to me she is the hero in our family.
     
  16. liero

    liero Valued Member

    Look I'm on the other side of the world. So this OP and his offer is certainly NOT an avenue that I would take.

    But I sat down last year, and revisited it this year. What would it take for me to open a martial arts school (taekwondo) and have it be successful?

    The successful element being that I could draw enough of an income from the club to justify the time and effort that I would have to put in. Effort which would see it reach goals of being a successful school teaching martial arts for: health and fitness, effective self-defense, fun for students, and enable a competition training environment. Basically requiring a (near) full time centre of up to 5 nights per week of classes.

    Teaching my martial art to children and adults was not the hardest thing.
    The issues that held me back were:

    Identifying the BEST suburb, the ideal location, with good signage, higher SES families in the area, proximity to schools, appropriate advertising. Integrating and affording a systematic billing system. Management of member and instructor safety through insurance and relevant MA registration. I wanted to know how to launch the school and not be stuck with 2-10 students for years on startup. I needed an effective system to manage the school if I became ill (assistant instructors), and a quick pathway to making enough money to justify the labour of the activity and the outset of the equipment. Sport is a 24 hour job, and running a business is stressful. it's not a quick win for anyone involved.

    Further to that I wanted to make sure I could draw enough of a profit from the program that I could further my own training. For example to complete advanced and realistic self-defence training to implement into the club.

    These issues are (while worded for a martial arts club) the same issues that face most small businesses on start up: Building clients, surviving while growing, paying the staff, paying the bills and upkeep, maintaining motivation.

    If you have a nest egg of money to open some type of club, but don't want to be the primary instructor, I would highly recommend examining your knowledge of small business management and assess each situation for what it is, your investment of capital into a new project. It's great you want to do it to build MA in your community but it is a quick path to loosing a lot of money if you don't have the fundamentals well sorted from the legal, accounting and management framework.

    Unfortunately, new businesses and particularly traditional martial arts are not that easy to establish. It will be harder than you think to make a commercial profit off another persons startup 1st time club in a hall. I doubt you'll find the type of instructors that would/could come into the fold that easily through the internet that can create the perfect club atmosphere from the go. That being said if you funded 20 schools in different areas to start, maybe a number would take off.

    If you were offering a similar proposal in my neck of the woods, I would likely not jump at the offer. It doesn't sound like you've got the applied experience to leverage the success of the club beyond the investment into the hall hire, and what you have said is some marketing experience. If I was starting a club and was looking at what you were offering I'd have to look long and hard at what conditions you'd place on me. There is also little to stop someone from simply starting their own organisation and taking students when they are the head coach. Simply wiping you out of the picture after using your initial investment to drive growth.

    Further, starting a business that you are considering will be a long time passion project (like a martial arts school) is a little like entering a new relationship, or moving into a share house. You really need to know the details about who you're getting involved with. What is there opinion on level of contact in training? how do they motivate people? what are the values that drive them? How do they cope under stress (of any type)? do they see eye to eye on your strategic direction and martial arts principles?

    Don't mistake passionate martial artists and instructors for an easy investment.
    MAP is a wonderful forum to share knowledge, and there are some members that are very respected and successful instructors. They will share more of the information that they have gleaned from years of experience to honest and passionate martial artists. Experience which will help you avoid many mistakes that they have made in their own clubs.

    As you've seen though, the forum isn't full of suckers. If you want to put an add down for instructors then pay, or put it on gumtree. The more time you spend here reading and posting on your martial arts experience, perhaps the more clarification you'll get on what type of club you'd really like.

    Welcome to MAP.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016
  17. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Thanks for the advice. appretiate it a lot all the ideas and opinions being thrown into the mix. As for conditions on instructors , well I must admit I hadn't even thought about imposing any other than half the student class fees or something like that for a year and then dropping my share down after a year if the class grows to a decent size. All I have in mind is investing some of my money in getting some people started then earning some of the money and helping out where i can.
     
  18. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    Kind of like a dragon's den scenario but investing in a good class and teacher
     
  19. Smitfire

    Smitfire Cactus Schlong

    Here's a thing...is there really a call for more martial arts classes?
    Where I am (York) there are LOADS.
    Granted some are probably better quality than others (it's a very mixed bag of local halls right up to full time places open very night) but to me it's a fairly crowded market.
     
  20. Heroacademy

    Heroacademy Banned Banned

    There is loads in London but id like to think the more good quality classes that arrive the rubbish ones will fade out when their students realise how bad their class is compared to others.
     

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