HOW TO GET A ROCKSTAR PERFORMANCE FROM YOUR MARTIAL ARTS BUSINESS TEAM

When you’ve got a booming, thriving business, your employees' performance is the key to maintaining that success. Jennifer Waters, the sales and systems sensei, shares her secret to getting a rockstar performance from her martial arts business team, which is: the daily huddle. These team meetings are important for so many reasons and Waters’ team meets for it every single morning.

Waters conducts this daily huddle every morning, with members from every team being present, either remotely or in-person. These meetings also have a specific format. They start with going over their sales for the day, which includes how many appointments are confirmed, who is coming in and teaching those lessons, and if they will be doing any introductory lessons or if they will just be out on the mat trying out the class. This helps to make sure the business is on target with the goals for the week or month. The next thing to look into during the daily huddle is retail: how much did you sell, and did you meet your retail goals. After this, Waters’ team wraps it up with upgrades or advanced training. They look into who needs to be nominated and who needs to be upgraded or go to advanced training.

While doing the sales, the team also does a piece on onboarding and retention as well. They focus on the students who are coming in for their first class on the mat to try it out, or those doing the introductory class. It is important to keep track of students who are still in their second, third or fourth group class, and they have been there for less than two weeks. It is critical to make sure that they have a really good experience out on the mat. Waters says that they actually greet those new students on their first, second, third or fourth lesson and help them to really get the knack of what it is like to be a student, which in turn keeps them longer. Their first experiences on the mat are crucial, so you have to make sure they have a great experience. On the retention side, some other things Waters’ team does is that they always keep up with which students need extra help, which students are having challenges at home or in school, and what their team can do to help them as their mentors.

Having this daily huddle lasts about fifteen to thirty minutes. After the daily team huddle, they have the instructors that come in later for an instructors meeting to go over curriculum with the assistant instructors or apprentice instructors.

There are many reasons why having this daily huddle is important. The main advantage is that doing this will improve the communication across your team. Especially since the bigger you get, the easier it is to lose that communication. Having a daily huddle also helps keep all the different teams or departments in the business stay updated with what is going on and what are the future goals the school is working towards.

This interconnectedness within the team, and the focus on helping students sincerely is the key to having a successful martial arts business.

Watch this video to find out more!