EP20: Helping CEO Zac Reznik Increase His Revenue 50% in 6 Weeks
38m 59s
In this podcast episode, host Tuley interviews Zach, owner of a martial arts school, about his business progress. Zach reports significant growth, increasing from 29 to 38 students in one month, which boosted his monthly recurring revenue by 50% to approximately $3,300. However, he reveals the business is still operating at a loss due to initially underpricing memberships compared to local competitors charging $150–$200, while his average is under $100. With only about three months of financial runway left, the discussion focuses on urgent strategies to achieve profitability. Key actions include raising prices for new enrollments, actively seeking referrals from current satisfied families by providing promotional cards, and optimizing event marketing like "parents night out" and community activities to attract trials. The host encourages Zach to capitalize on his recent momentum by systematically executing these customer acquisition and pricing adjustments to secure the business's future.
So you did a really good job of increasing your revenue by 50%. I mean, let that sink in for a bit. That's a big deal, okay? So we last talked a month ago and you had a nine students. The previous six months, you had a 29. So it's starting to work. Whatever you're doing, it's starting to work. (upbeat music) Hi everyone, welcome to the Simple Profit podcast. My name is Tuley, I am the host. The goal of this podcast is quite simple. Our goal is to do one thing and one thing only. And that is to help you to build million dollar grossing businesses. Today we're returning for the second episode with Mr. Zach Resnick, Tynastity Marshall Arts, is his business. And we started because we want to help him grow his schools from 20 students at the time to 100. And we had a great show last week, one over rent, one over something that he set up, one over his loans that he's has, what he's signed. And we established the fact that he is all in on this business and gave him some tips to run event based tips to get new students into the door and cut costs down. So if you have not listened to that episode yet, the first one, I recommend for you to do that. Zach, welcome back to the show. How are you? Good to see you. Good to see you as well. I'm doing well. When we last talked, I was at 29 students. I had a parents night out planned. We had Ninja night. Your recommendation was no moving nights. Parents don't want any moving nights. I said that I was like, oh, I need to change my parents side out now. So it was Ninja night. It went pretty well, but I had a question for you on how when you and your people run events, how are you selling them those trials at those nights without being too pushy? And then as well as that with your students that are within your gym that you love so much, but are still working on how to handle losing, how to process their emotions. And they're in martial arts for that behavioral and emotional structure that this is the safe place to fail that nothing happens. But then when there's a parents night out, how to process that. So I had a few leads from the parents night out. It went really well. Lots of people enjoyed it. The parents had smiles when they were leaving, when they were picking their dropping their kids off. So I ran one of those events. I sat down, put on the calendar some more events that you recommend along lines of what you recommended for this month in November. We have Nerf Wars going on in October. We have Nerf Wars. And then in November, we're closed on Thanksgiving. But then that Friday we're open. And we're going to be doing like a friends and family board game night. So not just parents going out, they can stay if they want to. And where it's like a pot-look style dinner. They can bring friends. They can bring family. Everyone just gets together and enjoys the November festivities. I haven't put anything on the calendar yet for December. And then, yeah, I've been-- oh, my other question for you was how you get involved with event-based stuff with the PTA. I've sent out a few emails and kind of haven't heard back. Been just kicking the can down the road. We'll get back to you kind of thing and how you got into it with the PTA to try and generate those parents night out leave as well. So I'm sitting at 29 students. We're at 38 students now. The tuition slowly increasing. Let's stop. Let's stop. Let's stop there real quick. So we were at 29 students last month in August. Yes, right. For a month to September, we know we wanted to kind of really move the needle. And you said you were at 38? Correct. Oh, man, congratulations, man. That's big. How do you feel? Thank you. I'm just taking away chips of stress. Once I can pay the rent, that's where a big part of my stress is. So we're within five to 10 students of being able to pay the rent. And then after that, speaking with you and figuring out really dialing in my numbers because I cut a lot of those deals, not being super confident that my first business. And I know I'm getting instructor, but it's like, oh, how much with this brand new business are people really going to be willing to pay. So I need to basically double my student count to completely break even at 38 right now. 76 is kind of the amount of students paying all the expenses. We're just under $100 a student right now because of those deals that I cut previously. So we're slowly, slowly getting closer to completely breaking even and stuff like that. Yeah. So and then kind of remind us how many months in business are you in now, Zach? I believe this is month seven. We open March 9th. So and then now we're in March 12th. OK. And then did you get any rent, the furl, what do you do? What does you have to pay rent? By the way. Yes, sir. It was a two month rent, rent, abatement. I