Tom Lowe grew Horizon Taekwondo from 40 to 250 students after a year-long plateau at 200. In this episode we discuss how he broke founder-dependency, and rebuilt the school with stronger systems and support.

• The long plateau around 200 students and what helped shift momentum again
• The identity change required to stop doing everything alone
• How building an instructor team opened space for growth and balance
• How conversations with other school owners fast-tracked decision-making and confidence
• The value of shared insight from a community of school owners facing similar growth milestones

 *FREE: Bring 50 Enrollments Into Your Martial Arts School Every 90 Days Need help growing your martial arts school? Watch Training + Take The Assessment

TRANSCRIPTION

George: Hey, it's George Fourie.

Welcome to another Martial Arts Media™ Business Podcast.

So today I've got a guest with me that we've probably got a long overdue catch up.

We have been working together for around four years, I think I looked earlier, since about August 2021.

So Tom's come a long way with Horizon Taekwondo.

And yeah, we just want to go back on the journey.

How it all started, who Tom is, and where he's at right now in his martial arts journey.

So welcome to the call, Tom.

Tom: Thanks George, nice to be here.

George: Good stuff.

So we've got to start at the beginning.

Who is Tom Lowe?

Tom: I'm Tom from Adelaide in South Australia.

I've got a wife and two kids; one's 10, one's 3.

And I've been running my own martial arts club for about four and a half years now.

George: Four and a half years, cool.

So we didn't actually then start working; we started working together pretty soon after you opened up, right?

Tom: Yes, correct.

George: Cool.

Okay.

So let's, before we jump into the business and the nuts and bolts, give us some context.

Like how did the martial arts journey happen?

What made you decide on going ahead with the school?

Tom: So starting from the beginning, at the age of 10, I started Taekwondo with my dad and my brother.

We had a school down the end of our street and some of my school friends were going there.

So we joined, I think my brother and I started first.

My dad was taking us to training and thought this looked pretty cool, so he joined as well.

I wasn't probably the best student for a long time.

I think my dad pulled his hair out trying to get me to commit.

But I eventually sort of knuckled down when I got interested in competing around the age of 16.

I got my black belt, then competed at national and state level and a tiny bit at international level.

I decided when I was in my mid-twenties that I needed a career that wasn't Taekwondo.

So I went back to Uni and got a degree in management.

I worked for my dad's business in physiotherapy for a while.

Then I went back and did a master's in accounting.

During that time, I was teaching a little bit on the side.

I worked as an accountant for a little bit, then started gradually teaching more and more, and then turned it into a full-time job.

That was about 2015.

And then in 2021, I went out on my own and started my own business.

George: Own business being Horizon Taekwondo, or was there something before that?

Tom: Horizon Taekwondo was the first business I owned.

George: Gotcha.

Now, unlike many martial arts school owners, it sounds like you had a bit of a business journey there.

Well, you've got business and accounting, which is kind of cool.

I love accountants, but sometimes accountants have an accounting vision.

So when you get advice from the accountant, sometimes that benefits the books, but not the vision.

My opinion, please, results obviously vary, and it's just my viewing of my limited perspective.

But that's quite a unique background to come with, right?

So you had some business experience working with your dad and the accounting business, and then going into the martial arts space.

So how do you feel that benefited you, having that background before you opened up?

Tom: I think quite a lot.

I've also been lucky that my family's owned businesses pretty much for countless generations.

So I've always been brought up in a house that had a business, been run out of it pretty much.

And working for my dad's business especially, it wasn't sort of the easiest.

That would go through a bit of a difficult period.

And the job was to get it ready for sale so he could retire or semi-retire and work for someone else pretty much.

So that was the big goal we did there.

We had to really beef up the marketing, beef up the team.

A big part of my job was training the reception staff to be better at sales.

So that's helped me a lot with especially running a school.

And just having that background of understanding a bit more theory behind why things work and how we do things.

One of the biggest things I did learn is marketing; even though I understand the theory of it, it doesn't matter till the rubber meets the road.

And if you can get a result, the rest of the business doesn't work, which is why I sought out the Partners Program basically as soon as I got started.

George: Awesome.

And we'll tell you a bit about that.

So just more on the exit.

So did you manage to exit the business?

Tom: Yes.

I think I finished my Master's in Accounting at the end of 2014.

