Full Circle Martial Arts Academy cut six tools down to one and put $1,000 a month back in the classroom
How a virtual studio owner who managed everything by hand grew Full Circle Martial Arts Academy from 10 students to 100 a month — then used MyStudio's automations to cut six tools down to one and save over $1,000 a month. Naomi's take: run the cost-benefit numbers, and if a task costs more than 5 hours or $50 a month, it's time to switch.
The challenge
Full Circle Martial Arts Academy has been open since September 2012 — from a single program at a community center to a studio averaging about 100 students a month, up from an original roster of 10. Owner Naomi manages the business virtually, from a different state than the studio itself, overseeing a full team of instructors, assistants, and office staff.
As Full Circle grew, its registration and billing processes stayed entirely manual, eating up a lot of office hours.
What they did
A fellow studio owner in her martial arts association pointed her to MyStudio. What sold her: clear pricing built right into the app, a clear multi-site plan, and demo videos that actually showed the administrative side of the platform. "I'm just all about transparency," she said — and that's exactly what convinced her MyStudio was different.
The MyStudio team customized Full Circle's setup around how the gym already operated, instead of forcing it into a cookie-cutter template — so Naomi never had to change her pricing or notify families about schedule changes.
"I loved that I could take a video screenshot of what I was seeing and some of my challenges and send it to the team, and immediately get a video screenshot back on how to remedy or fix it. That very quick response with an actual video walkthrough, and the willingness to allow me to send videos back, became really helpful for me to get us set up."
— Naomi, Full Circle Martial Arts Academy
The results
Asked what single feature made the biggest difference, Naomi didn't hesitate: "Automations, automations are number one." Before MyStudio, enrolling a new student meant a phone call or email, writing their contact information on paper, entering it into an Excel document, customizing an email template to send them, and mailing out fillable forms to get back — "a two to four point engagement system to get someone enrolled," and a time-consuming one.
Now, a prospective student fills out information on Full Circle's website, and MyStudio automatically sends a reminder for their free class trial, a new student welcome packet, and handles payment for starting equipment and the registration fee — with no manual work from staff. "It's one click now, and they're just there."
Naomi's advice to any studio owner on the fence: run the numbers first. "You need to understand how much capacity is being spent for this one task... If you're spending over five hours and the amount of tools you have are going to cost more than $50 a month, it is probably more beneficial for you to move to a system that is going to integrate a lot of that."
The payoff was concrete. Full Circle decommissioned six other tools it no longer needed. "Our office manager stepped away from that position. That saves me over $1,000 a month, and instead he's now in the classroom teaching, which is where he wants to be." Staff are no longer tied to a computer as often and can spend more time in the classroom instead.
"We're pretty transparent. Part of being able to not raise prices on our students is by making better financial choices and tool choices and capacity choices on the back end."
— Naomi, Full Circle Martial Arts Academy