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Why is franchising bad?

Its often put in the 'top 10 signs of mcdojoism' by many articles. But why? Expanding is a natural thing for a business, is it not? A lot of everyday businesses like Dymocks, Intercontinential Hotel, ToysRUs, Nike, Woolworth are all franchises and we don't claim them as 'ripoffs', rather, we still purchase from them frequently as we need the items they offer. I am appreciative that my brazilian jiu jitsu dojo is non profit and, at the end of the month, the way the instructors of our club list all our expenses and how the money is allocated to which section is honest, but they only do it as a side job. They all have day jobs (e.g. one of the best teachers, Taki, who holds a 3rd degree judo black belt holder and brown belt brazilian jiu jitsu, actually works as a hotel manager). If I were to grow up and do it full time, then I would need some money to get by. Where else am I going to get money to pay my utility bills, rent and food? Making money off customers is neccessary if the employee is only employed in that particular business, in my opinion. When a business is so successful that it can open up a second shop, thats a good thing. It means the original instructor is knowledgable at martial arts and is wanting to spread out to teach it to more people. Sure, I know that some shrewed business people then gets an underaged and unqualified teacher to instruct, but for those instructors who jump between the two places teaching or else put a good legit martial artist there, there is nothing wrong. As long as the head instructor keeps on monitoring and check on a frequent basis that the lower ranking teacher's teaching quality and martial arts ablity is good, then there should be no problem. I don't think that all martial arts franchises are bad, agree?

Public Comments

Martial arts isn't a product and the larger the class the lesser the attention to detail is given to students. Martial arts isn't a business, either. It's a way of life and shouldn't be made into a gimmick. The leading party/corporation/governmental body incharge will only be conserned with money to protect their interest and not care about instruction of the style. It becomes a business rather than a dojo. To me that's selling out. It's not about how many attends, but that the information given is genuine and the people are able to learn properly. They wouldn't be there if they didn't want to be, and franchising the school will only lead to a loss of attention and proper respect by non-franchised schools. In other words, it makes the quality spread way too thin. There could be genuine schools who are franchised, not none that I know, but with the whole McDojoism, franchising is just one part of it's over all morbid condition. No doctor can declare a disease with reason of only one symptom. I disagree with franchising as it puts the school up for the possibility of turning it into a McDojo really, really fast.
An instructor having two schools and dividing his time between the two is not bad. The definition of franchising does not really meet the two school circumstance if the head instructor/owner runs and teaches at both equally. The problem with franchising or branding is that you can not produce martial arts like you can cheese burgers. No instructor/owner can monitor everything and once a few little details are ignored or overlooked then in time you will have a few different schools with only the franchise name truly in common. This is not a completely strange occurrence since all martial arts through history tend to follow a pattern of change, however what you are unintentionally suggesting is change primarily caused by profit seeking not by practice, progression, or understanding. Change caused by/for the sake of money in martial arts has never been good. Two schools with one instructor I find acceptable but an instructor who sells his name "franchises' himself is only out to make money, not martial artists.
I vehemently disagree. Martial arts is, or should be, in a different class than a meal or a bed. The primary goal of a dojo should not be to make money, but to create qualified martial artists. Places that promise rapid advancement shortchange their students and tarnish the reputation of legitimate martial artists. Ultimately, many fool themselves into believing their own PR.
Your logic does not hold water. The martial arts are not something that everyone is cut out to do. commercialism has made it Dumbed-Down so that it will appeal to many more people. It is a shadow of the real arts that it came from. It is like selling a glass of ice tea. Then watering the tea down yet still calling it the real thing. If all you ever had was the watered down tea, you would not know what it was that you had missed. Franchising only makes the situation worse. Because a martial arts school does well in business or opens branch schools is absolutely no indication of it being a good school or the instructor being good. It is simply a testament of Strict business practices designed not to create better training or better students. It is designed first and only for the purpose of maximizing the profit. I have studied and been heavily involved in the martial arts for more than 43 years. It was my life for many years. It still plays a significant portion of my life. I sure am aware of what good martial arts is. I'm also well versed on the business practices use by most commercial martial arts schools today. When anyone jumps up saying how much the expansion of the martial arts schools has helped the martial arts, I know something right away. Those that believe that are either, A) young and were not around when the majority of Dojo taught the real deal, or B) They have been in a commercial environment and have seen little else. Franchises are good for restaurants and other venues. They have done nothing to help the martial arts gain integrity or to increase the quality of what is taught or who teaches it. There are several Franchise martial arts groups now in the U.S.A. I have yet to see even one that is legit. If anyone thinks that more commercial schools or franchise schools is a good thing, then you might as well sit back and drink some more watered down tea. Because unless you look closely at the present situation and compare it with the standards of the 1950's, and 1960's, you have no idea what you are talking about. The franchises you mentioned sell products. The same products available at other stores. The martial arts are not the same anywhere you buy it. There is no fair comparison between selling products and the martial arts. ...
