Advice requested on promoting school

[Ben F.]

Hello all,

I am one of three owners of a new (open for 6 mos.) MA school here in Minneapolis. We teach TKD and Kumdo. We have been doing well with retaining our TKD students and even adding some new ones since we opened. However, the only Kumdo students I have are the other two partners in the business.

I am very interested in anyone's opinions on how to promote and grow the Kumdo program. In your collective experience, what type of promotions have worked for you? If you sent flyers, where and who did you send them to? Where have you gone and what did you do to attract students?

Any and all remarks, thoughts, suggestions, opinions would be appreciated.
[bows deeply to the KW group mind]

[tnagpal]

Do the two interact? Your TKD students may like Kumdo if they get a chance to see it, but if they are in different days then there is little chance for them to be intrigued. I also think that they make your best candidates for recruiting in Kumdo.

With kendo and kumdo there is a high burden of education. TKD is relatively well-known and common. Kumdo less so.

[tyler]

i have no idea if kumdo differs from kendo in this respect, but as far as I know, Kendo clubs are not for profit (at least not the one's I know of in Canada). Usually, if funds are involved its only to cover the facility rental but the people who run and teach the clubs are volunteer and don't receive financial compensation. I think this part of why kendo/kumdo clubs tend to be popular.
You mentioned that you were the owner so i'm assuming that you run a business (please let me know if i'm way off here). I'm just curious, if you charge, how much do you charge?

As far as promotion, I believe there's a thread, perhaps in the media forum, regarding how to make a good kendo/kumdo club poster, what kinds of information to include and some good images to use.

tyler

[Ben F.]

i have no idea if kumdo differs from kendo in this respect, but as far as I know, Kendo clubs are not for profit (at least not the one's I know of in Canada). Usually, if funds are involved its only to cover the facility rental but the people who run and teach the clubs are volunteer and don't receive financial compensation. I think this part of why kendo/kumdo clubs tend to be popular.
You mentioned that you were the owner so i'm assuming that you run a business (please let me know if i'm way off here). I'm just curious, if you charge, how much do you charge?

As far as promotion, I believe there's a thread, perhaps in the media forum, regarding how to make a good kendo/kumdo club poster, what kinds of information to include and some good images to use.

tyler

As has been previously discussed on many occaisions, kendo and kumdo are for the most part interchangeable.

Yes, my place is a *gasp* for profit business but we are concerned only with paying the bills to keep the place open and none of us is paid for our time. Any money we make is rolled back into the school. We teach because we love and believe in the martial arts we teach.

Our monthy dues are $50 for either TKD or Kumdo and if you take both, there is a price break.

Thanks for the tip about the media forum post. I'll check it out.