I don't know where you are planning to open your school, but I know that the karate school my son goes to is pretty much the only one in our area and they do quite well, he even has a waiting list. I think it all depends on your location. Don't let your family talk you out of it, if this is your dream, and you feel good about it, go for it, and if it ends up not working out, at least you tried, if you don't try, you'll always wonder what could have been. Good Luck!!

it really depends on several factors. one of them is location, but the most important is how you run the school. if you are trying to open a traditional school, you may struggle at first getting students. a lot of young children (and their parents) don't like how intense traditional schools can be. if you open a sparring school, with the goal of sending people to competitions for kumite and kata (or whatever else), then you might get some pretty good interest. finally, you can do the old sell-out black belt factory type of school, it's very popular but very useless. some of those schools get hundreds of students! i have been to a thriving traditional school (kung fu), a traditional school that is barely afloat (isshin ryu), and a competition dojo that is doing immensely well (shito ryu). the key is to be consistent in your training, steadfast in your dojo's values and principles, and you have to be a really nice and understanding person, while being very strict on students of all ages... and their parents. you can make plenty of money if your dojo does well.

My first reaction would be to say, "They are right and it is a weak source of income. At worst, you may end up compromising the integrity of your style for the sake of trying to make a living." (Some martial arts schools are notorious for handing out gradings for money instead of when the student demonstrates the required skill.) However, you now know what you are up against. You have plenty of time to prepare. Study marketing, business and the other martial arts schools. Ask yourself, "What can I do differently to succeed where others have failed?" If this is your passion then pursue it with all your heart. You may get lucky and discover the magic formula for building a kick-ass martial arts school. You may fail. No big deal. You will still learn alot of stuff about martial arts / building a business and you may find some other avenue of success, not exactly what you were first chasing but just as good or better (eg. mail order training videos - but try to keep your mind open, there's always something else to look at.) I used to think I could do any job and then follow my passion in my spare time. It isn't working. My job takes up too much of my time. Follow your passion with all your heart, and hopefully you'll find a way of making an income out of it. If you want to start a martial arts school then go for it - practise martial arts, study marketing, accounting, how to build a business, how to teach and how to train others to teach, and whatever else you need to know. Like I say, even if the school idea falls over, you'll still have a valuable knowledge base in things you are enthusiastic about. The biggest mistake is to become an expert in something you don't enjoy, because then others will always want you to do that instead. Study hard, have fun, good luck and, most importantly, KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! You don't want to miss good opportunities that present themselves.

If it is what you want to do for a career go for it, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. As for weak income, some yes, some no. I've seen MA schools do extremely well, and others not so well, or even fail. It depends on area, your marketing, and performance as a teacher. People sometimes think only about income, and making alot of money is a very nice thing, but the wrong reason to choose a career.

The answer is it depends on: - Your business skills - Your teaching ability - Your personality - Your martial art skills - Where you will have your studio - The style you teach The first is the heart and soul of running a successful school. You need to be able to balance your income and expenses. If you need a small business loan, you need to be able to develop and present a business plan to loan officers or grant award boards. You need to be exquisitely aware of the legal liabilities and insurance costs associated with a martial arts school. You need to understand advertising and marketing. Second, not everyone is a good or even adequate teacher. I have met many black belts who are fantastic at doing but crappy at teaching. You need to be able to develop lesson plans, learn how to manage a class where the students are all at different levels of ability and knowledge, and learn how to connect to your students so that you use their best learning mode for maximum effect. Third, the personality and attitude you have directly affect the traffic you will see in your school. Fourth, you gotta know your art backwards and forwards. Nothing shatters a student's confidence in his teacher faster than asking questions the teacher can't answer rapidly. Next, location, location, location. Enough said, I think. Last, martial arts are not immune to "flavor of the month" syndrome. A popular movie or TV show can spike up interest in a given art (MMA for example). Now, it's not to say that it can't be done, but you GOTTA be aware that it takes a LOT of sweat and sacrifice to make a studio work as a primary income source. Many studio operators I have met have day job that pays the bills. UPDATE Here is a link to a pretty good instructor's guide: http://www.arnis.org/downloads/instructor.pdf It was written for American Kenpo practitioners who are studying the Kevin and Eric Lamkin's Eliter Fighter System but the core material applies to anyone who wants to teach any martial art. I suggest you read this and see how your current instructor applies the principals in the manual.