The whole point of Franchising is mass production to maximize profit. The Martial Arts are not called arts for arbitrary reasons, it's called an art because although the techniques taught are the same, the products are unique and different depending on the artist. Last time I looked, one does not mass produce art. An Art is valued exactly because it is unique.
Franchising a martial art is like franchising a religion. No, martial arts are not religion, to most, but martial arts are: as already stated... a way of life. Look on martial art franchises as you would a televangelist, how in the world can you believe the things these people say when everything they do is for marketing and making more money for themselves... not the church. Is what they do truly the word of their God? If it is why would you follow that god? (note: That was an intentional change in capitalization.) Again, martial arts are not practiced as a business. That, and I have to second pugpaws2 100% on martial arts not being for everybody, and the reason businesses are successful in the martial art world, is because of the dumbing down of the chosen martial art's essence. TRUE martial arts is like a bus ride, everybody has their stop. A lot of people get on in the beginning, and a lot of people get off in the beginning. Very few people ride it out to the end of the line, and most of the time it's so few that the ride is quite lonely. However, if we change the tune, maybe fix the seats, add some music, crazy lights, and drinks, even awards; people will want to stay on the bus longer missing the stop they should get off on. I've only been teaching for several years, and this has for the most part been free, as I'd like to keep my students. I try and charge $50/month for one-on-one training 2-3hours a day, whenever they wish to train. The problem is, people want the immediate gratification, and I can't get them past the basics; most only last one month. Sure, they offer words of confidence that they will return to practice the next time, or week, but they don't have the drive and eventually fail to return. I find it sad, not because I don't have any students, but because the people are missing out on what could be one of the most fulfilling things they will ever participate in during their lives. I'm not saying my teachings will hold this fulfillment, but that their experience in martial arts and the secrets it holds is what they will miss.
There is a big difference in having a couple of schools and having franchises like McDonald's. A martial arts dojo is opened to teach martial arts (self defense). A franchise is a cookie cutter way of earning profits. There is a trend in schools that operate under the banner of martial arts that have created franchises. They sell you a business plan in order to make money. The focus on those place are not on teaching real self defense. It primary focus is to make lots of cash. In order to keep the uniformed student paying them they water down the martial art. They make class easy and reduce the standards. This created student that believe they know self defense that are not well equipped to defend themselves. Not only have these places failed to teach real martial arts they have those student believing the lie. They hand out new belt very quickly in order to make its students believe they re getting better. They are showing signs of progress. In reality the only thing that is happening their wallets and purses are getting smaller. The longer they have you on the hook they increase your fees. You want to stop paying all of those high fees, but you are so close to reaching "black belt", you just can't quit when you are this close. Those tactics are the basis of almost every scam a con artist uses. For some reason people are still falling for this type of swindling. They use that scam telling people that they won the lottery even though they never played it. But in order to collect the money we need you to pay for the shipping. Once you pay that, you will get your money. You pay it, you are going to get your money but there are some processing fees that has to be taken care of first. This fee is not too high. It just a little more than the shipping. You are almost there, but the taxes need to be paid. Yes the fee went up. You pay the taxes. We have your money and we are going to release it to you, but you need to pay the attorney fees to transfer the money. It keeps going on and the consumer loses more money with nothing to show for but a piece of black material around their waste. They give true martial artist a bad name. I've seen these types of scam too often. I even had a tae kwon do school try to get me with the scam. The guy is a 9th or 10th degree black belt from Korea. He taught or trained the Korean Nation Olympic team. He must be good at teaching right? At the end of his sales pitch he want me to sign a 2 year contract for a few thousands of dollars. I was leery. Then he told me that he was going to put my wife and I in his black belt club. Which means that he guaranteed us that we would be black belts in a year. I had a son that was going to join too, but he said my son would be in that club. I asked how could you guarantee me that I would be a black belt in a year. He replied because I had previous martial arts experience. I had