Have A Great Martial Arts Gym Staff
This is crucial as you grow your gym. You need good people to help you as you can’t do everything on your own in the long run.
Your martial arts gym staff members are the people who represent you and your gym’s brand and core values on a day-to-day basis. A lot of times they are the first person the prospect will meet.
When I opened my gym, I was a real jack-of-all-trades. After unlocking the doors in the morning, I did everything until I locked them again at night. Doing everything yourself is OK when you’re starting out, but eventually it becomes exhausting and prevents you from growing your gym.
Without good staff, you’ll never scale your business – or take a vacation. Having to cancel classes to go to a tournament or hope for a national holiday to have a day off sucks.
Don’t worry if you are still in the start-up phase and run ragged with endless jobs. You can use my system to fix this.
How great staff help you achieve your goals
As a gym owner, you need to get rid of the menial day-to-day chores so you can focus on growing your business. It’s hard to make sure all the essentials covered and still market and grow your gym. These unskilled jobs are the first tasks you need to pass on to your staff – things like opening and closing the gym, cleaning, basic repairs, putting up photos, handing out flyers and so on.
When you delegate the SOPs you will see how much more smoothly the gym can be run and your stress levels will drop. Spread them out so you are not doing everything – and neither is anyone else.
When you have more help, put someone in charge of customer service so you won’t be the one having to deal with every email, phone call or minor issue. This will also speed up the replies to the students. Often when people get swamped, following up on service emails is one of the last things to get done.
By having a person dedicated to that task, you will see an increase in student satisfaction and retention. This also gives you more time to walk around the gym and interact with your students. The more smiling helpful staff members you have, the better the ambiance.
Remember, your staff are a direct representation of your brand. They relay your message and core values to your prospects and students. Have them wear team gear while teaching and always be courteous and helpful.
How to hire the right people
Please don’t make the mistake of hiring based on technical skill alone. Focus on character traits that you feel are important.
The worst staff members are those who are genius at something specific, but lack people skills and have a lazy attitude. Soft skills can’t always be taught – people either have them or they don’t. Choose cheerful, loyal people with potential and train them up in any specifics they need. They will be eager to learn.
Traits to look for when hiring
Look for people with a positive attitude. This is a big one. Negative people who complain all the time need not apply.
If you’re considering someone you know already, make sure they are known as a friendly person around the gym. See how they interact with other students and prospects on a daily basis.
Another biggie to look for is honesty. Would you trust them to watch your kids or hold onto money for you? The last thing you need is a dishonest person working for you and your brand. If your team is going to gel together then mutual trust is paramount.
How do they come across when you meet them? Are they easy to get along with and fun to be around? What does your gut instinct tell you about them? No doubt students will feel that way too. You don’t have time to train a loner or a bad ass who has no people skills.
How to train people up
Once you have your candidates, it’s down to you to train them to become a valuable part of your gym, either as an instructor or staff member.
Firstly, have everything written down. This should explain everything that needs doing and how you want it done – either in terms of running your facility or running your classes.
You have to be very detailed and clearly break down everything you want to be done, how, when and by whom. Don’t leave any of it to interpretation.
Have two core manuals at your gym – an instructor manual that covers your classes, plus an operations manual that covers how your facility needs to be run.
Your instructor manual needs to detail not only the specifics of what you want taught but also the manner in which you want your classes run. This is vital to maintain the integrity of what you teach. Every instructor wants to teach what they like and that’s not always what beginner students need.
Your operations manual will include the daily and monthly SOPs covered earlier, plus initial consultation forms, accident reports, etc…
If you’re wanting to grow your academy, I’d recommend starting with a review and plan for your business. Click Here To Apply To Work With
Also, please check out one of my blog posts here.