The business got sold that December and then I worked for an accounting firm after that.

So it was a good, very sort of neat job we put on it.

George: Very cool.

Okay.

So, and you say there's been businesses in the family as you grew up.

Was that the physio, the sole business, or were there other business ventures as well?

Tom: Yes, for my dad, that was his business, but he was also a director and on the board of a lot of our family's companies as well.

Which were in diverse things like electronics making, not winemaking, machinery for winemaking, staffing firms, and transportation firms as well.

George: All right, cool.

So good background in business there, you competed, and then you had the urge to open up the school.

How did that journey evolve?

Where did that happen?

So you were training, what was the switch?

Tom: I think sooner or later you kind of realize you're not good enough to go any further.

Like with competing, I was getting medals at national level.

I'd competed at the world Uni games about a year prior.

And I think the next step would have been to be a consistent competitor sort of at international level, but I just wasn't good enough to get there.

I had a lot of consistency issues.

Like I was really good one day, not good the next day.

And I figured that was my limiting factor.

And I was really at a crossroads.

Like I could do this another four years, really push, and then I could have nothing and be close to 30.

Or do I really need to think about the future now?

I probably delayed growing up long enough and time to focus on a career that actually pays money as opposed to an amateur fighting career.

George: Got it.

Okay, cool.

So this takes us to 2021, right?

Tom: So 2021 is when the business started.

George: All right.

So let's explore that.

So what were those first couple of weeks like, those first couple of months, you just getting off the ground?

What were sort of the first steps you took to get things rolling?

Tom: Yeah, well, I think during COVID I was just more and more thinking I wanted to do this on my own a bit.

I was getting to a stage where I was getting less control over what my future was going to look like.

And I felt like at the age I was at, I needed to get more control.

And then I just decided in 2021 that it was time for me to step out on my own.

So I think that the business background really helped me set up the business.

I knew what areas I needed to look at, what I needed to focus on.

And I was quite confident of everything in the business up until the sales level.

Like when you had to run a, effectively a branch of a martial arts club and you had to do sales in person, how to structure it, how to grow it.

So I was feeling pretty confident.

The hardest thing initially was to get the initial people through the door.

That was probably the biggest problem straight away.

George: Okay.

And was that sort of where we crossed paths?

Tom: Yeah, I think I was lucky enough that I found an email from my CRM, Clubworx, in my junk; it had gone straight there.

It was about this guy called George Fourie, who's doing a sales call on how to use Facebook for marketing.

I thought, I'll have a look at that.

And then I sort of watched that.

I think Amanda, who's part of the program, was on that call as well.

And from there, I think I watched it, gave you a call about a week later.

And since then I've been part of Partners.

George: Yes.

And so that was, I just looked earlier, August 2021.

Now take us back to then.

Because we've always had this thing in Partners that we typically take people on like a hundred students and up.

And it's not because no one's got potential or anything.

It's more a thing that the things that we focus on with the marketing, it just works better when there is that base.

But you were, I don't recall, maybe like 40, 45 students?

Tom: 40 students.

George: Yeah.

You were keen, and I guess sometimes you look at, you know, filters are just numbers, but you were just motivated.

You mentioned all the business background.

And I thought, hang on, you know, you're on a mission here.

I think we can definitely help.

So walk us through those sort of early days getting started.

What were the big problems you were facing and how did Partners help in that?

Tom: Okay.

Yeah.

So from the start, I think I was really lucky to have a partner, my wife, whose job was able to support us for at least the first year of the club.

So I think people at that stage are usually working full time plus they're doing the business on the side, which makes it hard to focus.

Where I could just focus a hundred percent on growing the business.

I think my initial plan was to use word of mouth, a lot of Google advertising to try to get it up and running.

That wasn't going particularly well.

I think I was lucky that I had a daycare program where I used to go to daycare centers and teach, which is where I got most of my members.

So the first probably four months was just trying to get people through the door.

Like I'd have classes with one or two people.

One of them was my son, some of his school friends as well.

And then I think it exploded about November 2021.

I went from about 30 to 70 in the space of two months between November and the end of the year.

George: Very cool.

Yeah.

So you grew fast in that sense.

Oh, okay.

So that's like doubling the club in not many months.

Take us through that step.

So you double the club.

Where are you at?