believe it was signed in February. So the month of February is kind of the build out, putting the mirrors on the wall, putting the mats down, fixing all the big three things that we wanted them to do was kind of the-- had this false wall so we had to paint the front part of it and then fix the put new lights in and then fix the ceiling tiles. And they're like, well, we're not going to paint. We're not going to fix the lights, but we'll fix the ceiling tiles. And you know, being my first business with no real kind of leverage was like, I guess I'll take what you give me. So my realtor and my mentors were like, you know, you can try and push, but then at the same time, you've been looking for a little while. This looks like kind of your best location. So it's on you. You can make all your own decisions. And I was just like, OK, if you fix the ceiling tiles, I'll pay to fix the lights. So let's back up real quick so that we can get to the music. So we got two months of renovations. So you've been operating seven months. So let's say five months really as you operate. And you can kind of negative in the hole for five months. Right. So let me ask you this. How many more months do you think you can hold us up until you say, hey, I don't know if I can do this, to get break even? What's your run rate, we call it? What is your run rate? How much time do you have left? I think realistically I could do three months. Yeah, it's looking a little bleak after that. This episode is brought to you by mystudio.io, the customer management and building software for the modern day business. My studio powers thousands of businesses to ensure that they sign up or a sale opportunity has never missed. Customer management and communication is easy and can be fully automated so you can focus on what matters the most. OK, so we got three months to work with, right? And we got to really roll up our sleeves and get to this. So this sets us up for the stage. Again, we're at 38 students. And we just re-understood that because we're undercharging, we'll only get 99 students. So let's look at some wins, Zach, first. So you added nine students in a month. Is that correct? You sure? What is the average value for each one of those students? Just under $100, $99. For those nine students, the new one, I would say, one, like, 135 would be a good number because somewhere we're family. So I do the first one paying full price, the next one paying 10% off. So the next one pays $135. But they're not $99. They're thinking that-- They're a lot more than $135. Yes, sir. OK. So let's say we're going to go $135. And please call me too, Zach. You don't have to call us too. We're not in uniform, so not necessary, right? I know a tradition and all that is important. So you brought in about $1,200 of monthly recurring revenue. Right? If I'm doing the math quickly here, right? Nine times 135. We call this MRR. MRR stands for monthly recurring revenue. So you brought in $1,200 of new recurring revenue. How much was your recurring revenue before this from last month? I want to say $2,02100 with all the-- Well, let's say $2,100. So let's break this down. Something you did really well and you corrected almost on your own because we didn't really talk about this last time. You had 28 students or 29 students. And your total monthly recurring revenue for those 29 students was $2,100. So a lot less than $100. Or $100 would be $2,900. You signed up a third of those students. You signed up nine more students. And you almost double the student value. Not double the student value, but 50% increase in your revenue. So you went from $2,100 with 29 students. You added nine more students. So add in $1,200 to it. So right now, your income is looking like $3,300 a month. Is that correct? Yes, sure. Yeah, close to it. Monthly MRR monthly recurring revenue is $3,300. percent. That's a big deal. Okay. So I would say that is a win. If you can do this again in two months, we have no problem fixing this issue. And you came in here with all these questions like, you know, how do I do this? How do I get it? Because you got two to three months before you have to shut your business down. But I want to go back to some of good decisions that you made here, right? As you focus on getting students within the past six months, you got 29 students. In one month, you got nine students. Does that make sense? You told me you're in business seven months, right? Right. Correct. Okay. So we last talked a month ago and you had a nine students, the previous six months, you had a 29. Right. Whatever you're doing is starting to work. Okay. Now we just have to fine tune it and continue to build on that momentum. It does. Okay. So a lot of times, too, we see, I understand, right? There's a cliff. That's right in front of us, right? And we're on this river and we're kind of drifting towards that cliff and we're going to fall off in three months. And we're trying to swim upstream, right? Which swimming against the current that's pulling us down, but we're swimming faster and faster every month. So that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing the acceleration of income, as well, I'm looking at on paper here, looks really good. You just increase your MRR by 50%. So the goal is how do we do that again? Right? Here's the challenge, though. Increasing from 2100 and getting a thousand dollars more in monthly revenue is easier than now that you're at 3,300. You got to get $18 or $1,700 into the door right now. Right. It does. All right. So when I want to focus on first is your pricing, because at 38 students, you should not only, you should not be getting 3,300 bucks. So that's your said, a little below 90 something dollars per student value, right? Right. How much other schools around these charging, the March chart schools around these