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How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:26 pm
by Art S
:confused5
Hi,
I am fairly new forums and sure this has been covered in the passed, so please be gentle.
I received my CHL instructor license in Texas last April. I have built a website, posted a little Blog, have a page on facebook, put fliers up in various places, an ad on Craig’s list and I am on several instructors lists(TXDPS,USA Carry, TCHA, Etc. I have had a few friends take my class and only picked up 4 regular and 5 renewals.
Can you help? What am I missing?
Any and all ideas are much appreciated.

Art S. :anamatedbanana

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:31 pm
by WildBill
I would seperate your CHL website from Artsthisnthat.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:36 pm
by AEA
Keep doing what your are doing with getting the word out. Consider dropping your prices to attract more who are looking for the cheapest price in your area. Especially for renewals.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:39 pm
by The Annoyed Man
WildBill wrote:I would seperate your CHL website from Artsthisnthat.
Additionally, I would retain the services of a professional website designer.

I just happen to be one. :mrgreen:

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:42 pm
by WildBill
The Annoyed Man wrote:
WildBill wrote:I would seperate your CHL website from Artsthisnthat.
Additionally, I would retain the services of a professional website designer.

I just happen to be one. :mrgreen:
And a darn good one, I might add. :thumbs2:

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:43 pm
by speedsix
...I'd speak before Rotary, Kiwanis...any venue of men/women who want speakers...of course, flyers in gun/sporting/pawn shops...flyers with tear-off strips for phone/website in barber shops/with a few beauty operators...co-op with martial arts trainers...you help them...they help you...mechanics...folks that sell hunting stuff for trucks..bumpers...winches...print up 1000 cheap cards and give 'em out to everyone you see at Home Depot, etc...saying "your name/phone number on the back of this card returned by new student gets you _$________ or $__________ off towards your own class... people bring people...people tell people...you can wait forever for hits on a website...

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:46 pm
by WildBill
speedsix wrote:...I'd speak before Rotary, Kiwanis...any venue of men/women who want speakers...of course, flyers in gun/sporting/pawn shops...flyers with tear-off strips for phone/website in barber shops/with a few beauty operators...co-op with martial arts trainers...you help them...they help you...mechanics...folks that sell hunting stuff for trucks..bumpers...winches...print up 1000 cheap cards and give 'em out to everyone you see at Home Depot, etc...saying "your name/phone number on the back of this card returned by new student gets you _$________ or $__________ off towards your own class... people bring people...people tell people...you can wait forever for hits on a website...
:thumbs2: You're just full of ideas.

IMO after the initial "problem" of getting students, your best source of new business will be referrals from former students. That is how I found my initial CHL instructor. He class is outstanding and I have given his name to at least a dozen people who took the class from him.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:49 pm
by speedsix
" ...You're just full of ideas. " that's a definite upgrade!!! :evil2: Thanks!!!

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 7:07 pm
by WildBill
speedsix wrote:" ...You're just full of ideas. " that's a definite upgrade!!! :evil2: Thanks!!!
Speedsix really got me going!

Do not use lower prices to attract students. I don't think that a "price-war" works or benefits the students or the instructors. I don't know of any CHL instructor who is living a life of luxury from the income from their CHL classes.

I have my renewal this Saturday. I know that I will get a top-notch instructor and class. The price of the class was not a factor in my decision.

Getting a CHL for the first time can be an intimidating experience. One of the attractions of my original class was that it was "one-stop shopping." The class included fingerprints and the passport style photo. I don't know if it is required now, but the co-instructor was/is also a notary public who notarized all of the required documents.

IMO, this took a lot of the stress out of process for a first-time CHL student.
I know that it's different now with the L1 prints, but I would suggest buying a camera, software and printer to take the photographs so that your students don't have to make another trip to Walgreen's. It's going to cost you some extra money, but that's why you don't want to get into a "price war".

