Master Vince Cassar

At the last EFC Summit in Florida, during the banquet, Keith Thompson, John Lynn and Mike Allen suggested that it would be a good idea to have me talk at the next EFC Meeting of Minds in the UK, on how I managed to grow the Cassar Academy of Choi Kwang Do by 300% in just 17 months, during the worst recession in living memory.

My first reaction was, “no way!” I thought to myself, “What on earth could I talk about that the other speakers haven’t already done so brilliantly. Besides that, I’m a rookie school owner and still have so much to learn and grow myself.”  Someone had mentioned to Mike that when they had asked me what I did to achieve this, I just said, “I didn’t get in my own way” and he suggested this would make a good topic for my talk. I don’t know whether it was the atmosphere and excitement of the evening or Keith, John or Mike’s enthusiasm and encouragement that swayed me but by the end of the night I agreed.

The Meeting of Minds in Wales last year was a fantastic weekend. John Lynn and his amazing team put on a great event and were the perfect hosts; Keith and Debbie Thompson were again Guest speakers. The last time they were in the UK was 4 years ago and that was my first ever EFC event. After one of Debbie’s sessions I got the chance to have a chat with her and as we parted she said “you’re going to do very well, I’m going to keep an eye on you”.

Hearing that from Debbie Thompson had an amazing effect on me. I went home and couldn’t stop thinking, if someone like Debbie Thompson says that I can be successful at opening a full time centre then maybe I can, all I’ve got to do is get out of my own way and stop thinking the way I have been and start thinking the way the top school owners do. At this time I was teaching Choi Kwang Do part time and only had about 75 students.

I want to share with you some of the thoughts I used to have back then.
1.    My school is different from theirs
2.    Won’t work with my students
3.    Won’t work with my style
4.    My students won’t pay that
5.    Hard to find new students
6.    Successful schools are in better areas
7.    Can’t find the right staff
8.    Can’t find the right property
9.    Don’t know how to run this type of business
10.    Marketing costs too much
11.    Advertising doesn’t work

When I look at this now it’s so clear to me why I wasn’t growing my school, I was standing in the way of my own success, I had to get out of the way, start introducing all the EFC systems and change my way of thinking. So this is how I did it, I just started saying to myself:
1.    If the top schools can do it then I can
2.    How do I introduce this to my students?
3.    Doesn’t matter what style I teach, it will work
4.    I must increase our fees/gross as our classes are great value
5.    Look for lots of different ways to increase enrolments
6.    Our success has nothing to do with the location of our school
7.    I have great staff
8.    Contact all the real estate agents and find a location for a full time centre
9.    Use the EFC systems and manuals and start learning the business skills I need to run a professional Martial Arts centre
10.    I must start spending at least 10% of my gross on marketing
11.    I must Increase advertising streams

Once I started doing this, then everything began to fall into place. We found a location a year later. 6 months after that on May 4th 2008 we opened. Our gross at the time was under £5,000.00 including tuition fees, gradings and sales. Just eighteen months later our gross is £22,000.00 a month with a steady increase of 2.5% every month. We now have 340 students and the Cassar Academy of Choi Kwang Do is rocking! All the students and team are very excited about what’s happening and we have very big plans for the year ahead. Thank you EFC, Debbie and Keith Thompson, Dave Kovar, Nick and Donnalynn Patakos, John Lynn and all the other great people that have not only helped me develop the skill needed to succeed but also change the way I think so I will never again stand in my own way!