~Issue 1~
The
Journal The “Ki” to martial art business success
~Ted Banta~
Have an exciting dojo history? Want to share a success story? Email us at info@aikidoinstructors.com to be considered for an AIO featured interview! TB: On behalf of the Aikido Instructors Organization I am Ted Banta and I have the privilege and honor of interviewing Peter Bernath, Shihan, founder and chief instructor of Florida Aikikai. Bernath Sensei, thank you very much for your time today. AIO’s intention and objective is to speak with you to illustrate the history of your experiences as a dojocho and your path towards success.
TB: Bernath Sensei, how did Florida Aikikai begin? PB: It was 1980 and Yamada Sensei had been traveling to Florida to teach seminars for a number of years. Since I was his student at New York Aikikai, he asked me if I wanted to run a dojo for him in Florida. I said yes because it was an opportunity to teach Aikido as a career. When I arrived in Florida, I hadn’t really planned on staying, but here I am 20 years later. (continued on page 6)
The Keys to AIO Package 1 Instructor Interview: Peter Bernath How to join AIO
What’s in the AIO Issue 1
AIO Contact Information
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! O I A N I O J
Aikido Instructors Organization A business consulting group for Aikido Instructors by Aikido Instructors
Contact us to today for details on our new member special info@aikidoinstructors.com 732 -674-9753 www.aikidoinstructors.com
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Wh at ’s in thi s mont h’s AI O p ackage2 .
Does your Signage Describe your Service? How often do you drive by a store and say “Hmm;.I wonder what they sell?” Store names like Pat’s Gift Baskets and Helen’s Hair Salon are self explanatory. However, not all business names and/or their signage are as clear as the examples above. With that said, do you think individuals are more or less likely to visit a store that clearly states on their sign the service or goods they are offering? Chances are individuals will be more likely to recognize, remember and visit stores that have signage that is understandable to the general public.
attract not only individuals looking for Aikido, but also individuals looking to simply learn a martial art. Learn more about how signage can increase your dojo traffic on AIO Issue 1 DVD.
“AIKI..aiki… Say that again?”
How does this theory apply to Aikido dojos? Look at your sign. If you were uneducated about Aikido, would your sign attract someone looking to learn a martial art? If not, there are some simple changes that will
Giving Back: M arketi ng fo r you r d ojo th ro ugh Ch ari t abl e Even t s Hosting charitable events is a great way to attack several goals while giving back to the community. Charitable events increase the traffic of prospective students through your dojo doors, solidifies retention of current students, as well as provides for free advertisement of your business through press releases. The practice of Aikido is much more than on the mat training. By hosting charitable events, you are providing for your dojo opportunities to grow as a business while exposing others to the harmonious and giving nature of Aikido. The complete article on how to maximize dojo growth through charitable events is found on AIO’s Issue 1 DVD.
Aikido students coming together for a cleaner ocean!
Learn about charities in your community by reading your local newspaper. It is full of valuable information which will help make the charity you support meaningful to your members and local residents!
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W h a t’s in thi s mo n th’s AI O P a c k a ge c on t 2 . I m p r o v i n g Te l e p h o n e S k i l l s t o M a x i m i z e D o j o G r o w t h When a person calls your dojo, it is often the first contact they have with you or your students. Because of the importance of always putting your best foot forward, we recommend several telephone strategies to help you convey your dojo’s message clearly while creating the optimal opportunity for enrolling the caller in your classes. Over the next several months, AIO members will be learning about prospective student call scripts for adult and youth programs, as well as alternate ways to handle phone inquiries to generate positive appointments and new enrollments. Every person who calls your dojo is a potential student or knows someone who may benefit from aikido train-
ing. Interactions on the telephone are not simply for providing information about your schedule, classes, or location. Telephone conversations are the first step to welcoming a new student to aikido. It is an opportunity to gather information about the caller’s needs and to direct them in a structured way towards visiting your dojo or enrolling in an introductory program. On AIO’s package 1 DVD, you will find several articles on how to improve telephone skills within your dojo. If you allow others to answer the telephone, you will want to train them in these skills as well to maximize your results!