learned some judo in the past. I replied, judo and tkd are nothing alike. But he insisted that past training would be enough to guarantee me this rank in a short period of time. I had spent years to get to the rank that I had in judo. If it sound too good to be true, it is. I asked what is the guarantee. He explained that if I didn't have my black belt in one year. I could continue training there for free until I got the black belt. I knew that no matter what I would be given a belt and not earning the belt. Keep in mind my wife was going to get the same guarantee. She didn't hold rank in any martial art. Why was the offer extended to her? Why did he only mentioned this offer when I was going to walk out because of the long term contract. In the end I think he want over 7,500.00 from me. I was self employed. He knew that. I could have made the payments. But I didn't learn how to run a successful business by entering into bad business deals. I almost forgot. Somehow competitions came up. He told me that They compete only against their owns schools. They are not allowed to compete against other styles of martial arts or other tkd school. I had never heard of this. I was confused. I said you mean you hold a tournament and only the students that go here can compete? He then explained that he had 4 or 5 schools. They get together and compete against each other only. It is rare that they do this at all. Another way to make money and keep it all. I had heard more than enough. I had to leave. I continued to search for a good school. I noticed that in the yellow pages that most every tkd school that had a Korean instructor said that they were nationally ranked and that they coach an Olympic tkd team.
Hi there My take on it is quite simply this. Inorder for an art to survive it only needs a handfull of people who are well trained enough to keeping it going. It doesnt need nor is it in the the arts best interest to be sold to the massess. However popularity does give people the chance to find out about something they wouldnt normally be privy to. As far as teaching for a living i hate to say it but nearly all of the people who do this outside of Japan are very bad from my experiences. Yes there are a few people i know who do quite well out of doing seminars and travelling the globe teaching but they all have full time jobs as well. Money corrupts just about everything it touches. The arts dont need to be big or wealthy in order to survive they just need a handfull of dedicated students who know what their doing. A pin striped Gi or club Tshirt doesnt reflect how much you know only how much you want to be noticed. Not a good thing when it comes to martial arts really. And Mcdojos only really attract TV martial artists anyway. Harsh but true! Best wishes idai
Franchising means somebody gets a fat check, and you get a school. To pay for this huge expenditure, which is nothing more than a business mortgage, school income must be used to pay for it. That means, school owners are busy trying to pay for this mortgage, and will do whatever is necessary to pay this money. In return, the franchiser will help the franchisee with legal issues (contracts), advertisement, and equipment (which must be bought through the franchiser, but usually at a competitive wholesale discount). If you were to start up on your own, you must have ALL of the money up front. It is much cheaper to start up as a franchise, because you DONT have to have all of the money up front. The concept is fine, but the fine print favors the franchisee, not the customer. The school NEEDS that money to pay back the franchiser (the mortgage). That's why a franchised school can pop up in less than a weekend, because all of the advertistment and equipment is available (thanks to the franchise agreements) on day 1. If you compare two schools, one franchised and the other not, you'll find that the franchise tends to be more business-oriented. And they need to be, or they lose that mortgage. (and all of the other benefits of being in a multilevel marketing scheme). The other school's assets have already been paid off, so there's no need to be in that contract mode. It also turns out that those schools who, even though they're not franchisees, still model their business after the franchisers, offering contracts, kiddie programs, fast belt promotions, and promotion on tenior rather than merit. These are just as McDojo as the franchisees. So it's the business model that creates the environment of McDojo, not specifically the franchise. Something else to consider; the stores you mention are franchisees, but they don't make people sign contracts and do all that multilevel marketing stuff that places business before the art. But if you included some health club franchisees - even the big-named ones - you will find that although they don't teach, they do contract out personal trainers. And here is where the similarity to martial arts begins, it's really no different. Just try to break a personal trainer contract, or stop payment on a health club. You'll be calling them McHealthclubs in no time, I guarantee it. Bottom line, when you sell comodity, franchising is good, because it gives the consumer consistency in product, and price benefit on wholesale. For franchising service rarely ever works well for the consumer.