What's sort of working well and what's really creating bottlenecks at that point?

Tom: So the biggest thing that worked well for us was using Facebook as a marketing platform.

So that really helped us get the people through the door.

Once we got them through the door, we were really good at converting them to trial and members.

And the biggest bottleneck that came up next was the amount of classes we had.

So we started at two days a week and we had to go up to four days about halfway through 2022.

And then up to five days.

And then six days by the start of 2023.

George: I do want to stop there.

And I just want to say hats off to wives who make it happen and help guys like us build a business and move forward.

And Louise, you need to be on the next call by the way.

Yeah.

And I say that for myself too.

I was doing this business for a long time and it took the same process of my wife having a full-time stable job, being able to take us through the few dips before it became a full-time gig and what it is today.

So hats off.

Tom: I was really glad that with 18 months in the business, I was able to support both of us while Louise took time off work when we had our second child.

So it was kind of good that it was able to flip like that and I was able to return the favor.

George: That's cool.

That's cool.

And so if you had to look now, I don't want to sort of rush to the end, but how are things different now?

Like, I mean, if you just give us a quick snapshot of that.

Tom: Yeah.

Between now and then, probably the biggest thing is I've got a bit of a team now that I'm building.

And back then it was all on my own, which was hard.

So everything you have to do, there's no time off, no days off, no breaks, no holidays.

And I was really careful to conserve my energy.

So I didn't burn out before I got to a stage where I could step back even a little bit.

So that was probably the biggest difference now. Now I've got an awesome team of instructors I can call upon that enables me to take a few days off here and there.

Some of them really stepped up so that I can almost say, just, you can run it for a day or two and I don't even have to be in the building.

The next stages are where I can take a week or two off during the year and have the business function how I'd like it to.

George: Is that on the cards?

Is that coming?

Tom: Um, I haven't got a plan yet, but I had a good chat with my main instructor last week, who's looking forward to taking on even more responsibility than she's been taking on so far.

And she's looking forward to the challenge.

George: Book that holiday, Tom.

So if we talk about Partners, we mentioned the Facebook ads.

What are the top three things or so that you feel has made the biggest impact in your business?

Tom: Probably the biggest thing is the community.

We have weekly calls with people that have been there, done that in the martial arts space for decades.

And just being able to call on them, ask their advice.

And I think you've got a good saying that none of us are smarter than all of us.

So it really helps having people you can bounce ideas off, people that look at things slightly differently to you.

And you can come out of those meetings sometimes thinking you had a good idea at the start, then go, “I need to change my business” by the end of it.

And then you can really get that next step forward.

I think after that is the intensives I've been to.

I think I've got value every time I've sort of gone to see you up in Queensland or in Sydney, wherever it's been.

Or we spend time either in small groups or bigger groups.

I think every time I go to one of them, I have a bit of a leap forward in the business.

George: That's awesome.

Okay.

So community.

And it's interesting that you bring this up because most people come into the group because it's helpful marketing, getting students.

But it's sort of the entry point of value.

And then everything else is, I mean, I'd love to take credit for it all, but I just can't.

Community, everybody in the community and then the events, just having a different flavor of speakers and people bringing value at different times.

I guess just looking at how fast business is moving, you've got AI that's doing things that are disrupting a lot just in business altogether.

And so it's good to just stay on the cutting edge.

And that means having a community vibe because good knowledge comes from different sources.

Tom: Yeah.

I think the last intensive we had in Sydney at Australian Martial Arts Academy was awesome.

I think we took about three or four massive things that have already been implemented or are implemented at our club.

Like we set up our leadership programe based on the model they were showing us.

We developed an instructor training programe as well for not just our junior leaders, but our current instructors.

Changed the sales process, changed about three major parts of our business based on that one intensive.

Enabled us to jump from about 210 members to 250 in a space of a few months.

George: Very cool.

So Tom, specifically you hit about 200 students, 210, hit a few roadblocks.

What is the rethinking that you took on to set yourself up for your next milestone?

Tom: Yeah.

So I think we were lucky to hit 200 members pretty quickly into our journey.

But we kind of bounced around that 200 member mark for about 12, 13 months.

And one thing that I sort of found is if we're trying to do the same thing over and over again and probably just put more effort in, like just work harder and do the same things, but just harder.