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Al s o f o u n d i n t h i s m o n t h ’s AI O p a c k a g e ! Dojo Tour Rick Stickles, Shihan of Aikido Schools of NJ welcomes AIO Members to tour his beautiful dojo.
Powerful Press Releases Learn how press releases can provide free and community friendly advertising for your dojo and charitable event.
Children’s Program Classroom Management Strategies: Positive reinforcers and logical consequences are discussed to aid instructors in managing children’s classes while maximizing learning. Drills & Games: Learn new drills & games in each AIO Package to help maximize learning in a fun-filled environment.
Your Questions Answered How to maintain retention and attract new students during a questionable economy.
AIO Contact Information Mailing Address: Aikido Instructors Organization, 2257 Bridge Avenue, Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742 Phone: (732) 674-9753 Fax: (732) 892-0220 Email: info@aikidoinstructors.com
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E volution of a Dojoc ho... TB: What were your plans for your dojo at its commencement? Was it full time or a part time dojo? PB: It was a full time dojo. I did two morning classes, a full evening schedule, and a full weekend schedule. We offered only adult classes at the start. There was another instructor here at the time, so we shared the dojo for about six months before he moved. In those days I did not know what I was doing with marketing or anything. I just had a sign out that said Florida Aikikai. People had no idea what our dojo taught. They probably thought I was selling Akita dogs or something. So our growth was dependant on just word of mouth for years. TB: How many students did you have at the beginning or within the first six months to a year? PB: When I first came down there was a bit of a dojo here already. There was about 15 students. After the other instructor moved onward, a bunch of the current students left as well, which is understandable. Students get used to their first instructors and will often follow them when they move to other dojos. So the student membership went down to just me, my wife, Penny, and a couple of people. After about 6 months, it just started growing slowly. We were located in the Dania area at that time. The location was pretty hidden which did not help grow the dojo. The dojo started doing better when I moved it up to Fort Lauderdale despite its flaws. The problems that I had in the be-
ginning were lack of air conditioning and fixed picture windows that faced west. With the sun beaming in, the place was like an oven. At the time I could not afford the rent, so I moved to a little building in the back of the YMCA in Fort Lauderdale. I stayed there for about three years. Unfortunately, that place was also not the right location. It had cement walls with a tin roof and two little windows. It was so hot that you could fry an egg on the mat. So, I would just come in there and wonder why no one was joining when it was 102 degrees in the dojo. The only students we had were real diehards. We really didn’t see solid growth until we moved into the Holiday Park Activity Center. This location was in the same building as a large gymnastic program. Because of this increase in traffic, I was able to draw a lot of kids from that exposure. It was a much nicer facility with showers and other amenities. Once moving there, we tripled our membership in a year and just kept growing. TB: So by improving your location you were able to increase your membership. PB: Yes. We had a better facility for people to train in as well as a better location in town. There were many more people coming around the dojo and I had much better visibility. I was able to advertise and do activities through the city, such as the city would send out fliers to the schools and communities about activities found at the YMCA. That helped as well. I also put up a sign on the front of the building, plus advertised in the yellow pages. Currently, most of our exposure, aside from the signage and the walk through traffic, is through the internet and our website.
