A dojo as a business

[Aefibird]

Who here attends or runs their dojo as a business (i.e. full time, with the instructor having no other job)?

My Sensei is branching out now (after "only" 25+ years as an instructor!) and going full-time as a Sensei.

This got me thinking... (a novel thing, I know!)

...for those instructors who are full time, should they be able to deal with all the business side of running a dojo or should that be left to someone else?

Or if an instructor divides his time between business and teaching then would it be detrimental to the students?

Surely an instructor should be out there spending as much time as possible in classes?

Or would the introduction of an additional person mean that the dojo would become too "business orientated" and going along the lines of a McDojo? (don't really like to use that term, but I'm sure you all know what I mean.)

[pasmith]

Personally that seems to be down to the integrity of the instructor in question and how far he's willing to let the acumulation of money compromise how he teaches. Certainly some of these management companies that take care of billing seem to be very money orientated (as you would expect) and that has got to effect the club in some way.
One full time Academy where I live runs classes that are 45 minutes long. I'm not sure on the cost to train there but that seems like a tactic to get more people through the door and more classes in a limited time. 45 mintues barely seems long enough to get a sweat on to me. Considering the BJJ club I used to train at was £3 for 2+ hours and was run purely for the enjoyment of training I think immediately you see a difference between the two.
I suppose ideally the logistics of running a club should happen in the background allowing the instructor full time to devote to teaching, student relations, formulating a good syllabus etc.

[AngelaG]

My Dojo is a full time business, however personally I think there is a very good balance and I have never doubted the quality of the instruction I have received. The way I see it full time instructors are even more driven (or at least should be!) to provide quality instruction, friendly atmosphere and to act in a professional and courteous way, because if they don't their very livelihood is at stake. Now I am fully aware that for whatever reasons this doesn't seem to happen, and some people accept very shoddy tuition, from people who have been training for extremely short amounts of time, with short classes and being treated like crap for the priviledge. I guess I just got lucky

Anyway, I think it's up to the person involved as to whether they do just the teaching, or the teaching and the business, I think it's possible, but if your hearts not in it I would recommend getting someone else to do it. you'll soon know if you're not getting the balance right, as the students will vote with their feet.

(I use the words "you" and "your" in general, not specific, terms)

[petertracy]

We run a number of full-time dojo in our organization in the USA, Australi & Japan. We have documneted how we do that at www.downloadkarate.com/index.asp?Sec_ID=256. As an instructor and on the business side I feel it is important the instructor oversees the business actvities in order to keep it in line with traditional Budo so it does not become a compromise of the art.

We should value the information we teach, it has been gained through many years of diligent work (at our cost) and receving compensation for passing the knowledge on allows us to "Pursue the art full-time furthering our own knowledge and those we teach."

In fact if we are forced to teach and engage in our art part-time we in fact often compromise how we teach, and how much we extend our own new learnings (through seminars etc.) as we don't have time to dedicate all to the art. So teaching for fees should be seen as an opportunity to engage our arts without compromise - not the other way around.

Some thoughs...

[Aefibird]

petertracy said:

In fact if we are forced to teach and engage in our art part-time we in fact often compromise how we teach, and how much we extend our own new learnings (through seminars etc.) as we don't have time to dedicate all to the art. So teaching for fees should be seen as an opportunity to engage our arts without compromise - not the other way around.

An interesting persepctive - I've not really considered it that way before...