Give The Customer

From a reader:

"So you're closing your dojo because of dwindling class size, but you say you might reopen and teach a different art. Why do you think that would make things work out differently?"

Excellent question! 
Here's why:

1. I have limited myself with regards to demographics. In the current jujitsu class, I primarily market two men and women who are business professionals. Contrary to the popular demographic which is 18 to 25 years old, and wanting to do MMA.

Also, I suck at teaching children jiu-jitsu. I can teach them how to do it, but I can't make it fun enough for them to want to come back on a consistent basis. And teaching children the martial arts is the one tried and true method of keeping class sizes up. I am pretty good at teaching kids karate. 

2. Because of part 1 above, I never fully embraced changing my marketing methods. I was content to have the free Facebook page and a half-hearted website and that's all. I failed to look into how to get Google reviews for my studio. That mistake will not be repeated.

3. My market is richer in karate / taekwondo schools, but not so much jiu-jitsu. In fact, a couple of other jiu-jitsu based studios have tried and folded in the area in the past few years.  My market demographics like karate based arts.  Gotta teach what will sell.