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E vo l u tio n of a Doj o cho. .. TB: That was one of my next questions. What type of marketing did you do? I know you mentioned that you were able to distribute fliers through the city. You also mentioned yellow page ads & signage which worked well for you at the time. PB: We also did demos where we could hand out fliers. We would do fairs, parades and any little kind of get together. We did all that kind of stuff. I got up to a point where I had about 100 adults at one time. And then it settled down to somewhere around the 75 range. I also had a smaller kids program of around 30 students. That’s where it stayed for years. TB: What types of challenges did you have to overcome in the beginning? Obviously you mentioned you had some challenges with the location. By improving the location you increased your membership. What other challenges did you face in the early years?
been able to do it: Yamada Sensei, Kanai Sensei and others like them. But there were not a lot of Americans with schools at that time, so I was not even sure if I could make a living doing it. And then when I had kids I was really worried because I thought I would never be able to PB: A whole learning curve. I came down and I had a make a living doing this and maybe I should do somechip on my shoulder. I was Yamada Sensei ‘s student thing else. Around that time, I started to travel and teach which was important. I thought no one else knew anya lot of seminars. That helped to supplement my income. thing. I think it closed me off to a lot of things that I And, for the first 15 years I was down here, I had to supcould’ve learned and improved upon. I could’ve develplement my income with advertising work. oped people skills and learned to teach. In “0..as soon as I put I did that for a long time until it got to a the beginning I was young. I was trying to students on monthly point that I could not handle my clients improve my own aikido training and foauto dues payments, anymore because of deadlines and travelcused on getting stronger. I did not realize ing with aikido. So I made the switch about the difference between teaching and just my income almost 15 years ago to do aikido full time. As going up and demonstrating. Teaching doubled.” soon as I put my fulltime effort into the dojo isn’t showing them how strong you are or things grew big enough so that I can make a living doing how good you are. I used teach more for myself. I would what I love. demonstrate whatever I wanted and throw all over the place. Teaching this way, the dojo kept only the younger students and the diehards. And then later when I became more mature with my approach to teaching, I started beginners’ classes and children’s programs. I set up a format where people could learn more easily instead of just being thrown into advanced classes. So that is one example of a whole learning curve that happened in my experience as a dojocho. There was absolutely no money in the beginning and all I had was a 50 pound bag of rice, a rice cooker and a few cans of sardines. That is all I ate. But I was in the best shape of my life. I was down to around 135 pounds. I hadn’t been that since high school. So there were those times when I questioned whether I could really make a living owning a dojo. I knew the Japanese Shihan had
TB: At that time what membership options were available to your students? PB: Nothing. It was either cash or check on a monthly basis. TB: What do you offer now? PB: Now I do automatic withdrawal from either a credit card or a bank account. I usually take the first payment in check or cash because I give them a gi when they enroll. They also have to pay a registration fee. After the first month, the automatic withdrawal kicks in for their dues payments. I found that it helped a great deal because it provides commitment for people to train for at least three months so that they can see if they like it or not. And by having them financially set up this way, they
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E volution of a Dojoc ho... are more likely to give it their best effort in training. Most of the students wind up staying past their initial term. Also, I doubled my income as soon as I started doing that. What happened also was before people would go away for vacation or other activities and they didn’t pay their dues on time. Now people go away for trips, vacations, whatever and their dues are automatically paid. At times people would go missing from the dojo and, I would call them and say, “Look you haven’t shown up for class lately. Do you want me to cancel your membership?” and they would say, “No. I’ll be back next month so I would like to stay a member”. The automatic dues payment inspires students to return to training. So, anyway, as soon as I put students on monthly auto dues payments, my income almost doubled. TB: Do you use an agreement for the debit process? PB: I work through a billing company and they have forms that we fill out. The other form of payment I allow people to choose is a paid in full membership, but they have to pay six months in advance.
