BJJ Academy Dreams: Start Up Considerations
BJJ Academy Dreams: Start Up Considerations
So you’ve been training jiu-jitsu long enough that thoughts of starting your own academy – making your passion into your profession – have begun to infiltrate your waking dreams. Welcome to the club. Building an academy of your very own, a place that you’ve designed and put thought into every detail, is an exciting prospect. But it can also be intimidating… and downright scary. Where do you even start? Will you be successful?
For nearly 15 years, I’ve trained at and visited hundreds of different academies, all over the world. I’ve taken note about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve created this multi-part series called “BJJ Academy Dreams” to give you tips and ideas that will help your academy thrive… so you can share your love of jiu-jitsu to others.
If you haven’t read the first part – BJJ Academy Dreams: Location is Everything – take a moment to do that, then read on.
Initial Capital
As the saying goes: “it takes money to make money.” As with nearly any other business, you need some initial capital to cover start-up costs. The amount of capital you have at your disposal will put constraints on the size and location of your academy, as well as furnishing and interior design.
You can start an academy on a shoe-string budget. Your most basic needs are mats and a place to put them. You can often find mats second-hand, and you can get creative about a location if you can’t afford to rent out a full space (more on cost-cutting ways to make your dream happen in a later blog). However, the drawbacks to starting with a minimal budget is that it will limit how much and how fast your academy can grow, as well as who your clientele will be. A nicer academy will invariably attract students with greater disposable income, who will be more consistent with their tuition payments.
The fact is, the more capital you have, the better. If you don’t already have a robust savings account, consider bringing on a partner or investor, or looking into a small business loan.
Negotiating Your Lease
If you’ve read part one of this series, you’ll already have considered possible locations. Narrow down your search to at least two or three options, and make a comparison chart of each of them. This will arm you with the information you need to negotiate wisely with the landowners, and secure a spot that meets all or most of your priorities at terms that are favorable to you and your business.
Know that a lease is always negotiable. Most commercial leases will be for three to five years; in order to secure a long-term tenant, your landlord will typically be flexible in regard to rental amount, security deposit, potential months free (especially if any construction is required), and non-structural or structural alterations to the premises. Use the fact that you have options. If your second choice is cheaper but doesn’t have this or that, you might be able to sway your first choice to come down on their rental terms, or even your second choice to agree to the alterations that will make them your first.
In negotiating a lease, make sure you enlist the aid of good real estate lawyer to go over the terms and ensure you won’t find yourself in a sticky situation down the road. Hopefully you’ll hit the ground running, but things happen. Here is a good list of “mistakes” to avoid during this process.
Construction and Design
Once you’ve chosen a location and finalized the lease, your next step is to set up your academy. Always anticipate that this will take longer than you expect it to. Always.
Unless your location comes turnkey or your landlord has agreed to structural alterations, you’ll likely have to do – or contract – some minor construction. These might include construction related to bathrooms, showers, changing rooms, water stations, seating, cubbies, etc. If you decide to do elevated mats (which you should, because it both looks nice and adds some “bounce” to the mats), you’ll need a good carpenter to ensure it lasts and is structurally sound throughout.
Remember: if you’re doing any kind of construction inside your academy, make sure whoever you hire is licensed and bonded. I subscribe to Murphy’s First Law: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” A licensed and bonded handyman will provide financial protection for anything that might go wrong in the construction process.
Insurance and Software
Because Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art, it is incredibly important that you have good insurance. Although there isn’t necessarily any striking involved in BJJ, accidents do happen (as you should know by now). People will get hurt. As a business with a “store front”, you will also be susceptible to theft and break-ins. You need to make sure you’re covered in the case of such incidents. Not every insurance provider will be cover a martial arts business, but there are those out there that do provide reasonable quotes for general liability and accident coverage. As with any insurance, the cheapest option is not always the best. Keep that in mind.
You will also want to invest in a billing and customer management software. Despite your academy being a community, where you can train and hang out with all your friends… it’s still a business. You need to ensure that all your students’ payments are being successfully processed; that you’re notified when they don’t, so that you can follow up; that you have some way to collect contact information from potential students, so you can manage those leads; that everyone is signing a waiver before they step on the mats. Some software even goes above and beyond all that, providing an interface for scheduling and check-ins, as well as mass email or text capabilities, so you can quickly and efficiently inform your students about schedule changes or events. There are a lot of options out there, here are a few.
Being a business owner – and a successful one at that – entails having to deal with a lot of the nitty gritty, not-so-fun stuff. You’re going to have to be flexible, adaptable, and patient, because not everything is going to run smoothly all of the time. Or even half of the time. The best things in life are not easily won, but with a little bit of knowledge and foresight, you’ll get there.
Don't forget to read the first part of this series: