Hey Martial Arts instructors! What is your potential ratio? Your potential ratio is the percentage of the population that has a realistic potential to join your school. The number used for decades was 1.5%. Due to the explosion of the exposure and credibility gained in the martial arts of kickboxing fitness boom in the mid 1990s, I personally think the number is bigger than that. But to be sure, say that two percent of the population can join your school. This applies especially to medium and large cities and metropolitan areas. Small cities can attract a greater percentage of the population, according to demographics and the type of program being offered.
Say you're in an area of 100,000 inhabitants, which means that you have a potential ratio of 2,000 students. Sounds great, right? Well, slow down. First, these 2,000 are the potential for all classes of mixed martial arts. Your job, of course, is to get more than your competitors. Secondly, if they live on the other side of town?
Your traction radius is the area around your school, your students will come from that. Typically, a student will not drive more than 10-15 minutes of your school. Yes, yes, yes, I know you have students that one hour by car and walk uphill both ways to access your course, but if you are going to pay three people $ 1,000 per class, you can not build a school around them.
The real question is, how much of my potential ratio is in my line of fire? Examples of factors that influence the response:
1. Whatever the population of your region, what is the population within the radius of your fire? Multiply this figure by 0.02 to obtain your potential ratio.
2. Your school is near a natural barrier? Where I live, there is a subtle bridge north of us. Although there is nothing preventing us from crossing it, we rarely do. We turn south on the main roads of travel to shops, restaurants and parks. I'm sure there are good restaurants and shops across the bridge, but we did not go, and I'm sure people on the other side does not come from the south of our region. Other obstacles include railways, rivers, bridges, congested roads, and tunnels.
3. What are the demographics of the radius of your actual draw? Did you park in the area's largest community trailer or retired person within your department take? You're not going to get two percent of these markets.
The demographics within your radius will pull you or break you. Your job is to match your sweater-demographic radius of your school.
For our purposes, we will narrow your target demographic for the people within your range jumper. Imagine fixing a ring with the radius of a disk of 15 minutes on a map of your area, then move. Every time you move the ring of demographics will change. Our goal is to find the best demographics in the ring. Keep in mind that a ring of 15 minutes drive will be much lower for a densely populated area with lots of traffic in a more rural area. A 15 minute drive to Orlando or London could be two miles, then it could be 15 miles or more in smaller less congested areas, so be realistic in your ring size. You must know the size of your range jumper.
Once you focus on one place, road locations at different times that your students would attend classes, so you can experience and time of the reader, to see how far you within 15 minutes.
If two percent of your ring is your potential ratio, a population of 15,000 in the ring corresponds to a potential market of 300 students. Keep in mind that a good school in a small market can take more than two percent. Yet it is a sobering thought.
Posted on April 14, 2010.