charging? Yeah. So around around the same, it varies between 150 to 200. That's kind of where I'm not the same. You're charging right now 90 something dollars for a student. Right. So you're saying the schools around you are pricing at 150 to 200? Yes. So where part of those numbers is that I base those numbers off of, is I train to Jitsu and South Salt Lake, which is a few cities over and they have two options. It's a, it's unlimited classes for either auction and you pay you. All right. Well, I mean, I don't think it matters what parents are. Yeah. One people price shops are exact. One people price shop. They say, how much are you can I afford it? And then they'll have a specific. So what we're seeing is your pricing correct. You say, Hey, I'm going to charge 150 to 200, right? Right. Yeah. Okay. Me as a parent, if I have to drive past your school to go to another school, because it's further away, I would rather pay $25 more or $50 more per month to save time if I can afford it. Right. And if it's in the same price range. So your school or the other school must have to be really, really good or they have like a friend that comes there, then I will do it, right? It's funny. You say that because I actually had a being an ATA gym. There's another ATA gym in South Salt Lake. And there's a family that stopped in. They're like, Hey, we live right around the corner. We're thinking of switching to your gym. So that's exactly what what you're saying. Yeah, because proximity to somewhere, if I'm driving my kids to three times a week to somewhere, proximity is going to win. Right. So what I'm saying is you should not be price sensitive. You shouldn't be like, my mother charged less than these folks over here because I'm going to get more people. That is a misconception. If you charge less, people think your program is not as good as the other program. Right. And especially if you're closer to me and I would yeah, and I will pay more for for for availability and proximity. So that can save time because I got to take my elder kid to dance or I got to pick up my dry cleaning or I got a, you know, flush home from work, etc. To take the kids. Okay. So we understand pricing is our problem. Let me ask you a simple question. Okay. What would happen if you went back to those 29 students that you gave a grant opening special two and you increased them by 20 or $30 per month? What would they say? I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I know some of them have a little bit of financial constraints because I'm in a lower middle class area. Do you just tell me the people around you are charging the same, 150 to 200, right? Yeah. So the grant opening special you gave them, the grant opening special you gave them. How long was that for? Is that a year? Is that forever? Like what was on your contract? Yeah. So with them, when I met you at worlds and switched to my studio, I changed to month-to-month-based system. But prior to that, I was using my instructors and mentors system where it was paper contracts. But we used the word agreement so that way they don't think it's a contract because it was still soft fighting. You know, there's a 30-day clause in there if they communicate that life's changed. Different stuff going on that, but usually those are if anyone did a family plan, it was a three-year agreement, but 90% of them signed up to a two-year agreement. So you can't change your price at them throughout the two years. Okay. Understood. All right. So now, so that options are off the table, right? I mean, you can go back and ask them, but like you said, it may, it wouldn't be good because you already signed an agreement. All right. So then we got nine new students. It's great. We boosted to $3,300. So let's talk about things that are needing to bring more students in. So this particular month, this particular month, okay. Do you think that you can get 13 to 15 students in the door? Truthfully, what just in the door, potentially? Yeah, trial. Trials. We have one, sorry, one event that I forgot to mention was we're doing the whole month. It's a it's a raffle for instructor medals. So we've gone to some tournaments. We got some medals and we're like, I'm going to do all that. I really need these medals. So, but the kids love medals. So bring a friend to class in whoever there's two ways to earn a medal. So whoever brings the most friends to class at the end of the month earns a medal and then every friend that you bring gets you one entry into the raffle to be able to try and earn a medal. And then along with our parents night out, Nerf Wars, those are kind of the the event stuff that I'm doing this month to try and get new trials as well as when we finish talking today. I'm going to there's a website called Peach Jar. Let's go. Let's go. So, so let's let's look at it. Can you bring in 13 trials this month? Yes, I will try my best. I have some, okay, I'm hoping that these events take off. So I will absolutely try. You know, all right, perfect. So we're going to we're going to look at all the possible ways now to get 13 students in the door. Okay, right. Do you talk about your home school program? Is there any additional home school programs that are in the air that you can get into this month? Right. Also, bet most likely no. I've kind of looked into it. The one that I registered as a vendor is the the biggest one that I've kind of seen. That one I don't for sure know when leads are coming. It's kind of passive marketing. I just registered to be a vendor on their website. And then it's kind of on the families as they see, hey, I want something for my kid and then they my contact information is on the website and they send me an email and come try out. Is there another program like that that you can go into? Or is that the only one in your I don't I don't have the