By Debbie Thompson
In writing this article, I am assuming that you are taking your team to the Summit (very wise on your part) and that they have earned their way (again, very wise on your part). I am also assuming that you have signed up with EFC, booked your flights, and have your hotel reservations. Now, how do you insure that your money and time will pay you back ten-fold?
Let’s go through the list of things to do for your team and to tell your team to set them up for success.
EFC 2008 Summit in Nashville, TN. Register today, if you haven’t done so already. Low hotel rates will last only till the beginning of October.
Here are some ingredients that are sure to make the EFC 2008 Summit a grand feast of ideas: Continue reading
Here’s why you need to register immediately!
Here’s what the veterans of EFC have to say about why everyone must go…
Because in order for you to stay on top of the martial arts game, you have to go to the best conference. For instance, when we are talking about 45 minute classes, where did we get that idea from? EFC. Did it work well? Yes. When we first started our business and talked about contract amount vs. people taking money in each day, it gives us longevity, because we know that the contract amount will be there. Where did we learn this from? EFC. So if you don’t want to go to the EFC Summit, it is almost like you don’t want to be in the martial arts business for a long time.
—Tony Thompson West Coast Tae Kwon Do Continue reading
Let’s assume you’ve already conducted a highly motivating and energy filled intro class and you are now at the point of doing an extension conference.
First, is the analysis of the strong points or weak points that the intro lesson reveals. Coordination, learning speed, physical condition and flexibility are revised to establish a beginning and generally outlining a path of progress.
Now we turn to the 7.5 Magic Questions. The phrase is introduced by merely saying, “We need your cooperation answering questions so that we can qualify you for any of the programs you may be interested in.” The scene is now set. Continue reading
Every school owner is always aware of how many new students they have gained, but very often they forget about the students who have stopped training. It is significant that the most successful schools track new joiners, but they are also very concentrated on Net Growth, which is the difference between the number of new joiners less the number of quits.
The top schools prepare an annual plan for how many students they need to grow by each month to achieve their growth target for the year. This plan encourages, or even forces them and their staff to concentrate not only on marketing and extensions, but also on retaining current students.
This month in order to help you track this important figure we have introduced a new statistic called Net Growth, which appears on the front page of your monthly report. We have also reintroduced the monthly list of Quits.
By Chairman Nicholas Cokinos
The Seven and a Half Magic Questions are:
These questions are invaluable; you don’t have to be an expert salesperson to effectively enroll a student. Notice the q uestions are framed in such a way that the potential student will indicate their interest to you. You are carefully shutting the doors as you go down the list so that you are not confronted with sudden excuses at the end of the conference as to why there is no enrollment. The use of the questions also eliminates unnecessary and prolonged explanations on how your school operates, but instead allows your potential student to indicate to you why they are eager to join. Continue reading
In October 2003 I had a meeting with my instructors.
I had been running a martial arts club since 1989 and at the time of the meeting had 7 students to show for it. I didn’t have a clue why we were losing our students but most never seemed to stay around.
I sat down with my instructors and put it all on the line. I was sick of teaching students and giving them 100% just for them to leave. I had not had any time for my own training and felt that I was giving up my training for nothing. I wanted to fold the club!
My instructors talked me out of closing but I had a condition. If we were keeping the club open then we were going to do it properly. I had one of EFC’s leaflets so gave them a call and we went up to Nottingham to meet Mike Allen and Ken Robson.
At this seminar they spoke about how a martial artist can actually run a school full time.
We could not believe it and decided to give it a go and in November 2003 joined the Educational Funding Company and became “The Chi Wai Black Belt Academy”.
To begin with I only taught adults but the EFC put me in contact with the right people to organise instructing children. Continue reading
For the first time in the UK we ran the famous EFC Spring Fling. This is a ‘serious fun’ competition with schools competing in Groups against each other and the school in each group with the highest growth in monthly gross collections in the period March to June each won £1,000.00.
The Happy Winners were:
EFC Spring Fling 2008: Winners Group: Apollo
Darren Brown – Kuk Sool Won of Kings Lynn
EFC Spring Fling 2008: Winners Group: Mars
Matthew Hobden – The Choi Foundation
EFC Spring Fling 2008: Winners Group: Vulcan
Vince Cassar – Cassar Academy of Choi Kwang Do
EFC Spring Fling 2008: Winners Group: Zeus
Donald MacKenzie – Edinburgh Kuk Sool Won
The latest EFC Meeting of Minds seminar featuring Steve Sohn, John Lynn, Ken Pankiewicz and Ken Robson was another huge success with all attendees making copious amounts of notes and action plans.
