In the early 2010s, multi-year contracts were the norm for cell phone carriers. They locked consumers into devices and plans with heavy financial penalties if they ever wanted out early. 

This also became common in the fitness industry, especially among martial arts academies, larger chain gyms and fitness centers.

Customer contracts can provide security for companies, as guaranteed revenue relieves the anxiety that all of your patrons will up and leave you out of business, one day. 

You’ve probably adopted this model as a martial arts school owner, and we don’t blame you. We did the same thing.

You’ve invested your entire life in martial arts. You’ve put every last penny into your first school. Maybe you’re even sleeping in the janitor’s closet to make it all work like Amal Easton.

When a new student walks through your doors, you don’t want to lose them. Your livelihood and your family’s well-being depend on your students sticking around. Everyone’s counting on you. 

You also know the transformative power of martial arts, and you want to make an impact. You might think you can’t do that in a day, or a week or month--you might think you need 6 months or more. So once you get them on the hook, why not lock them down? 

The problem with contacts is that they assume your student will want an excuse to leave. By taking away the choice, they don’t give your school to truly demonstrate its real impact. 

A contract alternative

In 2012, our owner Eliot Marshall was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience when he heard an advertisement for Ting Mobile. Ting was one of the first players to disrupt the standard contract model used by the major carriers. 

Rather than lock customers into a long-term commitment, they gave them the freedom to choose. No contracts. Month-to-month. 

Offering their customers a choice sent a message that they were a different kind of company, one that genuinely cared about their customers.

Rather than operate from a fear-based perspective of losing their customers, or focusing purely on profit, they choose a different path. They put people first. 

“Listening to that advertisement,” Eliot says, “I realized I was a hypocrite. We were treating our students at Easton no better than cell phone clients.” 

He knew we needed to shift our focus from money to people. If students value their experience at Easton, why were we locking them into a contract? 

Would you want to stay in a relationship because the price of leaving is too costly? It means so much more when you have a choice.

At Easton, instead of a contract, we have our students sign an agreement that states they’ll give us 30 days notice prior to cancellation, and we even offer to give you your money back if you purchase the trial month, try at least 8 classes, and don’t want to continue. 

When you believe in your product month over month, you don’t need to lock someone in who doesn’t see that value. 

Making the shift

It wasn’t easy to change our business model. But a leader owns it when he stumbles down the wrong path. So we committed to doing right by our students.

“People first” is the impetus behind Easton’s growth in the last decade: 4000+ members at seven schools, with more than 6 million in gross revenue and 1 million in profit. 

At Easton, it’s not uncommon for our students to tell us that if we raised the tuition price to $1000/month, they would find a way to make it work.

That’s the goal. Care so much about your students that they choose you no matter what.

Maybe you’ve already eliminated contracts from your academy’s practice, or maybe your business model still relies on them. 

Whether you make the shift now, later or never, we feel morally obligated to share this vital piece of information that’s helped us succeed, earn long-term loyalty and build one amazing academy after another. 

You can do the same and probably in less than a quarter of the time it took us. In the end, success hinges on how you do things on and off the mats. 

Luckily, we’ve got you covered on both ends. We’ve synthesized everything we’ve learned in 25 years of operating martial arts academies into one, 6-month course. Check out our Complete Affiliate Academy Curriculum to learn how to:

• Scale your academy operations as you grow.
• Build and train an amazing staff.
• Bring in consistent leads and convert them to members at a high rate.
• Establish systems that make organizing and managing your academy a breeze for anyone.
• Understand the ins and outs of everything that successful academies do off the mats so that you can put more focus on your product on the mats.

Not only do you receive access to the academy curriculum, but your membership gives you access to all of our online products, including the BJJ and striking curriculums that we use at all of our schools. No contracts, which means you can cancel at any time. 

Start by putting the same faith in your school that you did in martial arts. You believed in martial arts so much that you opened a school to teach it. When you have a product you believe in (link later), you don’t need a reason to lock people in.

A contract gives you, the owner, an out. It gives you an excuse to not bring your best every day, and it’s by bringing your best that your school truly becomes the best. Choose to become the school that gives its students the option to fall in love with it and become lifelong learners – not just locked in until their contract is up.

You know your value, and those who see it aren’t going anywhere.