answer for you. I'm not 100% sure. I've kind of okay, looked into some of that. So resource that. You sir. Right. So you you know the old saying, I can't tell you one way to bring in 13 students. I can tell you 13 ways to get one student. All right. So what I'm going to do is tell you five ways that you have five students, five trials in the door. Potentially. Okay. And you just got to execute it. Okay. The first is you have 39 students that are sitting at your school. And are they raving fan of your program? Are they do they love the program? Like what do you think they're at? I would say I can't speak for every student obviously, but a good majority of them. Like one the student that went to the tournament and did super awesome out of the tournament. Now his family came just all their day, which I forgot about this until just now they're like, hey, we brought some friends to the parents night out. They didn't want to sign up because some kids were processing losing. So they're kind of you know. So are there are our friends that don't want to sign up because of those kids kind of having a bad reaction to losing. So we felt bad that they won't sign up. So now we really love your program and want to pay it.
back to that. What if you get some cookies and we go through our neighborhood and we introduce you to our neighbors and you know, so I that was not me provoking them whatsoever. That was them coming to me saying hey, we want to help you get more students. Do you want to walk through our neighborhood? Other families have have you know given me two or three referrals are ready for life reasons or I hey, we got this going on or that going on we can't sign up so hard. Yeah, because the reason why I the reason why I'm saying this is because Those 39 people are going to be your biggest advocate if they are lead advocates to help you right so Thank you. Sure. Oh, do you have and do you have a a VIP card or a You know a card that you can give out like a business card You can print like a thousand of them for like a hundred bucks or less maybe a couple hundred of them Um, at your local FedEx kinkles are online that says hey join me for a free class. Excited you have those cars? I don't have them right now, but I made I have I can make them pretty easily. We made them for Great. I would recommend for you to make I would recommend for you to make them And the end of every class from now until the end of the month You literally End the class you talk you know, you preach in a way where your students like hey We'll love for you to bring friends and family to come join us right um, I got three cards for you Make it like a nice gift if you can right like Something they can give to a friend at school in our neighborhood And then you walk out and you ask for every single kid to greet the parent that's out there that comes to your class And you say the same thing those parents Like hey, we're a new business right we're still trying to make ends meet and be honest with them right I want to make sure that gets done on time and things like that and one of the things I would love for you to help me with this to introduce new students It we're just five students away, you know like we're just six students away Um to getting that and I think our family kids so you have to ask For referral and you got to give them a tool to make it easier for them to do that Right and the best thing is that they're you know Make sure that that that that gift card has a QR code That links to your trial offering Right and it should be a free one right right should be a free one and when they come It's to hey perfect you're gonna get a free class don't give them a free uniform yet because if you give them a free uniform And they don't join you've kind of lost more money. You don't have money to waste right now Okay, so they can come in with normal clothing just have them take class after that It's to hey if you register today with this special I'm gonna wave your first month And I'm gonna give you a free uniform It's a hook we call it's a hook right so that's what you do okay So the referral using the 39 student body right there with the card you got to do it to go I mean you can go online real quick design a nicest to simple cards like free Marshall class Didn't right and then from whoever and you just make sure you have that readily available You right second is exactly what your neighbor told you so the first way right the first way Is to make sure you have free VIP cars and massively ask for referrals in class. Do you have any questions there Zach On that one no no that's That's what we're doing this month through the with the metal thing to try and get the students to bring friends to class is that That student referrals and stuff like that You have that card so people can quickly sign up and contact you right The second the second way is exactly what your neighbor saying is called gorilla market Right going door to door okay Door to door with the flyer put it right there on the door I would do that right and I will do that because you need to get the word out right so Let's just say you do that and it may take you like half a day or may take you two days to hit the neighbors around in your area But you may get one trial or at least you get two leads you see what I mean Yep, this is what you do. There's nothing more important that Than getting new students into the door right now, right? It's not a you know It's not making sure your school has the best math or none of that like the best systems that can come later We need to right now get students in the door Right so the instructor that maybe you're paying ten bucks an hour That's who I would get out there and to get them to do that with you if you're still higher, you know paying than instructor Get him to go out there Put the flyer and