TB: Do you find people still pay cash? PB: I have a small contingent of people that for some reason or another do not like the automatic type of dues payment and they pay cash. I probably have about 10 people that use that method of dues payment. I can handle that many people to stay on top of with reminder emails before their membership expires. But when I had 100 students paying in cash/check, it was a nightmare trying to collect dues. I would walk into the dojo and see someone that I knew didn’t pay their dues and it would be a problem. They felt weird because they knew they were delinquent. It was really bad. TB: So this agreement structure provided for better relationships with you and your students. PB: Yes, it got me out of the whole payment of dues conversation. I don’t have to be a bill collector or hunt people down for payment. I can just say “This is the system that we have to pay dues.”, and this is that. I still work with people if someone comes to me and says I lost my job or that they are having problems with money. I will make arrangements with people when needed, but I do that on a case by case basis. TB: How many schools do you have? Do you have any satellite dojos? PB: I have one full time dojo. I used to have a satellite school up in Boca, but I was trying to teach at both places and it was too difficult to give enough time to each dojo. It takes a huge effort to build a new location. You really have to have dedicated people that are willing to help you. I didn’t have the people that I needed to make the satellite work at that time. Instead of having multiple locations, I decided to support any of my students in starting their own locations. I keep a close relationship with them and teach at their schools from time to time. They in turn support our seminars. TB: With that, what advice would you give to an aspiring Aikidoist who would like to start his own dojo? PB: To understand that it’s not going to happen overnight. Make sure you get into a situation that you can afford. If you have the money, you can open up the dojo in a storefront with
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E vo l u tio n of a Doj o cho. .. good exposure. Make sure you set up your dues as term agreements so that you get students committed for periods of time. My student, Emmanuelle, opened the same way I did. He became affiliated with the community center. The center helps to promote him and they have activities there that draws students in for other activities that are held at the same location. Getting into a community center is a cheap and easy way to get a dojo started. TB: You have had the privilege to train in dojos around the world. What are some things that you have seen that have impressed you over the years? I always admire a dojo that is well organized. I remember looking at Cincinnati’s dojo and being impressed with how they ran their dojo with a board of governors. Everyone there worked together to make the best decisions for the dojo. It was well thought out and really run like a business.
out. So now I have two people that help me tremendously. Bringing them on to help with classes and administrative work was a big help.
In addition, I had come down with diverticulitis, which made me cut back drastically with my traveling for awhile. It actually turned out to be a great thing because it made me sit back and say to myself “what do I want now”. I decided that I want to live a quieter and simpler life. I wanted to build the dojo so I don’t have to travel as much. I want to develop the students in my dojo. I want to develop my own aikido. I want to see where “What an incredible this aikido takes me. I want to see how it growth tool aikido continues to develop me as a human being, can be if you truly as a person. I am just realizing more and more how incredible this art is. And what it use it.” can do for you. What an incredible growth tool aikido can be if you truly use it.
I admire different dojos for different things. New York Aikikai has so much activity and life going on. You have Yamada Sensei and Sugano Sensei teaching there, and there are people that have been training for 45 to 50 years. There are uchideshi and it’s always hopping with something going on. It is also interesting to see someone, like Shibata Sensei, who runs a very tight organization. He has a loyal group of people who are very dedicated to him. The way he lives is very sincere and it’s quite simple. It’s just aikido.
And then I look at other places like Skip’s (Jersey Shore Aikikai). And I think that Skip really took the bull by the horns. He found out how to make the dojo something that you could support yourself and your family on. I feel like him making this happen was a huge thing. So I decided to take a trip up there to see him a couple of years ago. I spent a few days watching him run his dojo. I learned a lot during that weekend. It helped me tremendously. Aikido is something that has been up and down in my life. At times it has been great and at times I was consumed with it. It was the hardest when I was trying to run the whole dojo on my own without help. I was trying to teach all the classes and I was also traveling to teach seminars. After a seminar I was running back to the dojo and I felt guilty about being away. After a while I burned myself
TB: And how do your assistants help you in the dojo? PB: They handle all the administration of the dojo as well as teach classes assigned to them. They keep track of the billing and the students’ information. I also have a student who has done an awful lot of work in developing a new web site for us. It shows much more of what Florida Aikikai is about. Our old website was more of an information site about aikido. Now there are more pictures throughout it, explanations about the beginners program and kids program. It talks about how we incorporate Japanese culture into class. A prospective student gets a much better feel for our dojo with this site. I am lucky. We are a very good team in that we all work well together. TB: And currently are they paid administrators?
