How to Start a Martial Arts School: Lessons from Opening a Dojo

Written By T .

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Disclaimer: No one sponsored this article. All products and services are mentioned specifically because I used them after doing my own research. A list of links is included at the end of the article.

When I set about opening Shreveport Aikido Academy, I had very little idea what I was getting into, what type of supplies I had to purchase, or even how much it would cost. I spent time reading various posts online, speaking with my own instructor, and doing some general research, but none of it truly prepared me for everything I needed to do.

In the martial arts world, Sensei is commonly understood to mean instructor, but it has a deeper meaning. It can be translated, loosely, as “one who was born before” or “one who came before.” In other words, your instructor got to where they are before you did and can help illuminate some of the pitfalls you will inevitably encounter. By sharing my experience, I hope to provide some of that illumination to others who want to start their own martial arts school, whether it is Aikido or a different art.

This post is an opportunity for me to reflect on my experience and provide some insight into my journey in five key areas:

  1. Location

  2. Supplies

  3. Insurance

  4. Advertising

  5. Business Administration

To be clear, this is not an exhaustive list of all the problems I had to overcome, but it does cover the majority of them. I found that once I was able to address these issues, the other, more minor problems tended to melt away.

Location

The first issue I had was figuring out where to host my classes. I was fortunate enough that my synagogue, Agudath Achim, was able and willing to share its social hall with me for a reasonable rent. This provided me with a secure space to store mats and supplies while also providing a large, open area in which to run class.

What made this partnership successful were two things:

  1. I had an active relationship with my synagogue leadership.

  2. We wrote up a formal agreement laying out the cost, expectations, and responsibilities.

The first point is probably the most important when looking for a space if you do not plan on renting a storefront. I made a list of local organizations that could potentially host my program and identified who I would need to speak with at each one. I considered community centers, other martial arts schools, dance schools, and similar organizations.

I decided to approach the president of my congregation first since I knew the synagogue had the space available and there would be minimal conflicts with my proposed schedule. The synagogue was very welcoming to the program and has continued to be supportive.

The formal agreement helped clearly define the relationship between the synagogue and Shreveport Aikido Academy while still allowing me to maintain a personal relationship with the synagogue separate from the dojo. In addition, the Aikido students are careful to respect both the physical space and any security procedures that are in place.

If you are looking to start a small community program, houses of worship, or local community centers are great places to start the conversation.  They allow you to build on relationships you already have.

Supplies

Next, I had to identify the supplies I would need. This included things like waivers, certificates, pens, paper, rags, mat cleaner, and, most importantly, mats. It is hard to have an Aikido program without a cushioned surface to fall on.

As my wife can attest, I spent FAR too many hours scouring the internet for the “best” mats to buy. I quickly identified that there seemed to be three main types:

  1. Folding/panel mats

  2. Roll-up mats

  3. Tatami

I would have strongly preferred option three, tatami, but they do not lend themselves particularly well to a situation where the mats are expected to be picked up and put down three days a week. Should I get a permanent location in the future, I would investigate designing a spring-loaded floor with tatami on top.

Back in Baltimore, I had experience with roll-out mats. I found them less than ideal for a couple of reasons. When rolled out, they tended to slide across floors unless you were able to anchor them properly. They also generally come in 1-3/8-inch thickness rather than two inches. Getting two-inch-thick mats in this style was significantly more expensive.

This left me with folding or panel mats, the accordion-style mats commonly found in school gyms.

I ended up purchasing six 5' × 10' mats from Greatmats with Velcro on all four sides. They were two inches thick and cost a grand total of approximately $3,500 shipped. These mats formed the core of my floor and provided 300 square feet of mat space.

Ideally, I wanted around 500 square feet, so I went to Amazon and purchased some of the roughly $100 4' × 10' mats available there. To anyone starting out: DO NOT purchase these mats unless absolutely necessary.

The foam core is not as high quality as what you will find from companies like Greatmats or Tumbl Trak, nor is the overall construction. They are perfectly reasonable for a home dojo, but having to pick them up three times a week has already caused some tears along the seams, and the overall quality is noticeably lower. I am looking to replace them with Z Athletic 4' × 12' panel mats or additional 5' × 10' Greatmats in the future.

Finding the rest of my supplies was anticlimactic at that point. Paper products were ordered from FedEx Printing, while general cleaning supplies and stationery came from Amazon, Target, and similar places. Nothing too exciting, but still important, nonetheless.

Strangely enough, one of the hardest items to find was a decent digital clock so that we could keep track of time during class.

