I understand that you have a business to run. But BJJ has become more expensive than any other martial art AND essentially any other commodity I can even think of.
The most expensive yoga studio in the richest part of town with heated rooms and instructors doesn't cost as much as BJJ.
$150-250 per month?
$25-35 drop ins?
That’s a lot of money for mat space. Especially when you consider that comparable arts like wrestling and judo are virtually free in comparison. Rock climbing, Yoga, Pilates, Fitness studios, etc etc etc. I can’t think of any more expensive than BJJ. It really deters A LOT of people I know from signing up.
I blame the gracies. Specifically Rorion and his kids.
But, FWIW, I actually charge $80 a month or $10 per class. --Which is HALF of what most charge in my area (Southern California) and half of what we charged at the last school I taught at.
To be honest, it’s kind of an experiment. I’ve already had a new student who’s asked to pay half of that ($40) a month. It’s interesting.
BTW, I went to a brand new BJJ school --the month it opened-- and they were charging $220 a month --IN 1998! They are still around, 22 years later. Don’t know what happened with their prices.
kying418 - I live in a college town in Florida- hot yoga is around $160 per month, pole dancing school and crossfit is even more.
Even if you think BJJ is overpriced, I will always think it is way more valuable than those other
I dunno… I might have to check out the pricing details at a pole dancing school. Kinda hang out, really get to know their their market strategies. I think it would be useful to just be sort of be a fly on the wall and really SEE how they operate as a business.
Yes, in 2003 I paid $150/month at a particular club. They found they retained more quality committed people and got rid off the riff raff and made good profit by reducing numbers but charging more. Still going strong.
Anyway, in the first couple chapters, he talks about an anecdote that illustrates “Greater Perceived Value” Pricing:
"To illustrate his thesis that we make many decisions for emotional reasons even when we think we’re using analytical reasoning, Dr. Cialdini tells the story of a jewelry store owner who was having trouble selling some turquoise jewelry she had recently put on display in her store.
The woman tried everything. She put the jewels at the front counter, placed them in a prominent display case, and guided customers to them every chance she got. Nothing worked. Finally, she was ready to give up. So she left a note for her store manager to “mark the prices x 1/2” on all of the turquoise inventory, which the manager misread as an instruction to double their prices. Interestingly, when the prices went up by 100%, they sold out almost immediately.
As Dr. Cialdini points out, a higher price truly can influence us psychologically into perceiving the product as more valuable."
I think this comes into play with monthly pricing. People see high/low prices and we automatically assign perceived value on the cost. The book goes into greater detail on why that is, but it's just the way our brains our wired/trained. We look at price to make an assessment, as a shortcut.
Yeah, Im not paying more than $100/month. Anything more is insane imo
I guess it it's a business model that works and I shouldn't complain. Just like I shouldn't complain about colleges charging $15,000 tuitions when it used to be virtually free. People wanna train BJJ, people want an education. I just think it deters so many people from training this art. And yes for me I'm not paying over $120
But, FWIW, I actually charge $80 a month or $10 per class. --Which is HALF of what most charge in my area (Southern California) and half of what we charged at the last school I taught at.
To be honest, it’s kind of an experiment. I’ve already had a new student who’s asked to pay half of that ($40) a month. It’s interesting.
I understand that you have a business to run. But BJJ has become more expensive than any other martial art AND essentially any other commodity I can even think of.
The most expensive yoga studio in the richest part of town with heated rooms and instructors doesn't cost as much as BJJ.
$150-250 per month?
$25-35 drop ins?
That’s a lot of money for mat space. Especially when you consider that comparable arts like wrestling and judo are virtually free in comparison. Rock climbing, Yoga, Pilates, Fitness studios, etc etc etc. I can’t think of any more expensive than BJJ. It really deters A LOT of people I know from signing up.
I blame the gracies. Specifically Rorion and his kids.
What town do you live in? The Crossfit and yogs studios where I live outcost the most expensive BJJ schools here by and aiddtioanl $60-$100. Drop ins are similar.
You aren’t just paying for mat space. You are paying for the instructor’s knowledge, access to group access to the other training partners, and the mat space.
But, FWIW, I actually charge $80 a month or $10 per class. --Which is HALF of what most charge in my area (Southern California) and half of what we charged at the last school I taught at.