And we found that that was probably creating the roadblock.

That was when we took a bit of time to step back from business a bit and sort of rethink about what the structure needed to look like to be a club of 300, 400 members.

That was able to really push through that milestone.

Like, do we change the timetable?

Do we change how we structure classes?

Do we change our enrollment process?

Like just what needed to happen to really get to that ceiling that seemed to be, we're butting up against often time and time again.

George: Okay.

And so were those the things that you made the changes with, the timetable?

Tom: And probably the biggest roadblock was the fact that I was doing everything.

So we really looked at building the team, building the resources around us.

And since then it's sort of happened.

It's almost felt easy since we've implemented the new changes.

George: Right.

So talk us through that because I think there's this big identity shift that every school owner and business owner faces.

You're the face of the business.

People come to the business kind of because of you, because you're the head guy, you're the head instructor.

And it's the quickest path to build a business on the personal brand, but then it's also the handcuffs, right?

Because now everybody wants you.

So how did you rethink that?

What are the steps that you took to put the emphasis on the team instead of yourself?

Tom: Yeah.

So I've always wanted to have a business that wasn't sort of personality focused on myself, that was always a goal.

But I think it's hard as someone who's running the business, who cares about it probably after your family is probably the next most important thing too, is relinquishing a bit of control and trusting others a bit more.

And I think the big thing for me is thinking about if you do everything in the business, you might have a good product, but if you're the only thing in the business, you don't have a good business because it's not sustainable.

So the goal has been to shift the thinking away from having just a good product, but also having a good sustainable business that can last long term.

George: Love it.

Tom: So for things like that, it was training the instructors so they were capable and ready to step in.

Empowering other people around us so I can step back a little bit and let them do their own thing.

And it's been funny. I had a chat with my lead instructor the other day and she was saying that, because she's taking on leading the mats on certain days, like she's the boss.

And she said it's hard for her to sometimes relinquish control as well.

So it's kind of good to see that go full circle a little bit.

George: That's cool.

So your leaders are also looking at how they can take a step back and also pass on the tools.

Tom: Creating space for other people to step up.

George: That's cool.

I think that's probably what you said is the most important because sometimes I think we can create a space that is hard for people to step into.

Or there's a certain, they feel all the expectation is on themselves.

They can't fill the shoes.

And so making it easy for them to step into that and be okay to not do it right.

And knowing that everything is going to be okay if they do make mistakes, definitely helps.

Tom: Yeah.

Same as being a parent, how you want to sort of preempt your kids' mistakes for them and try to warn them about them.

And then you've got to step back and realize they've got to make them for themselves.

George: Yeah.

A hundred percent.

Cool.

So for Tom, if you think Partners, what results have you achieved and what's been the biggest impact for the business and for you and Louise personally?

Tom: So since joining Partners, I think we've grown from about 40 students up to 250.

The biggest thing that has helped us really know what some of the biggest schools look like and how they function and they structure their business.

So it's really good having, not necessarily a roadmap, sort of, I probably consider everyone in that group to have been a mentor.

I've learned stuff from Lindsay, from Michael, from Hakan, probably forgetting a lot of names, Cheyne, a lot of people that have sort of been there to help the journey.

And also people that started at the same level as I did, like Amanda, who I think has been really good to sort of follow her success and her journey.

And I think the one thing I do love about it is everybody in that group wants everyone else to succeed as much as possible.

There's no “I need to make sure I'm better than someone else.”

“If they win, I win” is a good sort of policy of the group.

If you can give someone an idea they take and run with, you feel pretty proud of that.

And I think everyone in the group has that.

George: Yeah.

I think I've noticed over the years running the groups, we've got a lot of people that have had great success like you and some of the names that you mentioned.

And I feel the people that get the most value also give the most value.

Sometimes people want to come into the group and it's like, “How do you get me to where I want to go?”

And I think maybe there's a wrong perception put out in the market space where there's so many agencies, there's so many people making a promise.

We'll get you here.

We'll get you there.

And I think the emphasis is wrong because it's outsourcing your business success, that it's someone else's responsibility.

And I've seen over the years, the people that come into the group that contribute and learn, those are the ones that are succeeding the most.

Yeah.

It's definitely a two-way street is the way I see it.

Tom: Yeah.

