Birthday parties

[Jeff Burger]

I get alot of request for Karate birthday parties.
So far I havent done one.
Anybody doing them in a good way?

Id like to hear how you go about it.
Its something I wouldnt mind doing if it could be done in a good way.
I dont want to do anything Mc Dojoish.
But there is $$$ potential in both the event and the free advertising.
Would be good for our demo team in development.

Jeff

[Sgathak]

What the hell is a Karate Birthday Party? A free class for the party goers after they spill juice, drop pizzas, and fling chocolate cake onto your mats?



Are there ponies?

[Jeff Burger]

LOL

For a few years now I have had parents of students ( even people who just knew about our school) ask us to do a karate birthday party.

I have never done one because I really didnt know where to start and didnt want it to turn into something silly.
I always used the excuse that we only rent the space for karate time.
With the new full time space the request have come up again.

But I thought about running a little class and demo.
Fightgrrl found a party theme supply place online that has MA them stuff. And we can get cheap kid gis ( $10 -$12)
With the new space I have the dojo area and a large enough waiting area ( no food or drink in the dojo).

It could be a extra source of income as well as advertisment.

Its not something I would normal consider but being as we work alot with kids its a kid topic.

Sundays has only 2 AM classes the rest is open gym time.

I dont want to be a Mc Dojo but I dont want to bite off my nose to spite my face either.
If we do it I want it to be a good thing.

Jeff

[Sgathak]

I think that attitude, more than anything defines "McDojo"... You work with kids, to inspire them, though karate... right? Well, If you can come up with a method of doing this in a party setting (sorry I got no ideas) and approach it with the attitude of opening your school for a child and his/her friends to come and have fun on their birthday at a place they want to be, doing something fun, as well as physically, mentally, and emotionally stimulating, I think it would work out OK.

I do however think I would limit parties only to current students, their friends, and family. Otherwise you might as well be a Chuck E. Cheese.

[tkdcanada]

I agree with Sgathak. My gut response is that it sort of takes away from the dignity of the art - unless like Sgathak says, current students would like to invite a few friends for a free lesson and cakes, etc.. to celebrate their birthday. Then you still get the advertisement, but you don't open it up to just anyone off the street who wants to have a cool party. Then the friends of your student get a feel that it's just not all fun and games because the person that invited them is a serious student.

[De_Franza]

That could work, if it's current students who invite only a few friends. Many poeple in MA's have a hard time explaining what it is that keeps them involved as many "outsiders" (for lack of a better term) just don't get it.

[Musubi Dojo]

You could also do the party as strictly a demo for outsiders and give each of the kids a gift certificate for a free week of classes after the fact.

[tkdcanada]

Originally posted by De_Franza
Many poeple in MA's have a hard time explaining what it is that keeps them involved as many "outsiders" (for lack of a better term) just don't get it.

That's so true!

[Luebbers]

At my Kung Fu place, every year we have a Christmas party. It's basically, just we all get together, eat potluck style and watch kung fu movies. It's not a big deal, but people can bring wives, dates, or significant others, it builds the comraderie among members of the school, but I don't feel that it cheapens the art or our training.

I don't know if you could do something similar in your off-mat space. Set up a big TV, put on The Karate Kid, serve some food, hook up the Playstation, and relax amongst friends. However, I should also mention that there weren't any kids at our school and only children of students at the party, so I don't know how this set up would work for a kid's party where they may not be so content to sit and socialize.

[Jeff Burger]

We do a group party at Chinese new year.

I was think only regulars...at least at first to get the swing of things.

I was also thinking a week free class pass as a party gift....besies they will already have gis.


Jeff

[black-gi]

too much work for a possible loss. and still if there is no loss tell them " this is karate, not basket weaving!"



Jason Bryant

[Jeff Burger]

Well after lots of thought about it we had our first birthday party today.
I was worried cause its not something have done before and it was all little kids ( mostly around age 6).

It went GREAT.

We let them play around in the space for awhile and then did a little Karate demo.
Had them do some kicks on the pads,some rolls off physio ball ( a kid favorite) and break a rebreakable board.

Then they did there cake a gift stuff in another room.

We did make alot of it but we didnt charge them much cause the mom an daugther both take classes with us.

Besdies the small profit it brought in almost 30 new people to see the space.
Some asked about classes for their kids an some about adult classes.
All thought we did a great job so we will probably have more party request from them in the future.
The publicity was something I was really hoping for.

Good use of a day that would have been mostly unused open gym time.

Still had plenty of time for am Tai Chi pm yoga and 3 privates and sparring.