I think your parents may be right. Around here many have opened and all are closed. But I have no idea how they ran their business's.

To be honest with you, I personally would't go to college if that was my intent. I'd put my money and efforts into the business. College is great and it's necessary if you want a great job working for someone else. A self-employed person doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, by showing them a diploma. It's a different world. If your intent is to get a great job working for someone else then by all means go to college. If you want to start your business in martial arts you should be concentrating more on martial arts and taking SOME courses in small business but a degree isn't necessary. Familiarize yourself with the basics of small business ownership. You can always hire an accountant, you don't need to be one. This is just my opinion.

I got my second degree black belt at age 18 in 1977, started teaching, and have been doing so ever since. I have always been able to cover all expenses, but I have never been able to make much money ... so I have had several other second businesses, since 1994 I have been designing & writing software for the money, while my martial arts business is what I do because it feels good & right & gives me a deep satisfaction. I have been in and out of many other martial arts schools in several countries. I have seen some that rake in the money so fast they frequently need new rakes!!! These sorts of schools are usually over full with classes having up to 40 students with the instructor running 3 or 4 classes every day. While good for the school's bank account, this is not in the student's best interest. I refuse to teach a class with more than 10 students because with more than 10, my time with each student becomes what I feel is insufficient ... this, of course, keeps my school in a low income category, but my students learn and progress very quickly. Other things to consider are what you want your students to become, which students you accept, and exactly how you base your lessons ... a rapid black belt factory that accepts anyone & runs the students to a minimal level then sends them into the world, may be good for the finances of the instructor, but does very little for either the student or the art. There is a Tibetan expression, "Every day we get further from birth and closer to death, what can we do that will continue even after we are gone?" ... We can teach how to learn and how to teach so that the lessons themselves and the "spirit" of the art will live on as the students become the next generation of teachers. Many martial arts instructors just teach how to do ... I prefer to teach how to think, how to learn, & how to teach ... then it is just a matter of giving my students a few concepts & ideas mixed with a few demonstrations and soon my students are teaching each other as I merely guide them into selective lesson sets. In every one of my standard three hour classes, they start by learning something new and by the end of the class they have passed the test of the day and have been able to "teach it back to me!" This is a huge turn off to the student who only wants a collection of combat tournament trophies but is a great inspiration to students who are more dedicated to the martial health science aspects. __________ There are many other great answers here that give great advice to a would be business owner, so I will not bother repeating their wisdom ... just consider that in most cases, a martial arts school can make either large amounts of money by focusing on profit, or large amounts of excellent grand masters by focusing on lesson content, but seldom both ... ask yourself if you want to do this for your own financial gain or do you want to do this to keep ancient wisdom alive and thriving ...

Several excellent answers... Follow your dream and do not be dissuaded. What good is a stable income if what you are spending the majority of your time doing does not inspire nor nurture happiness?

If the market you're looking to corner is not already saturated in your area, I would say that statement is not true.

In most traditional schools you can,t even think about teaching untill you reach at least a fourth dan. The modern rec. schools often allow first dans to start schools and this has been a great problem for the martial arts, which has degraded them from a serious undertaking to simply a passtime activity. Teaching is not for everyone and most traditional schools do lnot make a lot of money, most instructors have other jobs in order to make a living.

Don't let anyone deter you from your dreams...when your out of college you make the decision based on research you would need to do in order to get a business loan...many well to do people with dreams were told they were going to fail by family and friends...

You can also go to martialktalk.com They have a school management section. There are many MA's at that site who have their own schools. Some do teach in YMCA's and such, but some also do it as a living. If your heart is there, I'm sure you can do it. You might (maybe) have to work a full-time job and teach part-time for awhile.