Providing belt videos to your students can help increase your retention by making it easier and more convenient for your students to learn the material needed to advance. Although some instructors fear that the availability of video training will hurt class attendance, the videos are designed to augment, rather than replace, coming to the studio. Your students have an added incentive to practice at home, and this will help improve the overall quality of your students. Belt videos also eliminate the testing - time student lament of "You never taught me that!" Curriculum videos also allow parents to practice together with their children and help them to advance. This enables them to participate in their child's progress, which is not always possible in other activities.
Having your own curriculum videos can also dramatically increase your revenue. The added retention and student service aspects alone help to keep dues paying students around longer by improving their progress. Having videos for each belt also sets you apart from the competition, and is a nice benefit to mention when you are doing enrollment conferences. However, providing curriculum videos can also add substantial extra profit to your bottom line. If you charge for belt promotions, increase the fees by ten or fifteen dollars and include the video. This will give added value to the testing fee, and your investment will be repaid in a short time. If you charge an extra $15.00 per promotion, you should be able to net at least $12.00 per video. At only 100 students at three promotions annually, that's an extra $3600 profit in the first year alone. More students, more profit.
However, you need to be able to turn out your own videos. A mistake frequently made by studio owners who decide to produce curriculum videos is to have the project professionally shot and edited. While this will provide a first class product, it will also be so expensive that the initial investment may never be recovered, much less a profit. While it IS important to have decent lighting, clear sound, and a well organized format, such attributes as broadcast quality mastering, multiple camera angles, and whiz bang graphics are unnecessary. Remember, this isn't going to be watched over and over again, like The Wizard Of Oz or Star Wars. Many students will break it out a week or two before the next belt testing and study it, after which it will go back into its sleeve for a long, perhaps permanent, hibernation.
Having your videos shot by an outside pro also makes it difficult to revise your curriculum when you choose to. If you are continuing to study and expand your own knowledge base as an instructor, you're going to want to update your videos from time to time. By having the capability and equipment to do it yourself, a new belt video can be shot and ready to duplicate in a weekend.
It's really quite easy to do it yourself, in house, without previous experience. The learning curve is quite minimal - a trip to the library or even a web search ("Home Video" and "how to") will help you to find many books and tape available where you can learn the basics of videography - lighting, sound, etc. You probably already have much of the equipment needed, and the rest can be obtained at prices that are less than you might expect. The availability of modern computer editing software makes editing of digital video a snap, but you can still turn out a decent quality product even if your video equipment is of the older analog variety. Home video editors/titlers start at $179 and are relatively easy to learn to use. Go to an electronics supply outlet such as Best Buy or Circuit City and compare models and features. You can often find discounts on the web.
There are several options available for duplication. We pay a professional tape duplicating house under $3.00 per forty -five minute tape, including a plain sleeve and label. Call several different commercial duplicators in your area and haggle with them. If you're just starting out, and you have the time, you can buy a dual-deck VCR, or even hook up two VCR's and do it at home. It's easy these days to find blank VHS 120 video tapes for a buck apiece or less. Recording on DVD is even easier.
Here are a couple of tips for getting the most benefits from your videos:
· Don't make the videos optional. If given a choice, most students won't choose to buy them. However, if they're included with their promotions, most students and parents will perceive the added value. In fact, providing videos with promotions can actually eliminate promotion fee objections. If at first you get a few objections to the increased promotion fee, let them pay the old price and give them the first video free, saying "We believe these videos are a significant study aid, and we want our students to become the best that they can be. I want Johnny to have every advantage." The tape or DVD, after all, will cost you $3.00 or less. We never had a repeat objection when using this approach,
· Provide a "welcome video" with the initiation fee when a new student signs up. Include, in addition to the first belt curriculum, how to tie the belt & uniform, studio etiquette, and a demonstration of training equipment available for purchase.
Preparing and offering belt videos is a win/win proposition for students and owners alike, providing students with a great home practice aid and giving studio owners an excellent additional source of revenue. Ready? ACTION!
Want to see a sample of our belt renk videos? Order any one of ours for only $9.95 & $5.00 s&h. Choose from ORANGE, YELLOW, BLUE, GREEN, PURPLE, BROWN 3, BROWN 2, BROWN 1.
