How to run a martial arts business with management software

In order to create the best customer experience for your martial arts students, you need the right tools and features on your side. While running into issues with memberships, payments, and students can arise, especially in a new business, they can also be easily avoided if you have software that can help you organise and streamline your admin, free up your time, and automate your day-to-day processes. Don't waste any more time struggling to run your martial arts business when you should be focused on helping your students progress in their practice and skills.

If you're a martial arts teacher or studio owner struggling with the following issues, you will want to consider investing in martial arts studio management software.

Difficulty tracking attendance 

In order for students to grow and progress they need to come to class. But what happens when some of those students stop coming to class and others start showing up more and more? How do you balance the influx and outflux without a way of tracking attendance and who is coming and who isn't?

Without a system in place that will help you monitor your students' attendance, they can easily slip away. Martial arts software can help you keep better track of your students so you can best cater to their needs and make sure they aren't falling behind.

Messy changes to the timetable and schedule

Things happen and sometimes changes have to be made to the schedule. But when changes and updating students about the new class times need to be done manually, things fall through the cracks.

Students show up at the wrong time, they think they booked for one time and now it's at another time that doesn't work for them and everyone is unhappy. If a system was in place, you could let students know an appropriate time before class and allow students who can no longer make it to reschedule on their own.

No-shows, catch-ups, and confusion for parents

If an adult misses their fitness class or is unable to work out they miss out and it falls on them to figure out how to make it up. But when the parents are responsible for a child's martial arts class, if they don't have the right information and aren't able to rebook it themselves, the child misses out and they might not be able to make up that valuable lesson.

Parents want their children to participate, but don't want to be left to jump through hoops or constantly get in contact to register their child. An easy-to-use straightforward system that would make it simple for parents to sign their kids up and register for class would save them a huge hassle and encourage them to make sure their child makes it to their martial arts class.

No way to automatically collect and track payments

Parents have a lot on their plate, and even adult students sometimes forget to bring their payments to class. Rather than turn away students at the door, teachers and studio owners take an IOU that results in missed and late payments, forgetting who didn't pay.

Not to mention a loss of valuable revenue that is needed to keep the studio open and pay for the services provided. A lack of payment providers and an online booking system that requires students to purchase a membership and pay in order to book is the only way to avoid this issue. Without it, you risk losing more and more money and face having to chase students down for their payments.

Unable to keep track of progress and ability

One of the most important aspects of any martial art is progression. Kids not only want to progress and learn, but they want to be recognised for their achievements, especially amongst their friends. And while every student wants to progress, they have to start and go at their own pace.

If all the children with different ability levels are thrown into the same class, it's hard to keep track, injuries and accidents occur, and confidence takes a hit. When put into a suitable martial arts class for the correct level and ability, the students have a better chance of learning, growing at a speed that's right for them, and feeling motivated to progress.

10 TeamUp features to manage your martial arts business

While some of the obstacles mentioned above might not be every day at your martial arts school, you don't want them to become one. As your business grows, your admin piles up, and your student list expands, having software that can grow with you and help you stay organised is an absolute must.

Don't fall victim to villainous disorganisation and hurdles when you can run the best version of your martial arts business with the right tools and system to support you. Here are some of the top TeamUp features to help you manage your martial arts business.

Easy to use online booking system

Never struggle to organise your schedule, classes, and student registrations again. Your easy-to-use online booking system won't just keep your bookings organised, but also help you know who is coming to class, offer a variety of class times and types, allow you to schedule certain teachers for specific classes and venues, and make it easy for your students (or their parents) to book at the click of a button.

Whether you enrol your students or require the purchase of membership month to month, you can offer it all and your students can choose the best option for their needs and goals. Everything from class registration to paying for class can be done online in advance leaving your customers with no hassle and you with little to no admin prior to class.

Family-friendly booking feature

We don't expect kids to be able to register for their own classes, which is why we built a family-friend booking tool to make it seamless and simple for parents to manage their kids' registrations and memberships. Parents can easily keep track of class schedules, payments, and sign waivers and forms for their children, as well as have multiple parents on one account. No more confusion over who booked and you can even help keep the parents accountable by monitoring if each student is coming to class when they are supposed to be through automated notifications and reminders (up next).

