EFC – Educational Funding Company Ltd UK & Ireland

Michael & Kaori Nebgen

Q-Your gross went up to $60,000 in the last one year. What steps did you take that helped improve your gross?
I watch the stats closely and prioritize our daily activities based on our C.I.A.s (critical impact areas) where we want to see improvements so we determine a weekly M.A.P. (massive action plan) for the staff to work on collectively and individually. This allows us to be as effective as possible. So our Monday staff meeting is when we establish that. We also have a brief “productivity meeting” on Tuesday and Thursday after instructor training, to ensure focus on weekly goals.

Q-How did you train your staff for this big change?
Well this “big change” did not happen over night. I remember Master Keith Hafner said years ago, “We don’t hit a lot of home runs at our school, but we try to get base hits every day. “The metaphor made a lot of sense then, and it makes even more now. Signing up a big contract or a big cash amount on occasion is great, but consistently writing gold paper day in and day out is the right way to solidify your contract amount and A/R. We are still learning!
We always attend the EFC Summit, and I regularly attend MAUI. The combination of these keeps us highly motivated and on the cutting edge of the best practices and principles in the industry.
We meet every Monday with our entire staff for an extended lunch meeting that takes two hours. During this time we iron out objectives and challenges, plan the week, watch teaching videos, listen to audio messages, and review procedures.
I also try to hire staff to D.I.E. for! That is my code for hiring dependable/intelligent/enthusiastic people. So we try to start with great people and make them even better!!

Q-What steps did you take in terms of extension and renewal of contracts?
Of late I have spent a lot of time looking at our quit rate. By watching this stat and assessing a value to it, I can emphasize more easily to staff members the high value of retaining students vs. replacing them… this is very motivating. While we certainly do not want to diminish the personal and human aspect of training by “numbering” a student, we must peek at things like quit rate and student value in order to accurately monitor the progress of the business… after all, a prosperous school is in the best interest of everyone, owners, staff, and the student!
We constantly monitor the status of upcoming renewals. (By the way the new EFC online report “accounts to be renewed” really helps—thanks). We facilitate VIP enrollments at every opportunity.

Q-What actions did you take to keep your retention high?
Over the last couple of years we have:
- Implemented an Elite STORM Team. This has provided a high level goal for many young students to aim for after Black   Belt. We have seen some better retention from post-graduates as a result.
- Implemented a rotating curriculum that allows better skill retention on the mat, resulting in higher student   satisfaction.
- Eliminated some non-productive or time-wasting activities.

Q-What is your recommendation for school owners who want to see a similar improvement in their monthly grosses?
- Train, train, train.
- Keep you eyes on your stats—be a stats master. I know it sounds dull but there is no easier way to see what to fix.   Stats give you the big picture. And only you as the owner, have the power to make changes.
- Be a marketing master—get good at it, then keep at it!
- Network—you are among the best and brightest, what more could you ask for!
- Stand guard at the door of your mind—think, act and be around the positive!
- Monitor where you spend time—you might be surprised were you could be more efficient!

Find linked below the summary of the fantastic Programme Directors’ Presentation from Garland and Bridget Johnson at the EFC Summit.

Programme Directors Presentation.pdf

Buzz Durkin

Every business should have the following five things:

1. A friendly greeting. Be happy and thankful when someone comes in through the door to do business. We have a “stand up” rule in our school. If someone speaks to you, you stand up.
2. A personal interest in the customer/student is necessary.
3. Make the customer/student feel special. Each student should feel as if s/he has been taught a private lesson.
4. Every school should have not just a “no problem” attitude, but a “my pleasure” attitude.
5. Schools must think about staying in business for the long-term by being forward-thinking. Instead of thinking about the achievements of the last year, you must think about the goals of the next five years.

All this adds more value to the student experience, preventing them from thinking about leaving.

Bridget Johnson

At the Summit I talked about how to answer the phone. First, when a parent calls, nobody answers the phone in many martial arts schools. But we have students join our school just because we answered the phone. Second, I conveyed a whole script on how they should answer the phone. When you answer the phone, your goal is to set an appointment, getting information instead of giving information, and taking control of the conversation with questions. Another thing we covered was the extension call.

The other area we covered was the introductory class, which is very important. We include the Seven Magic Questions in the personal analysis that we hand out even before the introductory class. Through the personal analysis, we get a sense of what they are hoping to get out of martial arts. So when we go into the introductory class, we have the personal analysis form to look at to help us to a better job.

After you’ve done a fantastic introductory class, you ask the magic question: “Are you ready to start classes?” So we go ahead on to the paperwork.

Dave Kovar has just released a new blog filled with great tips and valuable
insights on a variety of topics of interest to all school owners and instructors.