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E volution of a Dojoc ho... PB: I do a combination of dues reductions so they do not have to pay dues, as well as one person I pay on a weekly basis because she heads up the administrative side of the dojo. In addition, the dojo holds income generating activities for them. For instance, we hold a children’s summer camp that is all summer long. My assistants earn a percentage of the camp proceeds as compensation for their work at the dojo. If they bring in students and ideas that generate profits for the dojo, I’m going to share and be generous about it. This way they will be more excited about generating more new leads and about working at the dojo. I am happy to have them as a part of my team and happy to help reimburse them for their efforts. TB: Speaking of your children’s program, you have an active and well attended children’s program. What are its essential features? PB: I modeled our kids program with some things that I saw at Skip’s dojo. I used to have it set out like an adult program where each color belt would have to learn certain techniques. The problem being that when you have a mixed class of purple belts, yellow belts, greenbelts and all these students together, each of them have different techniques that they needed to learn. It made it very difficult to do the class. So I took this idea that I saw from Skip which was to do one technique for a month but it worked better for me to keep the same technique for two months. So if that technique was ikkyo, one of the little kids will grab ikkyo from a shoulder grab. Then the older kids are still doing ikkyo but they are doing it out of
shomenuchi. But by picking one technique, I can keep the whole class working on the same thing. Then when they go to test, we just test them on whatever we were working on for those two months. It allows them to really get a more thorough understanding of the technique and it’s easier for me to run the class. We also incorporate Japanese language into the class, such as body parts, counting and all of the aikido movements. TB: What are your age groups for the children’s classes? PB: For the children’s classes we have classes for 5 to 7 year olds, and then 8 to 15 year olds. And I have a separate teens class as well on Friday which is just for teenagers. TB: How many children’s classes do you have? PB: We have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, two classes each of those days. Friday is the teens class and Saturday is a mixed kids class. TB: And do you have assistants that help you teach those classes? PB: I have several adults who co-teach the class. They are able to teach the classes if I am not there. If I am on schedule to teach, they are there to assist me with warm ups and other portions of class. There are always two of us on the mat if not four to five teachers during class. TB: You had mentioned something earlier that I wanted to ask you about it. You ran a summer camp for children. I believe it was a nine week summer camp class.
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E volution of a Dojoc ho... PB: Yes, we did not know if the program would work or not work. I was like “Hmmm. Should I even do this?” So we decided to try it. We took out an ad in the local parenting magazine. It is a free circular that goes to all the local doctors, etc. So we purchased three ads over a three month period. And then I hit all the schools with advertising.
every day and they were there most of every time as well. We also had an artist who does a lot of Japanese arts and crafts stuff and she came in everyday and would do art projects with the kids. A few parents whose children attended camp also helped out during the day. So I had enough help.
During this past year, my building was being renovated and we had to relocate to a different location that was out of the way and difficult to get to. It hurt us drastically. By the time we moved back to the dojo I only had seven kids in the program. Despite that, we ended up having 30 kids each week in the camp. Those kids then fed into our regular kids classes. Now it’s December and we were able to go from 7 kids in June to 58 now, so we are happy that it is growing again.
The main draw for camp was the website. We made the camp a big focus of the site. Students were enrolling right on the website through our automatic payment option via the internet. Half of the parents didn’t even call us to enroll. They just signed up on the website.
“That is an increase of around 100 students in six months.”
TB: That is quite impressive to gain 50 new students into just your kids program in six months. PB: It has grown a lot, but I had to have committed people to be able to do that. The camp helped to generate interest in the kids program as well. TB: What kind of help did you have for the camp? Thirty kids is a lot to handle by yourself. PB: For camp, my assistants, Keith and Helen, had to arrange their work schedule so that one of them could be with me during the morning or the afternoon. So I was there
TB: What did your daily activities consist of at camp?