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:38 pm
by gringo pistolero
What's your business strategy? Different tactics will work better than others depending on your strategy.

If your strategy is low price, you're usually chasing a different market segment than someone selling premium quality. If your strategy is operational efficiency, that's different than personalized solutions. Same if your strategy is convenience.

What differentiates YOU from the hundreds of other instructors in Texas? Capitalize on your strengths.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:33 am
by puma guy
WildBill wrote:I would seperate your CHL website from Artsthisnthat.
:iagree:

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:10 pm
by wgoforth
Art, my website is a meager free one and I live in a small town, yet I have students running out my ears!
Here is what I have done:
Flyers on every bulletin board in town. Business cards on every counter that will let me place them. I go by the fire stations, police depts and offered discounts to first responders. Went to all gun shops and talked it up and left a stack of cards with their promise to give my name out to those calling/coming by to inquire about CHL's. In the future I may have to resort to paid ads or the like, but right now these things and word of mouth is keeping me busy. Don't underestimate leg work. Go to the gymns and talk to the managers, chamber of commerce, etc.

http://www.castlekeepservices.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and my Castle Keep Services FaceBook page gets a lot of hits.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:18 pm
by MoJo
Are you on the DPS's instructor referral list? I've gotten many students through this listing. I have a free ad that runs on a local Classified ad site. Again numerous clients. Your best advertising is satisfied students. Put business cards at gun stores, sporting goods stores, etc. It takes time but your name will get out there and students will start coming. Good luck.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:50 pm
by bayouhazard
It looks like he's in Houston so there are a lot of potential students. Also a lot of competition.

I agree a good website is important. I haven't looked at his so these are generic comments about small business websites in general.
IIt must look professional. If it looks like a hobby site I expect to pay hobby prices.
If you sell one primary product or service, I should be able to find the price immediately. No extra clicks. No adding to carts. Up front.
I should be able to find the date of your next open class easily. Preferably on the main page or the training main page if they sell other stuff.
Prices should be competive compared to instructors with similar qualifications teaching at similar facilities.
Tell me what's included. Tell me what's not included if you're going to charge me for it anyway, like range fees.
Respond to email and phone calls promptly.

For the tldr crowd: treat it like a real business, even if it's only a side job.

Re: How do I find students for my CHL classes?

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 2:13 pm
by The Annoyed Man
WildBill wrote:
speedsix wrote:" ...You're just full of ideas. " that's a definite upgrade!!! :evil2: Thanks!!!
Do not use lower prices to attract students. I don't think that a "price-war" works or benefits the students or the instructors. I don't know of any CHL instructor who is living a life of luxury from the income from their CHL classes.
"Price wars" is what killed off the traditional printing industry—combined with technological changes which required capital investments for digital technologies just when people were starting to devalue their own products and reduce their revenues.

Your industry is in danger of heading in the same direction.

1) Stick to your pricing structure. It conveys value to your students. If the vendor is telling his students that his services are only worth 50% of your fees, then that is the value the student will impart to the service, and that is the value he will expect from your services. DON'T indulge that tendency. Let the other guy go out of business if he wants to, but you stick to your guns.....so to speak.....and justify your prices by superior performance. Don't get complacent. There are always people out there who are willing to pay more for better quality........or else Apple Mac computers would not have a market. :mrgreen:

2) Hire professionals to do those things which you suck at, and don't be afraid to admit that you suck at them. I suck at accounting. Therefore, I pay a bookkeeper and a CPA. The businessman who fools himself into thinking that he is qualified and/or possesses the skills to do all things is headed for bankruptcy or jail. Take your pick. And by doing so, you contribute to the economy.