At Mr. Kovar’s blog you’ll find:

·        Mat Management tips

·        Inspirational thoughts

·        Business and Marketing Tip

·        Videos of Mr. Kovar’s renowned character development cirriculum
·        And much more

Mr. Kovar’s blog can be found at: http://kovarsblog.kovarsystems.com

By Kathryn Sacoulas

Over the years we found that that marketing should occur as close to the event as possible. About one month out, we do some light marketing and two weeks prior, we intensify the marketing. We use a multilevel approach that includes:

·        Direct mail (over 5,000 postcards sent out to the leads in our database)

·        Website

·        Social networking (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter)

·        Internal referrals (give postcards out to students to give to friends and family)

·        Local advertisement

·        Emails

·        Business to business

·        Directing any info calls and walk ins toward the event in the two weeks prior

To read more great pointers, check out the next issue of the Eagle Express.

by Chris Robiosn

Remember that “every interaction with every student counts each and every day.” It is important that students feel important. Try to keep in mind that there are no bad students, only bad teachers. If the school makes a mistake such as giving the student the wrong size gi or sending a birthday card prematurely, quickly go into recovery mode by taking responsibility and correcting the mistake, turning failure into success.

By Chairman Nicholas Cokinos

A high number of new enrolments is easier to achieve than you might think. Keep in mind that it requires a collaborative effort. In other words, there should be between three and five activities directed toward new enrollments. Among them are:

1. Advertisements
2. Web site
3. Open house
4. Birthday parties
5. Circular distribution
6. Signage and walk-in
7. VIP program
8. Sponsoring a new member
9. Demonstrations
10. Buddy nights

Use marketing platforms like graduation day, birthday parties, demos and open house to build interest before attempting to enroll.

On the 15th of every month, you should make a new concentrated effort to carefully plan out your strategy for the following month. The strategy should include and involve at least three of the listed activities. Another highly effective source of new enrollments is direct mail.

Keep in mind that all the listed activities work together to continuously generate new enrollments. Pursue both internal and external marketing methods as they both are equally important. Do not rely on just one method. The director should undertake this important task. Your efforts will pay off handsomely.

In order to ensure the continuing growth of your school, you must enroll 20 to 25 members each month. A minimum of 50% of those members should come from referrals. Though most school owners neglect the importance of concentrating on promotions for attracting new members, don’t let it happen to you.

John Cokinos, EFC President

There’s a passage that says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Now that passage, if understood, can bring to us prosperity and abundance. Here’s how: what you have to realize is that the love of money, to the detriment of everything else, can be harmful. The EFC mindset believes that we can have a life of prosperity with the help of “attractor” energies, which will attract new students. To understand this we must first come to an agreement. We have to agree that there is no lack of tuition dollars, no lack of potential adult students who need your services to look trim and feel good, and no lack of younger students during summer looking for summer activities or during back to school looking for martial arts lessons.

Did you know that Anthony Arango had a women’s self-defense seminar with 100 attendees? Thirty were guests of students, of whom 12 enrolled for a new regular program. Did you know that Jeff Wheeler of the LaVallee organization booked 28 demos, that is, 28 times to go visit academic schools recently? Can you imagine this kind of outreach?

Your staff has to understand that they have to articulate the values and benefits of your program in a different and unique way. Also, it would be helpful for schools to have posters for every prospect to see, which says, “Your success story begins here.” It could, additionally, have powerful student testimonials.

Are you ready to network with people who are doing well right now—even in these times? Look at the top grosses in the All Stars Journal for inspiration. In short, you have to embrace the prosperity model without hesitation.

While we’re talking about money, I would like to mention how EFC contributes to your tuition management and collections and helps you become more prosperous. Just yesterday, the Diamond Team collected 1,863, the Gold Team collected 2,549, the Green Team collected 3,727, the Silver Team collected 3,555—all this in one day.

If anybody is good at articulating the values and benefits of your Black Belt success program, it’s us. When students call while going through the peaks and valleys of wanting to be in enrolled in martial arts schools, we can save courses for you—by talking about how you care about your students’ progress. It is what we call our student care approach. Also we monitor your accounts to see when accounts are over-drawn or credit cards are over the limit. We want you to be the tiger behind the bamboo, not the tiger roaming the fields. Let us handle all issues related to tuition billing.

Three Pillars

These three questions are extremely effective to use in any staff meeting. Use them to draw the best thinking out of your team. The questions are also perfect for getting a meeting “back on track.”

1. The program is not perfect yet. What can we do to make the program better for the students we already have?

2. There are people in our community who could be, would be, and should be training, but they aren’t yet. How can we get them on the mat?

3. There are people in our community who cannot participate in our program. How can we, through our cooperative efforts, help make their lives better?