get that out so that's the second one okay, sorry on the calendar the third way Yeah, get him on a calendar and the third way you were eluding to this earlier is how do you get To the PTA right you say you sent some emails Right anything else I I went to the There's some local schools that I went in person try to talk to You know the ought you know, can you point me in the direction of the PTA? It's kind of oh They're not he the kind of just the runaround that you know, I did set in person called emails and it's always just been kind of the runaround and Not 100% sure the the right avenue to because you don't have a relationship with them Right A fork they're not gonna give you you know you and everybody else is trying to get to the PTA Absolutely, you know how to do in children you have to build a relationship with them So what I would look for is is if you want to get into PTA if you look for like professional day Like national secretary day Teacher day appreciation days whatever that is make sure you have some cookies flowers or whatever that is and you just Deliver to the front desk to the receptionist the receptionist is a key to everything Right she or he has all the contacts to everybody does that make sense that Absolutely the prince and bulls not gonna be there. She don't have time for you the PTA president She's doing whatever he's doing whatever Right the receptionist though has to contact and all of their calendar So you got to be really good friends with that receptionist and and don't drop something off And then ask for something like what we do as encouraged is of course we establish this over many years of relationship We literally just deliver cookies and flowers Let's stay on the first day of school Right will come and we say hey My name is two from encouraged martial arts obviously we have kids attend From your school to come to our afterschool program as well students that attend from the school Uh, you don't have an afterschool program. So I would approach it like hey my name is Zach and with tenacity martial arts We have students that come from elementary school Just want to thank you for doing such a great job because it makes my life easier in my business here some flowers and some cookies Thank you and you leave Because what happens then is that person like wow? Okay, he didn't ask for anything. He just came and thanked me and not many people do that Right typically people come and they're they're asking for something they're wanting something or like you know But not many people go there and just provide a thank you gift to just say thank you Because I know your job is really hard Right teaching kids And so the next time when they hear somebody talk about martial arts, they're gonna drop your name And if you do that enough Okay, you do that enough. So every time you do something good for somebody like imagine you put a coin in their pocket Every time you do something bad they take that coin out Right, right and you always want that person to have a bunch of coins that are positive interactions with you in their pocket You do that long enough The next time you come you can be like hey, I just want to let you know. I know you have a parent teacher Day that's upcoming We have a program that we work with the PTA parents and drop the kids off of at our facility Absolutely free or we can also take a $20 charge and all that money will go to the PTA Where the parents and drop the kids off the two hours if they don't have babysitting or anything like that So they can be focused at the teacher of work day event and they'll come back. They'll pick them up from our school Right, so those are the events that you want to run But you get a build of relations to answer your question. How do we get in the PTA? It's by building relationships and doing it differently than most businesses will do it right But that's a long-term play So I was searched right now. Are there any teacher work days or any Teacher parents conference day at these schools where parents have to come and someone's gonna watch their kids when they're there Right, and that's how you attack that the third thing I recommend bring a friend board breaking day to class Okay, you pick a day this month and you say hey guys We're gonna do a board breakings extravaganza or whatever that is where you buy the boards parents don't have to buy the boards and you say hey The the you know the whole week that we're going here. We're gonna practice our techniques and we're gonna break boards at the end Kids love doing that and if you bring a friend They can also join you to come to class and break boards with you all right a kid What they want to do is when they come to martial arts class like breaking a board or doing that that's kind of like Probably one of the most fun things that they can do in class So if you dedicate just one week to that and you bring friends in this this month You may get another student in or you may get two you may get three Not only will you get retention out of it you get students to Uh new students right because your current students are gonna love it as well Um, so that would be like a third thing that you can do and you say you're running the IP parties Right, you know, I I have implemented that yet. I know we discussed that last time Is that student the fourth thing the fourth thing you want to do is you're identified as student did great at the tournament great Okay, set out a Friday night or Saturday afternoon Um, schedule that with the mom or the dad and make a VIP party say we're gonna have pizza We're gonna break boards all right and you and you can invite you can invite up to up to 10 friends Or 15 friends right whatever
