Hello,
I have been thinking of opening a martial arts school lately. I am certified and qualified as far as teaching, however, I have no experience with opening, owning or operating a business.

What are some of the steps that I would need to take to open a legitimate business? Is a martial arts school something that would necessarily need to be a business or could I just rent a building and teach without being called a business? Where would I get the money to finance the opening, is a loan a good idea? Additional generic novice questions…

AFAIK, New York is the only state that has legality issue when it comes to teaching martial arts. In texas, where I live, there are loads of instructors teaching in their back yard, out of their garage, and not looking to make money. Most of it us "under the table".

The basic steps would be for you to register a DBA (doing business as) with your local county office (county clerk in San Antonio). As far as martial arts schools go, there are contracts and insurance that's necessary, regardless. The only place I know to get that would be with NAPMA (http://www.napma.com/), and they have good marketing tips and promotional items as well.

Where I live, there's no profit to be had in teaching adults. Many do make excellent money, however, by either teaching kids, or teaching kick boxing aerobics, or both, unless you're teaching Gracie Ju Jitsu.

I suppose you could get a small business loan, but why not charge a fee and teach out of your home for starters. That way you can save up the money and open when you're ready, with less debt.

There's a LOT of marketing and management info on martialtalk.com ... they have a specific forum for dojo/dojang/kwoon/studio owners.

I am not really sure where you are oppening your business, if it is in NY then look at the following licensing information:

City
www.nyc.gov/consumers

State
www.nys-permits.org

A DBA will be ok (you may consider an LLC, a Corp or just simply insurance for your business-talk with your accountant or lawyer-), and I would suggest getting a EIN number (its free) the form is SS4 to apply online you can go to
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...102767,00.html

This will be helpful: A if you plan to hire employees, B If you plan to open a business account under your assumed name, C if you plan to apply for a business loan.

If you just plan to rent a location and and teach, you can do so without going through all the aforementioned steps. But you may not be able to get a business loan, you need to be a business.

Sources for capital

If you have good credit and co-payment, perhaps collateral, then commercial banks are a good option, some banks are better than others for start-up loans or SBA loans. Its not a bad idea to start with the bank that you currently have a relationship with.

If however, your credit is not great, then there are non-profit organizations that may help you as well as some specialized lenders.

Bellow is a list of Alternative Lenders:

• ACCÍON New York www.accionnewyork.org
• BOC Capital Corp. - Business Outreach Center Network www.bocnet.org/boccapitalcorp
• National Development Council - Grow America Fund www.nationaldevelopmentcouncil.org
• National Minority Business Council www.nmbc.org
• New York Association for New Americas – NYANA www.nyana.org
• New York City Financial Network Action Consortium www.nycfnac.org
• New York Community Investment Company www.nycic.com
• Project Enterprise www.projectenterprise.org
• Renaissance Economic Development Corporation www.renaissance-ny.org
• Trickle-Up Program www.trickleup.org

Best of Luck

If you are concerned about liability, LLC, Corp or insurance are options for you, consider that they carry cost and your business may not need it (although I would go with the insurance though) Talk with your lawyer or accountant for more info.

Tip: You can have a smaller price for this kind of business if you rent a space in a school. You could then have more kids from that school join your club and other kids and parents will feel much safer if they learn karate in an academic institution.

The sensei with whom I practice karate-do shotokan has rented a sports space in a school 15 years ago and still uses it.

The sensei tries to bring some elements from different styles and even totally different domains like tae-bo, yoga, breathing techniques and so on. It's hard to replace such a teacher.

Another tip: Try to get your students into competitions and motivate them into this. The prizes could surely boost your future clients.

Chuck "scott" Norris?!?