PB: The kids were there from 9:00am to 3:00pm, and when they first came in we had an orientation. Because I had an adult class to teach from 9:00am to 10:00am I had to teach that class first. So Keith and Helen would take the kids and review what we did the day before, put lunches away, and talk about the day’s activities. Sometimes Keith would take the kids for a run in the park (our dojo is a part of a community area with an accessible public playground area). Then we would do an hour and ½ class usually a big long morning class lots of ukemi and into basic technique. After the class we had a snack time and then we completed an arts and crafts activity. Then we would break for lunch. After lunch they could go back and finish some arts and crafts or back on the mat for afternoon class. We would incorporate a lot of Japanese cultural activities and aikido games. TB: Do you plan to continue this format for next year? PB: Yes. I think we will have a much larger base to draw from this year. The camp should be at least double the size next year. I expect 50 to 60 kids a week which will make it a lot more profitable. TB: What were some of the challenges that you had to overcome during camp?
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E volution of a Dojoc ho... PB: Well, there were a number of things. For one thing, I was taking in a lot of underprivileged kids. I gave them a discounted rate. We also had some kids with some emotional problems. They were great kids, but from time to time we had to talk to them. The biggest challenge that I had personally was that I wanted this to be an aikido camp where the kids started to get an appreciation and respect for a dojo. So in the beginning, especially because I did not have that many of my own students to show the way, I had to teach them how the dojo was different from a gym. After the first month everybody got the hang of it. When new kids came into the camp, they fell in line. Some of my more rambunctious kids were a little tougher. At times I would have to take them aside and remind them that they had to improve their behavior and they did. It was really cool to see that. TB: That sounds challenging but also rewarding. You talked about how you increased your kids program from 7 kids to 58 kids in six months. How did your adult program fair with the drastic move out of the dojo during the community center renovation? PB: When the community center renovated their building where our dojo is located, I had to move the dojo to this other park called Riverside Park. It was very a hidden location and difficult to get to. The city was putting new sewers all around it so we had obstacles everywhere we turned. Anyway, my student base fell off drastically and I was down to about 40 adults and about 7 kids by the time we finally moved back to our permanent location. Since then I have doubled the adult program and much more than doubled the kids program since being back. Right now I have somewhere around ninety adults and around 58 kids. That is an increase of around 100 students in six months. TB: Congratulations. That is an incredible six months.
get more physically fit. Or maybe the student wants to learn how to protect themselves or a half a dozen other reasons for why they want to learn a martial art. And then I sat back and really just decided that I should have more students than this. I can do better than this. It was just a realization. So I started to run things more like a business. I always ran the dojo as a business because I always had rent to pay. I just got more on top of things. I had to be there make sure that the classes were covered and taught correctly. I had to make sure the students were being taken care of and that we met their needs. Doing all of that helped a great deal. In addition, my team and I continue to evolve in our methods to improve the dojo. TB: Bernath Sensei, thank you so very much for sharing your story with us today. We know how busy your schedule is and we greatly appreciate your time. Your success and life experiences will help many other aspiring dojocho. PB: You are very welcome and thank you for featuring my dojo for the first edition of AIO Journal.
Keep students coming back with retention call scripts
PB: Thank you.
How to get a caller to walk through the dojo
TB: Can you elaborate on how having a business mentality has helped you grow your dojo?
The benefits of offering Introductory Pro-
PB: When I was younger I felt like I was very good at aikido and students should come to me to learn. It took me a long time to get knocked off my little pedestal and realize that nobody cares if you are good or great. Many of them do not know what the aikido is about and they don’t know who you are in the world of aikido. They just want to learn a martial art, understand a bit about Japanese culture and
Kids Teaching Strategies & Games
doors
grams
Creative Internal Referral Programs Is a billing company right for my dojo And Much More!!!