Twenty clients attended a very successful X Factor meeting facilitated by EFC UK Board Member and top school owner Ken Pankiewicz. The meeting was held at Lee and Lisa Kent’s beautiful new school in Cheltenham and everyone was made very welcome. Many of the clients had not previously attended an EFC Meeting and most had travelled long distances to attend.
The meeting covered the Enrolment process from start to finish, organising and running a Black Belt Graduation, why you need to know your gains and losses and a lively Q&A session.
The meeting was very well received and all attendees took copious notes and were busy formulating their action plans.
Many thanks to everyone who attended, to Lee and Lisa Kent for making us so welcome and of course to Ken Pankiewicz for his valuable information and time.
The latest EFC Meeting of Minds seminar featuring Dave Kovar, John Lynn, Ken Pankiewicz and Ken Robson was a huge success.
Over twenty clients and staff made their way to Chris and Virginia Ellis’s superb new Choi Kwang Do School in Redhill, for an excellent X Factor Meeting with EFC Advisory Board Chairman and top UK client Ken Pankiewicz.
This meeting was a little different as it concentrated on teaching techniques on the mat. Ken covered the warm up, Little Champions: four to six year olds, covering lesson structure and teaching tips, teaching forms, pad work, self defence training and sparring. After each segment Ken took questions from the delegates, which encouraged a lot of questions and very lively and informative discussion. The meeting was very well received and Chris and Virginia made every one feel very welcome.
Eighteen people attended the recent X Factor held at Dan Woodruff’s superb Dojo in Stourbridge. The meeting facilitator was the very knowledgeable and accomplished EFC UK Advisory Board Co-Chairman Ken Pankiewicz. The meeting covered classroom procedures, including how to teach different segments of the Martial Arts such as forms, self defence and pad work. We also covered promotions for the Autumn and New Year and how to retain students in the run up to Christmas. The meeting closed with a very lively and constructive Q&A session involving everyone present. The feedback has been very enthusiastic and we thank Dan & Carole for being such excellent hosts and Ken for yet again providing first class information.
Students for Life
The sixth meeting in the highly successful EFC UK Meeting of Minds Seminar Series took place at the Shudokan Black Belt Academy in Nottingham, with star guest EFC USA Board Member Chris Robinson, UK Advisory Board Members Ken Pankiewicz and Ken Robson and nearly forty clients and staff.
The theme of the meeting was Students for Life, not just for Days. On Saturday we had a very full agenda with presentations by Chris on “Before we grow our schools we must grow ourselves”, “The Owners Role”, “Black Belt Club Programs”, and “Building a Team not a staff”. He also encouraged everyone to have scripts for dealing with the first contact, the intro etc, “Scripts save schools”, “If you are not consistent, you do not have a system”.
Ken Pankiewicz gave an excellent presentation on “Evaluating your school and the tuition you charge”. This subject covered not only the price that you charge for tuition, but he also showed the delegates how to calculate the Quit Rate for their school. Continue reading
All New EFC X Factor Kick Starts at Kickfit!
In the UK we usually hold our client meetings at the weekend, but we recently held our first UK week day X Factor at Ken Pankiewicz’s Kickfit Academy Headquarters in Slough near London. These X Factor meetings will emulate the highly successful format developed in the USA. They will be held regionally for a maximum of four hours and we expect to attract a smaller number of attendees, compared to our well established two day “Meeting of Minds” Y Factor Seminars. The meetings will be dynamic, with a relatively short agenda which will be examined in depth. There will also be a Q&A session when attendees can raise any issues which concern them for open discussion within the group.
Retention: The Secret to a Successful School
The fifth meeting in the highly successful EFC UK Meeting of Minds Seminar Series took place with star guest EFC USA Advisory Board Member Rick Silver, our very own UK Advisory Board Members John Lynn, Ken Robson and forty clients and staff.