Insurance

Turning from supplies, we come to the all-important topic of martial arts insurance.

If you Google martial arts insurance, you are presented with a dozen or so options. In my experience, several of the major providers offered fairly similar coverage and pricing, so I ultimately chose the company that best fit my needs. I purchased my policy through Reed Insurance, and it costs about $800 per year. Your cost will vary depending on factors such as the number of students you have and the martial art you teach.

I would not overcomplicate the decision, but make sure the policy actually provides the coverage your school needs. In my case, that included commercial general liability coverage, abuse and molestation coverage, and accident/medical coverage. You may also need automobile coverage if your dojo owns or operates a vehicle.

Having appropriate insurance is particularly important for a program operating in someone else's space while existing as an independent entity. Since Shreveport Aikido Academy is a separate legal entity, it is safer for everyone involved for the dojo to carry its own insurance coverage.

Advertising

To attract students, you need to advertise, and the type of advertising you do is going to depend directly on the type of school you want to run.

Currently, we are not aiming to have 50 students and a major setup. I am looking for a solid group of around 10 students who regularly attend and want to learn; almost a club-like setting rather than a huge training hall.

Regardless of your goal, though, having a functioning website is a must in the modern world. In fact, this website was one of the first things I put together for the dojo.

I chose Squarespace as my platform because it made my life easy. I was willing to pay for the ease of website design combined with the ability to customize the site as much as I wanted. Since I was juggling opening the school and having a newborn at home, that ease of design was paramount in my mind.

I studied a dozen different martial arts and dojo websites and identified what I liked and disliked about each before creating this site. I wanted potential students to know right away when we train, where we are located, what it costs, and how to contact me. All of that went directly onto the homepage. Everything else on the site is meant to provide additional background information for interested students.

The other piece of advertising I had to consider was how to sell things like T-shirts and other dojo-branded gear. Keeping a large stock of shirts is not really feasible or cost-effective when running on a budget.

After some research, I settled on setting up a web store through Fourthwall. Although the platform markets itself heavily toward influencers and online content creators, really, any group can make use of its storefronts.

At its most basic, Fourthwall lets you put your logo on a variety of products, set the selling price, and then handles printing, shipping, and much of the transaction process. Each item has a base production cost, and the difference between that cost and your selling price becomes your profit, minus applicable fees.

I recommend ordering some sample items at cost before making them available so that you can see how your designs look once printed. Overall, though, I have found the printing to be solid and the products reasonably priced.

Business Administration

The last major piece was figuring out how to run the dojo as a business.

I decided to set up a single-member LLC. This allowed me to take advantage of business-specific services such as wholesale accounts, small-business checking accounts, and similar opportunities. Having a federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) also opened doors that a more casual or unofficial setup would not.

Opening a business checking account was probably the most impactful administrative task.

Collecting dues for a small club naturally lends itself to things like cash or checks. In this day and age, though, having an electronic payment method matters. Tools like Venmo, PayPal, and credit card processors charge businesses a percentage of each transaction plus, in some cases, a small additional fee.

While a few dollars in processing fees may not seem significant, they can add up for a very small program operating on a limited budget. Starting out, losing even $10–$15 each month to processing fees was less than ideal.

I ultimately opened a small-business checking account with U.S. Bank that provides access to Zelle while having a very low balance requirement. This meant students could pay via Zelle without the dojo losing a portion of every dues payment to transaction fees. It also meant I was not forced to keep a large amount of the dojo's limited monthly income tied up simply to avoid banking fees.

I highly recommend looking to see whether any local banks or credit unions offer similar options. A local institution may also provide easier access to branches and ATMs, which can be particularly useful for a small business that still occasionally handles cash.

Of course, banking requirements, account fees, and payment-service terms can change, so it is worth checking the current terms before choosing an account.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this has been an interesting, frustrating, and rewarding experience.

Learning how to get everything up and running can involve a steep learning curve and seem daunting at first. Once you figure out some of the key moving pieces, though, things begin to fall into place.

Opening the dojo ended up involving much more than simply finding a room and putting some mats on the floor. None of these problems were individually overwhelming. The harder part was knowing what needed to be done in the first place.

Hopefully, sharing some of the problems I encountered and the solutions that worked for me will make that process a little easier for someone else looking to start a school of their own.

Supporting Shreveport Aikido Academy

If you are interested in supporting our dojo, please feel free to take a look at our web store and purchase a t-shirt or three!

Shreveport Aikido Academy Storefront

Resources Mentioned

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