I think it's also, I'm sorry, it's giving a fish as opposed to teaching how to fish.

So yeah, I think I've never wanted to have a lot of my business functions controlled by someone else.

So that's why I like Partners so much.

Because they don't do it for you.

You sort of get shown the way and how to do it.

You do get help when you need it.

But a lot of it's like, go figure it out.

This is what we do.

And then see how it goes with that.

Like one thing I'm really proud of is some of the stuff we do well at our club that other clubs have taken on board.

Like the Bring A Friend, Break A Board, the parent's coach's week, they're probably the two biggest events we run every year.

And I think others have taken on board and done well with it as well.

George: Yeah.

Love it.

Shout out to Grandmaster Zulfi Ahmed for sharing that at the intensive.

Tom: Yeah.

I think also Lindsay's Bring A Friend, Break A Board.

I think that was the way I got the inspiration for that one.

George: Very cool.

All right.

So a couple of round up questions.

If you had to finish a sentence, you almost didn't join Partners because…

Tom: It was a bit of a risk at the start.

I was in a business earning negative money per month and it was a bit of a buy-in to go into it.

I had to basically commit to it and I had to have a bit of a think about it.

But I decided that what I was doing wasn't working.

And I'm better to find out quickly if I'm not going to be able to run a business rather than try to slowly fade away.

So I thought, why not give it a try?

And I think it was probably one of the top business decisions we made by joining Partners when we did.

George: Very cool.

And who would you recommend Partners to?

Tom: I think anyone who's looking to grow their own club to people that they know what they're doing a bit, but they need a bit of help.

They need to bounce ideas off people.

It can be a bit isolating being a business owner.

Sometimes you think you've got to have all the answers and you need to create everything yourself.

Whereas Partners, you can go there, you can ask people questions.

You can bring what you think works and you can get it field tested a little bit.

You can use the group knowledge to help you grow as a person and as a business owner.

George: Very cool.

So what's next for Tom?

What's the next big milestone and what are you excited about?

We're now obviously recording this 2025, going to 2026.

What's the vision?

Tom: Yep.

So in terms of not just the business, but life as well, I've been able to take more time away from the business, which is a big goal for next year.

Growing to 350, maybe this is our goal for, as our next milestone.

And then really, I think the biggest thing for me also personally is we had to get a bigger house cause it's getting a bit small for our two growing boys right now.

So that's really the focus of where we're heading to.

And also just always improve what we do as a martial arts club, whether it be how we run a business or what we can offer the members as well.

George: Cool.

So keeping it simple, the foundations, keeping the same, but better, right?

Tom: Yes.

Yeah.

So we always want to, I never want a club that just sits still and doesn't get better.

George: So 350, what is the goal for the timeframe for that?

Tom: Timeframe.

I want to hit at least 330 by the end of next year.

Well, I think we're going to be running out of space in our current building by that stage.

So I think the next step is going to be a bigger venue after the 330 mark.

So 330 by the end of next year, by the end of 2026, this is the goal.

George: Love it.

Well, we'll have you back on for 330.

How's that?

Tom: Sounds good.

George: Cool, Tom.

Anything else?

Or should I get Louise on for the next round?

Tom: Yeah, I think Louise might have a different insight about what it's been like.

I think without her, nothing works.

I think everybody's got a supportive partner or wife who just knows how important that is to do what you do.

Like you can't, you need that stable base as a launch pad.

Otherwise you can't do much.

George: And I wouldn't say it's like you can't do it without it, but I think it would be a lot harder to do without it, 100%.

Tom: I think back to my grandma who, when she was quite old, she was like, “I didn't really do anything for my life.”

And then all these people did all these amazing things because you were so awesome at everything else that you managed the house, you ran everything.

You know, with my grandfather really having four different businesses on the go at once.

So without people like that, you can't, it's a lot harder.

Like you're saying.

George: Yeah.

A hundred percent.

Well, cool, Tom.

Thanks so much for jumping on, long overdue.

It's been so great four years chatting in.

And look forward to catching up again.

I'll see you during the week on the calls.

I look forward to just documenting the journey a bit further.

And yeah, we'll catch up soon.

Tom: All good.

Hey, thanks for this George.

It's been really good to come and have a bit of a chat with you.

George: Thanks Tom.

Cheers.

Tom: All right.

See you later.

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