The venue was Ken Robson’s Shudokan Black Belt Academy in Nottingham. Ken, his Program Director Rachel Gordon and Dojo Manager Andy Cannon strive continuously to improve their Dojo and their service to their students. Every time I visit I see improvements that have occurred as a result of their hard work and from the candid observations made by our visiting friends from the USA, such as Garland & Bridget Johnson, Steve Doyon, Nick and Donnalynn Patakos, Keith and Debbie Thompson and now Rick. It is a great example of international networking in action. But the information flow does not stop there, as Ken Robson repeated his open invitation to all EFC UK clients for them to visit the Dojo, so that he and his staff can pass on the skills they have learned. Every client who has visited the Dojo has subsequently given glowing reports on their visit, so ring Ken to arrange your visit! Continue reading
Building Permanent Wealth
The fourth meeting in the highly successful EFC UK Meeting of Minds Seminar Series took place with star guests Keith & Debbie Thompson, our very own UK Board Members Ken Pankiewicz, John Lynn, our host Ken Robson and over forty clients and staff.
Dependability: Trustworthiness: Rock Solid Integrity
The third meeting in the highly successful Meeting of Minds Seminar Series took place with star guests Nick and Donnalynn Patakos and our very own UK Board Members John Lynn and Ken Robson.
Just a quick email to say thanks from both me and Jayne for all the help you and Steve have given over the last year.
I have just done some calculations on how the School is doing in total, the main school plus the Taekwondo class etc and since the end of March we have grown just over 40%, monthly revenue increase of £1395 per month, as a yearly figure that is £16740. That is truly amazing from our side, the Spring Fling really had a major impact and was the best investment of £25 this year.
We still have another 3 2nd intros lined up this week of which I am sure we will sign up a minimum of 2, and a good set of intros lined up next week.
Again thanks for all the help and support
Regards
Dave and Jayne Pawson
From the day that I found out about EFC, I knew it was the way forward for me and my school. It was kind of nerve racking to start with – will people stay with me if I swap to all these new ideas. This, however, has been outweighed hugely by the amazing growth my school has seen since joining with EFC going from 50 students to over 200 in just 2 years. EFC has been there to help me every step of the way in my career so far, and I know that Mike and his team will continue to be there for me in the future.
Dear Mike and the fabulous EFC team.
We’re open! And we own it!
Buying a commercial building in the UK is one of the toughest obstacles we have faced.
First of all it was nice and easy, we found a building we could afford and arranged a commercial mortgage to buy it. Like I said nice and easy, just like purchasing a home.
The obstacle was the planning application. Our local council has stringent rules for what the building is used for and has certain policies regarding it.
Our Building was categorised as SUI GENERIS. This means that the property has been vacant for some time and has not been assigned a commercial USE.
We quickly submitted our planning application and which was refused on the grounds that we are not community orientated, and that we did not fall into the planning office guidelines. Martial arts, not community oriented! We couldn’t understand the reasoning behind it.
We had several meetings with the planning office and finally hired a planning consultant and submitted another planning application for change of USE.
This time the planning office submitted details of the planning application online on their website. We noticed that people could leave comments on the application, supporting or rejecting it.
We rallied our student body to leave positive comments on the website. A few weeks later we received a phone call from the head of planning, stating that they had received over 150 comments from the community supporting this venture, and that the application was going well this time round. He also stated that he’s work load has just increased as he has to respond to every comment giving them the decision on the application.
This made me smile. Later that week the planning application was approved.
Virginia and I would like to thank you Mike for all the effort and support you have given us. EFC has been the cornerstone of our success and we are very grateful.
If anybody wants more information we can be contacted through the EFC.
Kind Regards
Chris & Virginia Ellis
Taerigi-Do does not have contracts! We use our EFC agreements as an assurance, to our students, that we will provide them with lessons for the next twelve months. In return, they agree to pay for their tuition. If the student’s circumstances change they may cancel the agreement upon discussion with Master Harrison.
Without these agreements, there is the strong possibility of people joining a martial arts club; in the local church hall, handing over their money one week and the next week the club has gone!
Over the past four years using EFC agreements has built Taerigi-Do a flagship facility, for our association, which is utilized by over 120 committed students, from the local area. In the six years that Taerigi-Do has been in Ilkley, 27 local people have been promoted to a total of 44 dan grades.
The Taerigi-Do academy at Ilkley now employs three local residents, on a full-time basis. Our business is thriving, what we have to offer the local community is beyond comparison with any other martial arts clubs in the area.
This is all due to the immense support we have received from EFC!
