How to Grow Your Taekwon-Do Business?

Part 1

Grand Master Tran Trieu Quan (former President of the ITF) would on occasion release a “President’s Message”, an articles on different aspects of Taekwon-Do. In the article from 2006 he spoke of how Taekwon-Do schools should be run and of how the role of the Instructor in that school must go beyond just knowledge of Taekwon-Do:

A Taekwon-Do school is a business

Taekwon-Do school owners have to wear two hats: They are, first and foremost, teachers.

But they also have to be business people.

The philosophy of Taekwon-Do, as developed by General Choi Hong Hi, teaches us to strive to live our lives based on principles such as integrity and respect for others. So an ITF teacher would certainly not try to take advantage of his students in any way. On the other hand, ITF teachers are offering a quality product, a product that is not available elsewhere, and that product has a certain value. Our students recognize that value and are willing to pay a fair price for it.

In our new Project we are covering not only the physical part of the Taekwon-Do training (patterns, exercises), but also other aspects that are very important and still there aren’t many materials on this. 
So – to start we are presenting you few ideas from Master Jerzy Jedut VII DAN and Sabum Jaroslaw Wojcik IV Degree on how to grow your Taekwon-Do school.

At the Black Belt Project we believe that the success of Taekwon-Do is directly tied to the success and growth of its instructors and their clubs. 

The President’s message is worth reading on…

Ideally, an ITF teacher should make teaching Taekwon-Do his career. If he can make a decent living from teaching, he will have fewer financial worries and will be able to devote himself full-time to Taekwon-Do. As a result, he will be better able to serve his students and his community.

So, although teaching Taekwon-Do is a means to the realization of our vision of a better world, this does not mean that Taekwon-Do schools should not make a profit. In fact, it is essential that schools make a profit if they want to continue to operate!

Thus, school owners should charge fees that are in line with the quality of the courses they offer. It is important to differentiate our ITF Taekwon-Do schools from the competition by offering the best value for the money. Resist the temptation to participate in a price war with your competitors. Instead, concentrate on improving quality.

It is important that the working conditions for school owners and for their employees be interesting, and the salaries for teaching should also cover preparation time. Remember, if you want to keep up to date and make your courses interesting for your students, two hours should be devoted to preparation for each hour of teaching.

I believe that the salary for an ITF teacher with a 4th degree Black Belt should be the equivalent of the salary of a physical education teacher with a Bachelor’s degree. Similarly, a teacher with a 7th degree Black Belt should be in the same salary range as a professor with a Ph.D. This comparison should be kept in mind when you do your planning.

In order for a school to be profitable, the school owner must be an entrepreneur. You need to use business development principles and methods, planning and setting goals and defining action plans to reach your goals. It is particularly important to handle your finances properly. Courses on these subjects are often included in adult education programs.

It can be very interesting to be your own boss and make your own business decisions and the potential is great but to be successful you have to be well prepared. It is certainly not a 9 to 5 job. However, you do set your own hours, which means more time for your family. Very often family members are also involved, so everyone works together and shares in
the success of the family business.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you will find this information useful. More will be coming up soon.

Feel free to take a look at this few simple flat ladder exercises that may be a good idea for your next warming-up !