How to Get to the Next Level
Posted on | August 17, 2011 | No Comments
This month, I would like to discuss 7 steps that can help you get to the next level in any endeavor. Here are the seven steps and some thoughts for applying them to increase your enrollment:
1) Start by acknowledging and accepting where you are – This is pretty easy when it’s about something that can be quantified like student count. Start with your current enrollment.
2) Know where you want to be – Again, it’s pretty easy to set a goal for increasing your student count. The tricky part is to determine a realistic but reasonably aggressive timeframe in which to set this goal.
3) Believe you can improve your situation. What this means is that you know for sure that you can improve your situation (in this case, add more students), if you focus on it and work hard for it.
4) Take action. This seems so simple and obvious, but it’s amazing how often people won’t change their behavior. If you want better results, you have to take new and more effective actions.
5) Stay the course. Persevere. Don’t give up. Sometimes you need to keep at it for a while before you see the results you’re after.
6) Keep your center. In other words, stay cool. Don’t panic when things get tough. And don’t throw in the towel in frustration.
7) Value your relationships above all. This is and will always be a “people business.” Maintaining great relationships with your students and staff will always help as you set out to increase your enrollment.
That’s the philosophical side. Now with the help of Kovar Systems General Manager, Mark Seidman here’s the practical side:
Know how many inquiries you need to get the enrollments you need to hit your goal. Here’s a simple formula that will tell you how many inquiries you’ll need. Let’s say that you have 102 students and that you want to grow to 150 in one year. That means you need to add exactly four net new students to your enrollment each month.
If you’re starting at 102 students and you want to add four this month, it’s obvious that your goal is to end the month at 106 students. So let’s look at the first month of this growth plan:
1) First, estimate how many students you expect will quit this month. Looking back over your recently history, let’s say that you estimate that 4 of your 102 students will likely quit this month. Before any new students enroll, this will drop you down to 98 students.
2) Next, determine the number of new enrollments you’ll need. With a goal to end the month with 106 students, this means you’ll need to add eight new students to hit your goal. (102 at the beginning of the month – 4 quits + 8 new students = 106 at the end of the month.)
3) Then, determine your inquiry conversion rate. Count the number of inquiries you’ve had in the last few months and then count the number of new students that have enrolled from those inquiries. The formula here is enrollments divided by inquiries = inquiry conversion rate.
4) Finally, divide the number of new students you need to enroll (8) by the inquiry conversion rate (40%) to determine the number of inquiries you’ll need. On a calculator, you would take 8 divided by .4 which would give you 20. This is the number of inquiries you’ll need to achieve your goal of ending the month at 106 students.
This may seem a little complicated, but it all makes sense when you apply it. Remember, you’re starting a month with 102 students and you want to get to 106 by the end of the month. If you generate 20 inquiries and 40% of these enroll, that results in 8 new students. If you then subtract the 4 that you anticipate will quit, you achieve your goal of ending the month with 106 students.
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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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