Tips for Summer Success
Posted on | May 8, 2011 | No Comments
AM Classes for kids: Before you know it, your younger students will be on their summer break from school. Parents will be looking for things for them to do. So, this brings us to one of the big questions we face all year:
Do we add AM classes to our schedule?
We believe the answer is yes. With school out for summer, AM classes make it easy for kids to keep coming to classes consistently. If you choose not to go this route, you may find that many kids start missing classes because they got started on something else in the morning. If martial arts class isn’t until later in the afternoon, there’s a good chance that the kids will be doing something else when it’s time to come to class. Imagine a mom who goes out to tell her kids to get out of the pool because it’s time to go to martial arts classes. It’s easy to envision the kids begging her to let them stay in the pool (or playing ball, or doing any other fun activity).
And even if they’re done with whatever they did in the morning, when it’s time for class, they may complain that they’re too tired to go. So mom gives in and tells them that they don’t have to. One week they skip a class. The next week, they don’t come at all. And next thing you know, the student that was coming consistently is about to become a quit.
But if you have morning classes, it’s much more likely to get the kids to attend classes consistently through the summer.
Family Events: Summer is a fantastic time to have family events at your school. We kick off our “Super Summer Series” with a Family Fun Night. This typically runs from 6-9PM and includes all kinds of fun events for everyone in the family. It has a carnival feel. We have prize drawings, a pot luck dinner, demonstrations, family games etc.
By starting our summer with a Family Fun Night, we make sure that everyone knows about all our fun summer events. It’s a great opportunity for parents to mingle with our staff informally and we always enroll a few younger siblings as well.
A Good Summer Goal: We all have students that want to take a break for the summer. We do everything in our power to minimize this. Even with AM classes and all our fun summer events, we still have a few students that take summer off. And some of these students never return. So Summer presents a real retention challenge. To keep our staff focused on this, we set a goal to have as many students on September 1 as we did on June 1. If we anticipate a few extra quits in summer, we know that we need to step up our student acquisition efforts so we don’t lose ground. Here’s how the numbers might work:
NORMAL MONTH – You enroll 10 students, but you have 7 quits, for a net gain of 3 students.
SUMMER MONTH – You enroll 7 students, but you have 10 quits, for a net loss of 3 students.
In this case, it’s clear that you’ll need to enroll 10 students during the summer months if you want to maintain your enrollment. But if your typical summer pattern is to have only 7 enrollments, you’ll need to work with your team to find ways to enroll at least three additional students each month in the summer to combat the increase in quits that may come.
A Plan for Summer: Your summer plan should have three components:
- Set quantifyable goals for enrollment. (Example: Our goal is to end the summer with as many students as we started)
- Develop a plan to keep students coming to class consistently and to minimize quits duing the summer (Examples: AM classes, summer events, etc.)
- Make plans for some additional student acquisition efforts to ensure that you meet your goals.
A solid plan that includes fun activities and some additional acquisition efforts will make for a great summer for your school and your students.
Compliments of Mark Seidman
General Manager of Kovar Systems
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About Dave Kovar
Mr. Kovar has been teaching Martial Arts professionally since 1978. Dave is a multi-style Black Belt who has been committed to ever-improving his Martial Arts skills. He updates this blog to provide tips and insights to martial arts instructors around the country. To learn more, click here.
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