EFC take on board a vast amount of the day-to-day admin associated with the running of a martial arts school – this leaves us to focus on our main priority; the quality of our Instruction.
Networking with EFC is fantastic – we have the facility to share and air, ideas and knowledge; from instruction to good business practice, with over 5000 other schools worldwide. Through EFC, our staff have benefited from the opportunity to train with, and learn from, some of the world’s top Instructors.
EFC works – thank you EFC!
I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank everyone for the help I have received in starting up my school. I have trained with master Ken Pankiewicz at the Kickfit Academy for almost 8 years and was privileged enough to be accepted onto his instructor training program and worked my way from SWAT team member to qualified instructor, although Master Pankiewicz gave me the opportunity to work full time, I was held back by my loyalty to my parents, as I worked in the family business.
This situation changed three months ago when I moved to Cornwall with my partner and young son. This was a difficult decision as I was not only leaving my immediate family, but also what I saw as my extended family at Kickfit Academy. With the encouragement of Master Pankiewicz I decided to start up my own school.
Obviously as an instructor I was aware of the EFC, but it wasn’t until I joined as a school owner that I understood exactly what it was all about.
From the first call with my account executive Katherine, I was impressed with the level of professionalism and advice.
Katherine gave my number to some other school owners and the next few days were spent talking to these over the phone. Everyone from Ken Robson to James Towill who was about three weeks ahead of me in opening his school gave me invaluable advice and encouragement.
Although Master Pankiewicz has been in regular contact and of huge help, I still felt quite isolated being so far away. Then I spoke to Mr. Andrew Spink and Mr. Paul Drury who are located close by in Devon. These guys went out of their way and as true martial artists went that extra mile and offered to come down for my open day. This changed my open day from just me chatting to a few people, to a fantastic evening of awesome martial arts displays in front of about 30 people, and the displays were awesome from their students doing kicking demonstrations and bow staff routines to Mr. Spink performing a black belt form and kicking routine that left the audience gob smacked. To finish with Mr. Drury showed immense skill and control slicing a cucumber in half off of Mr. Spinks stomach with his sword display.
I am writing this after returning from doing my first intro lessons, because of the help I received my only problem now is how to handle all the enquiries. Tonight I have done 15 intros (with more still booked). I only had 14 intros booked for tonight and 3 off those did not show up, but because of children and parents going away raving about what they saw 4 extra people showed up wanting to see what it’s all about. All of these are now booked in for 2nd intros.
This would not have been possible without the help I have received from others, so a big thank you must go out for Master Pankiewicz whose training has set me in good stead, Mr. Paul Drury, Heather Drury and Mr. Spink as well as their students whose helped make my open day a great success, and just as important have made me fell less isolated knowing I now have good friends close by.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and all these guys have helped make that step a big one.
Since leaving Ireland for England a few years ago, I have seen an explosion on the British Martial Arts scene. Everywhere you go in England there seem to be very successful, full time Martial Arts Academies.
This new professional approach is due to Educational Funding Company (EFC). I know that the standard of Martial Arts and Instruction in Ireland is second to none. In spite of this, it is extremely difficult for a qualified Instructor to make a good living in the Martial Arts industry.
Well, the good news is that EFC has come to Ireland. If you already run an academy or have always dreamt of becoming a highly rewarded, full time professional Martial Arts Instructor, without selling out your art or ripping off your students, then you need to look into EFC. Get on board before you are left behind.
I started training at the age of seven in Shuckokai Karate. The reason I started to train was because my school friends had already joined at a local school and so I tagged along, all my friends gradually stopped in the first year, but to me karate had become much more than a hobby and I continued training there until I reached the level of black belt at the age of fifteen.
My instructor at the time decided to leave John Lynn’s Academy and go solo, and therefore resulted in me having to stop training as the nearest John Lynn’s academy then was at Rhyl, 30 miles away. As soon as I got my driving licence I made two weekly journeys to Rhyl for my training sessions and quickly got back in to the swing of it. The Rhyl Academy were already members of the EFC at that point and I was the 25th member as a student, The school kept growing from strength to strength.
In the year of 1999 I got my 2nd Dan and I also qualified as an instructor. I was already working full time at this point, stacking shelves in a supermarket, I wasn’t earning much money and didn’t have a sense of achievement in my life, except in karate. I decided I wanted to open my own club. I held my first class on 8th of February of 2000 at a school hall in my local town, charging £2.50 for an hour. I only had one class for children then on every Thursday evening but the class gradually grew larger and I decided to have another night for children. Although I thoroughly enjoyed teaching I never thought that it could become a career, so I carried on like this, with my two lessons a week for the next year.
