Whether they are in Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, or MMA Millions of martial arts fans dream of becoming full time martial arts instructors, getting away from the daily grind of their regular, dull day job and
doing something they really love. Whether or not it is feasible to make the jump from student to instructor really comes down to the dollars and cents. So how much can you really expect to make as a martial arts instructor?
According to Salary.com’s Salary Wizard average annual base salary for fitness and martial arts instructors in the US averages between $38,000 to $69,000 per year. However keep in mind that when starting out you will probably be beginning at the bottom end. Pay does vary quite a bit depending on where you work. For example base pay in South Florida is estimated at $46,668, while those in Los Angeles, California can expect a median annual income of around $51,970. On the bright side Salary.com does go on to show that when taking into consideration benefits you could be looking at an additional $20-30,000 per year.
Though you must remember that a big percentage of martial arts schools and MMA training centers offer a very low base salary combined with performance related pay and commissions that will make up the bulk of your compensation. Often this is a combination of new sign ups, residual income from students enrolled and bonuses for the profitability of the whole school. This means that until you have built up a good pipeline of students and have honed your sales skills and pitch you probably will not be hitting your income goals. If you do not have a sales background you will definitely want to read up on how to make the best pitches, seek out new promotion ideas and even attend sales seminars.
Of course once you have become a successful instructor you will naturally want to continue your progress by stepping up to manage a martial arts school or MMA gym yourself or even eventually own your own dojo. While you may find this much more profitable, it is great to spend some time as an instructor first to really analyse what works and what doesn’t before you go into business for yourself. Though once you open your own chain of schools the sky is the limit when it comes to rolling in the money!
No matter how big your martial arts school or MMA training center is it has it’s revenue limits. Even if you have really tapped into the best marketing
strategies, have pumped up same customer sales and are even drawing martial arts fans and MMA competitors from across the country you can only fit in so many students. That means you have to expand your martial arts empire and branch out with new schools in order to really hit the big bucks. But where are the best places to open new martial arts schools.
While you may at first be tempted to go as far a field as possible with a new school in order to expand your reach and market as far as possible you also have to consider the intricacies and demands of launching and initial management of a new school. Even if you take a back seat and are no longer involved in day-to-day instructing you will want to be there to make sure everything goes smooth and will likely have to jump in when things come up, which they will. So with this in mind consider that you may want to begin branching out with schools that are closer to home base in order to make management and control easier. This will also help you develop stronger brand recognition and make further expansion easier.
Finding hot markets for martial arts schools and MMA training centers is actually very easy. In the US the top areas are of course South Florida, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. However these already have too many schools in many locations that are scrambling to stand out and fight over market share. These may only make sense if you already have made a serious name for yourself and can attract fighters and students from across the country and globe. Seeking out new growing markets is simple using basic statistics. These should include areas that are seeing upward trends in population and jobs as well as by analysing pay-per-view figures for fighting sports and events like boxing, wrestling and the UFC.
That said, going up head to head with competitors in the martial arts and MMA training gear industry is not always a bad thing. In fact business broker experts often recommend that the best place for a business is directly in front or next to the competition. This is because it can indicate that there is already a developed market there for your martial arts business and you could easily feed off of your competitors existing business and marketing budget.
The MMA Zone and The Burn Machine Ink Deal!

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