Jeff

[tkdcanada]

Well even though my gut response was leaning against the idea, it sounds as though you did a great job at finding a nice balance with it. (Not surpisingly ) Sounds like something that could work in your favour and in the favour of all concerned.

[Jeff Burger]

Yeah initially it went against some of my gut instincts.
But the school is new and the $$$ and publicity are needed.

I didnt want it to turn into Chucky Cheese in a gi....and it didnt.

Besides MA classes we have yoga and pilates.
Sundays we only have am Tai Chi, sparring and pm yoga.

We are also going to let another local non profit use the space for their meetings ( N.E.A.D. North End Against Drugs).
For free.

They rented the space and did all the fixings, so it was all profit.

Another group wants to rent the space as well...a Salsa class.
Not sure what to do about that.
Help with rent sounds good and it lets more people see our other programs.

Jeff

[Sgathak]

Dude - Salsa?

Id do it.

A) Hot mamacitas dancing around
B) More people checking out the school
D) Rent help
D) Hot mamacitas dancing around
E) May be a good cross training opportunity for all involved. Dancing and MA are NOT mutually exclusive. The only difference between the two is the way you feel about your "partner".
F) you wernt sure about birthday parties and look how that turned out?

[Jeff Burger]

Apparently Salsa has a huge following in Boston.
The above mentioned benefits are all good.
Also its something I might like to do myself.

I often refer to Tai Chi as "its like a waltz...only...you dont like you partner".
And I have been note as saying good dancers often make good fighters.

We apy the rent for 24/7 so Id like as much of that time to be profitable as I can.

I had restisted doing birthday parties for years.
The first time I was asked "do you do parties" I was insulted.
Im really happy at how well it went, especially considering it was young kids who are not Karate students ( the birthday girl does yoga and her mom does yoga an Tai Chi). I know my karate kids are well behaved for me in a short period of time. ( something that gets us lots of praise).

Some of the parents asked about rented the space out during the day time as its too cold to take their kids out to play.
Currently many of them drive 1 hour 1 way and pay $20 for 45 minutes for their kids to play at a indoor kids play ground.

I would like to use all the time we have available and there are popular down times ( day time when people are are work or school).
The mats a physio balls made great fun for the kids so they want more.
IF I do it will be in small manageable #s.

Currently I fill some of those hours with private lessons / personal training.
Mostly stay at home moms or those who can make their own schedule.
I would rather fill the time with more of that as it fits in with what I do better.
But having a open gym time for kids could bring us in more youth and adult students.

Again let me mention our main program is K.I.C.K. Karate Inspires City Kids.
The money we make off other programs goes to them.
It keeps regular fees down, offers many full and partial scholarships for kids from needy families, pays for ALL their tournament cost and allows us to not have to charge for rank testing or make people sign contracts or pay initiation fees or have to hand out rank to keep customers...which is the heart of the Mc Dojo problem IMHO.

As many of you know the first year of a bussiness is often the hardest and Im no bussiness expert.

And lets not forget all the hot mamacitas dancing around.

Jeff

[Jen]

Jeff, I used to hate the idea as well, until about a month ago when I was asked to assist at a birthday party. We just got our own space in June (moved out of a health club). The party was for the brother of a child who was already a student. One of the guests at the party was also a student. We did some stretching with them, kicking targets, a very basic self defense technique. They did a tug-a-war, and ran a few races. Then we did demostration for them. Me and one of the other girl who came to assist did downward kick breaks, and our instructor did 7(or at least I think 7) board knife hand strike. Clean up wasn't too bad either.
We did get paid, $30 each, and there were three of us(we didn't know we were getting paid). We got some pizza too. Jeff, perhaps some of your students could be used a party assistants, for cleaning and helping the kids. If I remember correctly you charge them based on what they can afford to pay, so perhaps they could offset their costs in that way.

[Jeff Burger]

My students did help.
I wanted them to get some demo practice.
As far as help with clean up I dont have to ask...my guys KNOW.

Jeff

[Jen]

That's good. We did ours on a Sunday when we wouldn't normally be open. So, we were asked to come in specially for this party. If we're there and something needs to be done, it gets done, as it should be. You shouldn't have any problem finding a few willing students to come in and help, I was just commenting that you could make it more uhh.... substitute your own word, because I can't think of the one I want, for them.

[Jeff Burger]

Well salsa starts next week and apparently they do have a large following cause the phone is non stop.

Id much rather have some martial art based class in that time slot (Im away teaching at another location at thet time).

But hey it will help with the bills and probably bring us some more martial arts students.
We just opened so we need that financial help an exposure.
If MA classes continue to grow I will eventually get rid of the salsa.

Jeff