At the beginning of 2001 Master Lynn approached me regarding the EFC, at that point I knew all about it as I was already a paying student and a fellow instructor had already joined. To be honest, my first instinct was “no way, it wouldn’t work in my town”, but over time I gradually got interested in the monthly billing procedure so I sat down with Master Lynn and he explained the values and benefits of the system and that I could make a career out of teaching karate. This all seemed very fascinating but I still didn’t believe that I could make it happen especially making a living out of it. I had reached a stage in my life where I was looking into making a career for myself, but I had also just bought a house with my girlfriend Gemma, so the idea of having a mortgage to pay made things look complicated.
At the time I was also going through the procedures of joining the police force, my application had been accepted, I passed the fitness test (obviously), two written tests, an interview and awaiting a date to start the cadet training. Although things looked promising I had what Master Lynn had said in my mind “ you can make a career of karate, earn a good wage and become a full time instructor”, if it would work it would be a dream come true, teaching a hobby for a living. I was in a state of confusion, becoming a police officer, a decent wage with a good pension and a secure career ahead of me, or take a chance and attempt to become a full time Academy owner. By now I had a gut feeling and something swayed me towards instructing. To make things more difficult my family and friends advised me to take the safe option, as I had a career in my hands, but with the inclination I had and the support of my girlfriend Gemma, I decided to look into the EFC further. I arranged for a meeting with Master Lynn and Lynne and invited my parents to come along and we discussed the possibilities. Everything became clear, Master Lynn and Lynne explained the process I had to take, that I already had my students all I needed to do was transfer from a cash club to a professional Academy, and with my existing students paying on a monthly basis I would automatically earn as much as I was at that point anyway. The only doubt now was that would it work in our town, it was explained that it’s worked in other places so with hard work and dedication why not. They persuaded me, I’d made my decision there and then and I had now also gained the respect of my decision from my parents, and as always had their full support.
Looking back we all laugh at the fact that the meeting ever took place, what was there to discuss? So there it began, I joined the EFC as school 221 and signed up 83 out of 84 of the existing students I had. Things looked promising, and it was, from then on I worked closely with Master Lynn and attended the EFC UK Meeting of Minds Seminars, gained knowledge of how to run an Academy in all areas, classes, marketing, finance you name it, I was told everything I needed to know and I quickly transferred from a karate club to a professional Martial Arts Academy.
By the end of 2001 things were on the up, the academy was growing nicely and I was earning well, I decided to give up my work and focus on my school full-time. I’ve never looked back I set myself goals and worked hard in achieving them, there is a great sense of achievement in seeing my name in the “All –Stars”. Master Lynn and the EFC showed me the way, but every instructor knows that it’s you that’s got to make it happen. You can get all the information you need on paper, but to make it work you need to put it into action. I believe I have done that and I have come a long way but I still have a long way to go yet to reach my goals. With the continued support of Master Lynn and EFC I will achieve it.
I am now the proud owner of two schools with 250 students, I have one full time instructor, and three part-time employees including my wife Gemma, I have classes running every day, teaching Karate, Kickboxing and Koshin ki to all ages from 4 to 57. I’m currently holding my classes in a rented room in the Leisure Centre, and my office is based at home, It’s sometimes quite difficult, having to carry all my equipment with me every day and it takes an hour a day to set up the room with my posters, notice boards etc. I’ve been looking for my own premises for quite a while, but there’s very limited places in the town and nothing with enough floor space, but hopefully with a little patience and positive thinking something will turn up soon. I can’t wait to hold the ‘Meeting of Minds’ at my own Academy.
As I stated earlier I feel I’ve achieved a lot since joining the EFC but there’s much more that I’d like to do in the future, get my own premises, hold more classes, employ more staff, hopefully taking on my wife full-time. I’m going to keep attending the meetings and summits, working closely with school owners to improve my student service and more importantly, Extensions, Extensions, Extensions!
As an Association all of the John Lynn’s instructors met our goal by becoming no 1 in the top team standings, as a single school owner I set a deadline for myself to reach a certain level, I made it into the supreme grand master in the summer as the no 3 single school and I’m working for that next slot!
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