Automated notifications and reminders

We get it, everyone has a lot on their plate and things pop up and can be distracting. Especially for a parent trying to stay on top of multiple kids' activities. This is why in your dashboard, one of the most helpful tools you have in your arsenal is the automated notifications feature. Set up pre-class reminders that will alert your parent a certain number of hours before class

Intuitive reporting

Your class schedule isn't the only thing tool that will help you monitor who is and isn't coming to class. Thanks to an extensive list of reports you can check at any time from anywhere, who is coming to class, who hasn't come, who has a membership to renew, when payments will be automated and collected, track progress, and so much more.

Building the best customer experience and offering great customer support requires knowing the ins and outs of your business, and with the help of a powerful report system in your system you won't just know the ins and outs of your business, you'll be the expert on your business. Use your reports to make important decisions for your customers and help them track their progress through attendances and milestones.

Know all of your students by name

No matter whether you have 10 students or 100 students attending your martial arts school, knowing each and every student by name is part of building a truly positive customer experience. With the helpful customer relationship management tool, you can store all of your customer information and details.

Everything from their first and last name to fitness history to fitness goals can be collected online at sign-up and stored right in your CRM when you can check it anytime you need. Anytime a student or client makes an edit to their information their profile will be automatically updated so that you have the most accurate information at all times.

Keep classes full even if a student cancels

A cancellation no longer means an empty class. While planning is important, a child's schedule is always up in the air, even when they don't necessarily want it to be. Before booking and scheduling software, if a parent or student cancelled last minute that might have meant empty spots in the class.

Now that parents and students can use the waitlist tool, they can sign up even when a class is already full so that if a registered student has to cancel last minute, that spot will go to the person at the top of the waitlist automatically. Your student will be notified thanks to our automated messaging tool. No more empty spots and more of an opportunity for students to attend the times they want.

Online payments

No more, "I forgot my wallet at home," or, "I think I already paid" now that you can keep track of all of your payments right in your dashboard. The last thing you want is to miss out on important revenue that keeps your business running. While it's nice to let people slip into a class here and there, that could lead to some bad business practice in the future and you don't want that. Keep your business professional and your students accountable for their memberships by requiring them to pay online in order to come to class.

It helps that TeamUp partners with the best payment providers on the market to also automate and collect all payments so that when it comes to things like membership subscriptions and monthly payments, you won't even need to remind your customers to pay. It's all done for you both and will free up all of your time before class.

A streamlined activity feed

Similar to a social media feed, your activity feed will notify you of everything going on in your business in real time. If someone registers for a class, if someone cancels, if someone new signs up if someone re-purchases a membership, all of it is there for you to monitor as often as you'd like and stay informed.

And if you want to know but don't want to be notified for each and everything you can customise when to be notified and how often, for example, only receive a notification if someone cancels or is running low on a membership pack. You hold the reigns and your activity feed will help you see what's happening at all times.

Filters for every ability level

Whether you organise your studio by beginner, intermediate, and advanced class levels or colour of belt, you can create the best membership plans for your business and customise your class schedule to match each level. When students go to book they can filter classes specifically for their level so that they know they are going to the right class.

No more arriving to class feeling embarrassed that they can't keep up or feeling bored because their skills are more advanced. Every student will have the ability to take the right class for their own ability when you apply the right filters and descriptions to your classes and memberships.

Bonus tool: recognise your students with milestone emails

Progress is everything and you can celebrate your students' progress by sending them milestone emails when they reached a certain period in their membership or have attended certain classes. Recognise your students' performance and loyalty to your studio or school before class with words of encouragement in an email delivered straight to their (or their parents') inbox.

Managing your martial arts business doesn't have to be a battle. Using studio management software you can avoid some of the largest hurdles and get back to focusing on building an unbeatable experience for your students.

To start using TeamUp for your martial arts business, sign up for our free trial.