To be honest, it’s kind of an experiment. I’ve already had a new student who’s asked to pay half of that ($40) a month. It’s interesting.
I would train under any legit black belt for $120
For someone who wants to get into the sport and is brand new, they have no way to discern what is a good or bad instructor, and what sort of value they would be getting.
They’ll make the general assumption that more expensive and bigger academy equals better value and go with that (assuming they can afford it).
But, FWIW, I actually charge $80 a month or $10 per class. --Which is HALF of what most charge in my area (Southern California) and half of what we charged at the last school I taught at.
To be honest, it’s kind of an experiment. I’ve already had a new student who’s asked to pay half of that ($40) a month. It’s interesting.
I would train under any legit black belt for $120
For someone who wants to get into the sport and is brand new, they have no way to discern what is a good or bad instructor, and what sort of value they would be getting.
They’ll make the general assumption that more expensive and bigger academy equals better value and go with that (assuming they can afford it).
I think in a lot of instances there is truth to that.
My wife was looking for a gym and anything that had group classes were about $200/month
compare it to what I pay for my kids for their activities. Public town sports are pretty cheap, but “american ninja warrior” type gyms are pretty expensive and my daughter’s gymnastics are putting me in the poor house at over $600/month.
A while back I called a karate place because it was near my kids’ elementary school. I wanted to see how that location worked out for them and our school was trying to get a kids program going. If I remember correctly they were charging $175… about the same as bjj.
Some of this is definitely inflation over the years.
I opened up in 2002 at $70 a month and half my prospects tried to haggle it down. That was at 3 per week.
I didn't raise prices until 2005 when we had several per DAY, 6 days a week. Even then it was a small increase. In 2009 I went up to $120-150 for different memberships, and new enrollments went UP. I was underpricing and it caused prospects to undervalue it. Haggling became rare.
The best perspective I ever got was in 2012, when I left my gym to help open a dance studio in the same town. They came armed with business systems like I had never seen before. A typical new student there was paying $125 per week and many were double or triple that. I had one client happily spending over $600 per week. It was so surreal to see students comfortably spending this on their dance lessons when I had struggled for years, just a couple miles away, to get people to pay less than that per month.
You cant compare bjj prices to wrestling and judo since wrestling and judo typically arent taught out of a business.
Bjj is expensive but over the years ive come to see its pretty comparable to other such as yoga, pole dancing(as previously mentioned,) music lessons, gymnastics, cross fit, dance, etc. Getting access to training of any sort and ongoing is going to cost money. What I will say though is that most bjj schools tend to have the mosy bang for your buck and greatest flexibility for scheduling.
Bjj are often taught 6 days a week, 2x a day(most days.) You are often able to attend an unlimited number of with your membership(depends on location obviously) for 100+ bucks a month you might only be allowed 1 music or 2 dance a week
You cant compare bjj prices to wrestling and judo since wrestling and judo typically arent taught out of a business.
Bjj is expensive but over the years ive come to see its pretty comparable to other such as yoga, pole dancing(as previously mentioned,) music lessons, gymnastics, cross fit, dance, etc. Getting access to training of any sort and ongoing is going to cost money. What I will say though is that most bjj schools tend to have the mosy bang for your buck and greatest flexibility for scheduling.
Bjj are often taught 6 days a week, 2x a day(most days.) You are often able to attend an unlimited number of with your membership(depends on location obviously) for 100+ bucks a month you might only be allowed 1 music or 2 dance a week
totally agree…
Not sure you find the same informal community vibe in those other pursuits either… So many places you can drop into when you’re visiting and hardly ever pay a drop-in fee.
I hardly travel myself but I just love that aspect.
i know that where I’m at someone might get laid off from work or have some other financial issue and it’s pretty casual in temporarily not being able to pay… Just general accommodations like that.
But, FWIW, I actually charge $80 a month or $10 per class. --Which is HALF of what most charge in my area (Southern California) and half of what we charged at the last school I taught at.
To be honest, it’s kind of an experiment. I’ve already had a new student who’s asked to pay half of that ($40) a month. It’s interesting.
There are some schools in my area that do the $180 a month. I will never pay that much. I would go max $150 a month for all (stand up, grappling, etc) but anything over $150 a month for one discipline isn't going to happen.