So, with regard to your current websites, and please take this in the spirit in which it is offered, whether or not you choose to hire me or some other professional: your website is pretty bad, and could stand to take advantage of much better technologies than the one you are using, and for not a huge investment in capital. And WildBill was right: It's OK to have a link back and forth between the two websites, but delink the content of one from the other....otherwise, what you've got is two identical webistes with completely different names. It's confusing to the viewer. What does "this 'n that" have to do with CHL? Not much. Also, that Microsoft product you're using stinks. I have another client that I migrated off of that service onto a regular hosting server (GoDaddy) and we rebuilt their site using an open source content management system (Joomla) connected to an open source database (mySQL). Similar hosting packages do not cost very much money per month, and both the software and the database are generally freely included as options in those kinds of hosting packages. So, my client's investment in the website consisted of the contract fee for my time, and one or two stock photos they purchased from iStockPhoto.com for $50-$60 for use on the site.

So, the thing about these open source content management systems is that it is very easy to set limits on how much you're going to spend. Basically, your choices consist (unless you know what you're doing) of hiring someone to install the software and then train you on how to use it, and then you develop the site, at the cheaper end, to hiring someone to install the software, develop the site, and turn over a turn-key solution to you, at the more expensive end. The cost of the latter is going to depend entirely on how much you want the site to do. For instance, adding a shopping cart capability would generally cost more than simply adding editorial content and some pictures. But, I can gaurantee you this, and I know it sounds self-serving coming from a guy like me, but the fact is that you are going to be much happier with the final product if you pay someone else to do it, you will be far less frustrated by the process, and you will have the time to devote to running your business instead of trying to build its website.

Go with the person who offers you a contract for a set price, rather than the person who says "my rate is $X per hour, and I don't know how many hours it will take to finish your site." A contract benefits both parties to the transaction. My contracts benefit me because they guarantee my compensation, with the power of the courts to enforce it if the customer is skootchy, and they define the customer's responsibilities to the process as well as my own. And they benefit the customer because they guarantee the quality of the product, the timely delivery of the product, and the price of the product—all things you need to be able to rely on so that you can make concrete plans for your business.

Finally, understand that the website designer hasn't been born who can and will write your content better than you can. I am typical of a lot of website designers in that I have had a number of years in the newspaper publishing and the graphics/printing industries in my background, and I am comfortable proof-reading a customer's copy and suggesting wording changes, but nobody knows your business as well as you do! Virtually every single one of my clients over the years has been in a business like none of the others. They have included an oil-field equipment/vehicle maintenance corporation, a commercial plumber, a roofer, a CPA, a Lawyer, an online seller of "blinged out" spirit wear, a baseball fan site, an online kitchenware seller, a CHL instructor, a bed and breakfast, a die-casting foundrey, a teachers of singing trade group, a gun-rights advocacy group, etc., etc., etc. There is no way on God's green earth that I can possibly know anything about any of these businesses going into the process, outside of whatever might be the sort of common knowledge that one acquires along the highway of life. And then, no two customers in the same industry are necessarily going to run their business the same way. So sit down at a computer and type up all the different things you can say about your business. This will become the core of the website's content. If you do this part diligently, the development and delivery of your website's final product will be half of what it otherwise would be—the single biggest stumbling block to timely delivery of a website being the customer's failure to deliver content to the developer.

SEO (search engine optimization): Having a website is pretty much worthless if people don't go look at it. That is where SEO comes in. Don't spend a fortune on it. A lot of those companies are scam artists. There are far less expensive alternatives—not free, but definitely affordable—out there that can help you to promote your business effectively within the region in which you work. There is no sense in spending SEO dollars to promote your business in El Paso if your classes are held in Lufkin. On the other hand, you can locally promote your business on the web without spending a fortune.

But the bottom line in all of this—and it is the same for all people regardless of what industry they're in, including website designers—you're going to have to spend money on growing your business. Don't freak out about it. Just spend it wisely, but be willing to accept it as a cost of doing business.

All of the above is offered free of charge and is worth exactly what it cost you. If you would like additional information that may, or may not, be free of charge, feel free to PM me and we'll see if I can help you.

Best of luck in your endeavor.