class, you know, you class in school, you're neighborhood friends, because that person's already looking to help you to do what they're doing. But you have to schedule it this month. You got to get trials in this month. Right. I just run just run one and run it really well. Okay. And then going back to how do you handle people losing and students losing? What are you doing in the events that is competition base? Well, it was the Ninja night of, you know, they're on teams. They're playing Ninja Dodgeball. They're playing sharks and minnow. And one of the students, you know, they keep getting out really early because there's people of different skill abilities and age groups. And so then mom is discussed with me previously. Hey, you know, yeah, it's ADHD. We're in therapy. We're kind of working on some stuff. I'm glad he's here. I have seen improvements through your program. But it's still we've set the expectation that in here, it's not like at home, it's not like out there, you know, everything is structured, whatever is going on previously, there's a certain requirement and way to act when we're here. But, you know, getting in the game, that people not like in losing, you know, the motion starts to take over and and stuff like that. So this is a special need student? Not necessarily special needs, but you know, has some stuff that he can follow directions if he wants to. Absolutely. 100%. Okay. Does he want to that day? Is the question. Exactly. So that's more of a teaching technique question, right? And if I know if I'm here in this correct, but if that particular student is losing you students, or they be they be habbing class or the way they behave in special events is causing you your staff and the ability to run the program safely, I would call it, right? Or in a non disruptive way. Sometimes you have to make that hard decision to say goodbye to that student. It's like keeping one student that is causing other students to be uncomfortable in that class and they quit. What's that value? What's that work? I don't know. I'm not in that class. I know I have situation before. When I love the student, I want to make a difference to that student's life, right? I know it's making a difference. I know the mom loves it. And the parents want the child to be in our class, but we just did not do not have the capability to handle a student like that. Especially when we hear other parents complain about it and what not. We just have to have that honest conversation. Because students like that sometimes need more focus one-on-one attention. And we cannot provide that because they have a class of 20. That's just a constraint of our program and I'm very honest with, you know, my our members that encourage about that. All right, because we cannot serve everybody. That's the one draw, drawback. Now, have we've had ADHD students diagnosed with it and and and they've been great students with us? Of course. The parents have to work with you. The student has to work with you and you've got to see improvements. And if you're not seeing improvements, then it's a student really willing to do it. If they're not, this is not the right place for them. They have to kind of put in their effort to be in that with you. Absolutely. So that's how I would recommend that scenario. Every case is different. Oh, it's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough situation. So those are some fantastic ways. We talk about four ways and make sure that we're doing that. And in your storefront, what do you have in your storefront right now? Like, if I'm walking by to an afternoon, martial arts and I look into your doors or you at your school, one of my scenes that we have three big open windows. I got some professionally made window stickers has our website at the bottom, has our phone number at the top, says martial arts. One window has some life skills on the big main window. I left it open so it's generally people can see the students in training. And there's a decent amount of foot traffic in the area that I'm in. So we have routinely quite a few people stopping looking in the windows. Our schedule is posted right to the window. And then a flyer says free week trial, no obligation. It has our website on the end. So every flyer you have put a QR code in there because it's just easier. Imagine me having to type like w, w, w, w, t, e, et, you know, I can just take my phone scan it, click it and I'm there. So anyway, we can make it easier for potential prospects or current people to sign up as great. Have you not about putting a table out there, small table, and then you or an instructor being out there to actually greet students, that's it. People walk by to come to have them come in because they may be looking in, but they're not quite ready yet to come in again. Information. Right. But if you're out there already, they'll talk to you. I have thought about that. I don't really have a reason for why I haven't, I haven't done it yet. I guess majority of the time is because I've, I've been teaching classes. But I do have one of my instructors that's here on two days and Thursdays that I could very easily do that while he's teaching. I'm just standing outside the, the gym. It was, there was a big lot's next door, but they're kind of going bankrupt now. So that, you know, it doesn't, you know, a lot of those people are kind of just coming for the deals and not really a part of the concert community. