A Taekwondo School Enjoys a Seamless Transition to Accepting Online Payments and Automated Martial Arts Tuition Billing
Korean Academy of Taekwondo Fitness & Well-being, Aurora, CO
About Academy. For over three decades, the Korean Academy of Taekwondo has provided award-winning martial arts instruction and equipment to the Front Range communities of Colorado. William Pottle, a former student of the academy, acquired the business in 2004 and has served as Owner/Operator ever since.
In Search of a Cost-Effective Martial Arts Tuition Billing Solution
One of William’s recent initiatives was to assess the various software systems his academy uses. He found that while his billing and customer management system was efficient, the $200 per month price tag was too much. That’s when he discovered SIMPLE Tuition Management and found the same billing functionality for a fraction of the price.
Seamless Transition
The transition to SIMPLE Tuition Management was smooth. “My customers didn’t even notice the swap since I was still able to debit their accounts directly,” William recalls. In addition to the automated tuition payments, he also appreciates SIMPLE Tuition Management’s ease of use and built-in security. He doesn’t have to worry about filing sensitive financial data since it’s all stored securely with SIMPLE Tuition Management.
Going Forward
William’s current goal is to continue improving the efficiency of his systems to help his various locations operate in unison. Long term, he hopes to find a larger space for his growing business.
Thank you, William, for sharing your story.
How a Martial Arts School Owner Saves $300 and 20+ Hours per Month
How a Martial Arts School Owner Saves $300 and 20+ Hours per Month
Martial Arts Center Fitness & Well-being Toledo, Ohio
Starting a Martial Arts School. Founded in 1989 by Joe Hurtsellers (Sensei Hurtsellers), the Martial Arts Center has two locations in Maumee and Toledo, Ohio that have been collectively providing martial arts training to adults and children for over two decades. Shelly Blanco (Sempai Blanco), co-owner of the Martial Arts Center, joined the school in 1996.
Working in a different profession prior, Shelly revived her interest in martial arts after being attacked in her home. The startling and terrifying experience made her realize she not only needed to learn more about self-defense, but to truly study and practice martial arts. She began training with Joe and fell in love with the school and everything it taught – so she decided to join full-time.
Expensive and Tedious Martial Arts Tuition Billing
Taking on the billing responsibilities of the business, Shelly found that the business was at a point financially that they either needed to let an employee go, or find another way to cut costs. At the time, Shelly was spending countless hours building files to send to an outsourced billing service and the service itself was costing an additional $1,000 per month. After looking at their numbers, they decided they could cut significant costs by letting their billing company go.
“We were using them for quite awhile because we weren’t really aware of any other way,” she explained. “I was spending a lot of time preparing files and spending a lot of money for them to do it. With as much money we were paying that company, [by switching] it would allow us to keep our employee.”
Shelly did some research and started using a PC-based software to collect credit cards and a solution offered by the bank to collect ACH payments. The combination of new systems was saving them money, but was still extremely time-consuming (even more so than the previous billing company). In addition, she found the limitations of the system frustrating.
“I couldn’t just set it up to bill on a certain day,” she said. “I literally had to be sitting at my desk and on my computer, where the software was installed. No matter what was going on, I had to be at my computer on our billing days, and I thought, there has to be some internet-based solution out there that will allow me the freedom to be at my office, on the beach, or wherever to get my billing done.” So she started doing some research again.
After Googling a few options, it wasn’t long before Shelly was ready to switch. “When I found [SIMPLE Tuition Management],” Shelly said, “I knew immediately. I told Joe ‘I’m so excited!’ And then I did the math, and with SIMPLE Tuition Management, it was easily saving us another $300 per month. It was a no-brainer.”
Spending More Time on the Mat
After switching, Shelly was amazed at how much time she was saving, how much money the business was saving, and how easy the billing became. “It saves me a ton of time,” she shared. “Compared to the martial arts tuition billing company, it saves me at least 20 hours per month.”
By using recurring martial arts tuition billing, student payments are debited automatically every month. If a student calls in to say that he needs a couple days delay, then Shelly can alter the schedule with a few clicks of a mouse. And best of all, she can do it from any computer or mobile device.
“I love the fact that I don’t have to sit at my desk,” Shelly said. “My favorite part of my job is being out on the mats and teaching the students, not being in my office. It gives me a lot more time to do the things that I enjoy doing. It’s awesome.”
Shelly also uses the new SIMPLE Tuition Management Mobile App, which helps her collect tuition and payments for merchandise while she and her students are out in the studio.
“I love the app on my phone!,” Shelly exclaimed. “We don’t want students to have to carry cash and checks when they come in, and we don’t want that to prevent them from making purchases in our school. Now, whenever a student says “oh, I don’t have my credit card with me,’ I just grab my phone and pull them up and [the payment] just goes through. It’s one less thing I have to be in my office for!”
Thank you, Shelly, for sharing your story.
“I recommend SIMPLE Tuition Management to a LOT of our NAPMA Schools for 3 IMPORTANT reasons.”
#1 – They save a TON of money over traditional “full service” martial arts billing companies; rather than give up 8%, 9% or 10% (or even more when you factor in all the crazy “junk fees” others charge) of their tuition, they save hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars per month. And with all the automatic notifications, don’t risk failed payments “falling through the cracks” either.
#2 – It’s SIMPLE, and it JUST WORKS.
There is a VERY short learning curve (several minutes and you’re up and running), and it’s SIMPLE to operate for your karate school, on an ongoing basis. The biggest complaint I hear about most software in the martial arts industry is that it’s just too hard to “figure out” and get running, so you end up paying a huge premium for features you don’t use, don’t need and in so many cases don’t want.This application is easy to set up, easy to use.
#3 – The ability to EASILY collect all types of payments on ANY device (Iphone, Android Phone, Tablet, Desktop…whatever…), have students register for events and make payments online, and all the other features are just icing on the cake.
““SIMPLE Tuition Management Is the Right Tool, at the Right Time!”
For martial arts school owners who are focused on providing great service, and building their business, this is a great application that does ONE thing, and does it incredibly well. It’s NOT trying to be “all things to all people”, instead, it’s like Apple Computer, “it just works”.”
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