If you own or operate a martial arts academy, why do you do it?

What is it that made you want to open your own academy?

Most likely it has to do with your passion for martial arts. You know how much martial arts has changed your life, and you want to offer that to more people.

It’s a good reason to start this journey. It’s why many of us do this.

But is there anything else that drives you?

The reason I ask is because your “why” is one of the most important things for you to understand. It’s going to dictate the “how” of everything in your academy.

It will dictate your business plan, how you approach operating the academy, and who you hire or fire.

For the founder of Easton Training Center, Amal Easton, his initial “why” was to get more training partners.

After living in Brazil for almost five years and earning his purple belt, he moved to Boulder, Colorado where he didn’t have people to train with.

Without training partners, who couldn’t keep growing as a martial artist.

So he started his first school, Boulder Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. From that small school in a local strip-mall, Easton Training Center was born.

Now, we have 8 schools across the front range in Colorado. We have 1000s of students and two 10,000 square foot facilities.

Along the way, our “why” shifted.

As the schools grew and Amal wanted to continue traveling and exploring the world, he had to bring on more and more people to keep the academies operating.

With more people involved the vision for what the schools could and should be evolved to fit a shared vision.

Over time we realized that there were a few people in the schools who were able to make martial arts a career, but the opportunities were too limited and a lot of people we loved were still struggling to make ends meet.

In this problem we found our new “why” - to make Martial arts careers for our best people.
In Jiu Jitsu, you train for years and years to get to a black belt. Most people could be a doctor in the time it takes to get to that level.

And what do you have to show for it? A black belt, of course. And plenty of skill. Probably some new friends, and more than a few injuries.

But what else?

There’s not much that will change in those people’s lives after putting in all that work.

We wanted to change that.

When we found that “why,” it changed everything for us.

Now we knew that we had to grow the schools and open more to sustain more careers. The more schools we have, the more opportunities for careers we can make.

Even today we still can’t give all of our best people the careers they deserve. It sucks, but it’s damn hard to build and open successful schools.

It also keeps us driven. It keeps us looking for new solutions to the same problem.

No matter what, if we didn’t have a “why” for running our academies, we would struggle to put together a “how.”

If you don’t know your “why,” it’s time to sit down and put it together. If you have a team of people working with you, ask for their input as well.

A vision works better if it’s shared amongst the group. This way everyone is driving in the same direction.

Be ready for the “why” to change over time. As you and your academy grow, it’s only natural that the reason behind it all shifts as well.

And when this happens, make sure you understand how the “how” must shift as well.