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. If you're not getting a foot traffic, then that, that, that portion may not work. Right. But think about that. Yeah. You know, so I would, if I were you, I would focus on the four things that we talk about, right? Grill the market and get out there. You know, ask for referral, make sure you have the cards, whether they go hand in students, right? Go really heavy with that. Get all the local PTA, start making that relationship with them. Don't ask them for anything, right? Search for, you know, teacher work days or like teacher conference days that are coming up. Right. Those days, teacher work days, remember, teachers are still working. Parents need, need to do something with their kids. So those are great days before you come there, you know, as you drop off some cookies, you, you know, drop off some flowers, you thank them. Second time you come, maybe a week, two weeks later, you say, Hey, I'm gonna drop off some donuts again for you guys. I want to thank you. I know teacher work days coming up. If parents are needing something to do with their kids, you know, we have this mini camp that we're hosting. All right. To take some of it off for them. And then it's, you know, $20, $30, entrance fee and all of that will donate right back to the PTA of their chores for the school. That's an easier like in, right? Because you have to always have to ask, what's in it for me? What's in it for the secretary to tell the PTA president? And what's in it for the PTA president to email or, you know, talk to all of their parents to come to your place? You know, and what's in it for them is, oh, okay, anytime that people sign up, that they're going to donate that money to the PTA. Okay. Right. Third is that awesome thing that we have is called breaking cords that every kid's love, get that in our, you know, class or a week or whatever you want to do. And then that in conjunction with the referral program will work really well. Okay. Fourth thing is, real marketing. Go out there, put slides on doors, and just get troughs in. Because I know you convert 80% you said of your trials, right? So if you get 13 students in 14 student trials, you'll get 10 of them converting. And that will again bring your revenue, your monthly recurring revenue up 50%. Right? From 3300. You're going to get 1200 or 1400 in. That's going to bring you to $4,700 in recurring revenue. And our goal was to get to 7,000, as I remember, right? That makes 7400. Yep. All right. So we went really heavy event based marketing and how to get troughs in this particular session. Great job again, man. You increased your revenue by 50% this past month. We just got to do it again this month. And if we do it again the next month, you're well on your way. So this is a pivotal month for you, man. I believe in you. Nothing you can do it. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay. I can't wait to check in with you throughout the month. And then looking forward to how you back on here next month's act. New sir. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. For those of you that are listening, if this is helpful, I hope it's giving you some tips on events and things to get new students. Please give us a subscribe on a simple profit podcast shared with a friend. Thank you. And I look forward to seeing you guys the next episode.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Zach's martial arts school increased monthly recurring revenue by 50% in one month, adding 9 new students to reach a total of 3
Despite growth, the business is underpriced compared to competitors and faces a critical 3-month timeline to reach profitability.
Strategies discussed include adjusting pricing for new students, leveraging current families for referrals, and hosting community events to attract trials.
The host emphasizes the importance of proactive marketing and providing tools like referral cards to accelerate student acquisition.
Summary:
In this podcast episode, host Tuley interviews Zach, owner of a martial arts school, about his business progress. Zach reports significant growth, increasing from 29 to 38 students in one month, which boosted his monthly recurring revenue by 50% to approximately $3,300. However, he reveals the business is still operating at a loss due to initially underpricing memberships compared to local competitors charging $150–$200, while his average is under $100.
With only about three months of financial runway left, the discussion focuses on urgent strategies to achieve profitability. Key actions include raising prices for new enrollments, actively seeking referrals from current satisfied families by providing promotional cards, and optimizing event marketing like "parents night out" and community activities to attract trials. The host encourages Zach to capitalize on his recent momentum by systematically executing these customer acquisition and pricing adjustments to secure the business's future.
FAQs
Focus on referral programs, host engaging events like parents' nights or themed activities, and leverage current students and parents as advocates by providing them with tools like referral cards to share with their networks.
Price your classes in line with local competitors (e.g., $150-$200 per month) rather than undercharging, as proximity and quality often outweigh price sensitivity for parents, and lower prices can be perceived as lower value.
Host fun, low-pressure events like Nerf Wars or board game nights that allow families to experience your gym casually, and use these opportunities to offer trials naturally by focusing on community building rather than direct sales.
Honor the agreements made during sign-ups (e.g., fixed-term contracts), but ensure new students are enrolled at full price to gradually increase your monthly recurring revenue and move toward profitability.
Use resources like Peach Jar to register as a vendor for homeschool programs, and persistently follow up with PTAs via email or in-person outreach to offer event partnerships or trial classes for their communities.
MRR is the predictable monthly income from student tuition, crucial for financial planning and sustainability. Increasing MRR through new enrollments or price adjustments helps cover expenses and achieve profitability faster.
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