Behind every successful gym is a business plan. And sometimes, the courage to throw it out entirely.
Jena Hare and Michael Baez had theirs figured out in 2016. Research complete. Vision clear. They'd open a competitive martial arts center in Belmont, North Carolina. Competitive teens. Dedicated adults. The kind of students who'd train hard and compete harder.
Then the first kids walked through their door. Ages 3 to 5.
Jena called Mike: "I know you said like eight or nine was the youngest. How bad do you want to do this full time?"
Nine years later, that "problem" became the foundation of their entire business—and the model that puts food on their table every month.
The Market Showed Them What It Needed
The partnership looked perfect on paper: business expertise meets martial arts mastery. But the market had other ideas.
Jena Hare had built and sold multiple businesses. Commission sales. Industrial equipment. Clothing. Vehicles. She knew how to read markets and close deals.
When she sold her last company, she didn't know what came next. She just knew she didn't want another desk job with someone else calling the shots.
Michael Baez knew exactly what he wanted.
At 49, he'd been training in martial arts for 41 years—since he was 8 years old. Kung fu. Okinawan and Japanese karate. Filipino martial arts. Boxing. Kickboxing. Twenty years of teaching. But he'd never gone full-time. He taught nights and weekends around a day job.
They met training together at another dojo. Their families trained too. Friendship built on sweat and shared values.
One day Mike mentioned it casually: "Man, I wish I had that problem. I'd love to teach martial arts every day."
Jena heard opportunity. She brought business expertise. Mike brought martial arts mastery and a teaching philosophy refined over four decades. They partnered to open NC BUDO.
The plan: competitive martial arts center. Teens who wanted to test themselves. Adults looking for serious training. They researched Belmont. Mid-sized town, active families, room for a boutique competitive gym.
Reality hit different.
Belmont, as Jena would learn, is "full of little children." Working parents. Elementary schoolers needing somewhere safe and enriching after school let out at 2:30.
Not competitive teens. Not serious adult fighters.
Ages 3 to 10. Hungry to learn martial arts, yes. But they needed more than 30-minute classes twice a week.
"We thought we were going to be a competitive martial arts center and we do have a branch of that. What we have here are 3 to 10 year olds who are hungry for actual learning martial arts."
Most gym owners would have walked away. Wrong market. Wrong demographic. Wrong business plan.
Jena and Mike asked a different question: Can we serve this market without sacrificing what we believe?
They weren't the first gym owners to face this choice—adapting your business model to meet community needs often means letting go of your original vision.
The Pivot Moment
The decision wasn't easy. Mike had never taught students this young. But Jena saw the opportunity clearly.
Mike's comfort zone didn't include preschoolers.
He'd grown up old-school. Hardwood floors. Splinters in your feet. Stand when the instructor says stand. Sit when he says sit. Silent discipline. His youngest students had always been 8 or 9, and that felt generous.
Teaching 3-year-olds? That wasn't on the map.
But Jena saw something Mike couldn't yet. The community didn't just need martial arts classes. They needed after-school care. Structure. Homework help. Enrichment. Physical activity. All in one place where working parents could trust their kids were safe, engaged, and growing.
The question wasn't rhetorical. Mike wanted to teach full-time. This market needed something different than his plan. Could he adapt?
"I remember calling him like I know you said like eight or nine was the youngest. How bad do you want to do this full time?"
A week later, Jena was writing blogs about the benefits of martial arts for 3- to 6-year-olds. That was their market now.
It wasn't just about age. It was about letting the market define success instead of ego. Mike could teach what he loved—competitive forms, boxing, kickboxing—or he could serve who needed him.
He chose both. The after-school program would fund everything else.
As Jena puts it: "You have to bend to the needs of the community. Our community needed that."
The After-School Model That Actually Works
The pivot was one thing. Executing on it was another. NC BUDO needed a program structure that could keep 150 kids engaged daily—without the chaos.
Walk into most after-school programs and you'll see kids sitting in one spot. Waiting for class to start. Maybe some homework. Maybe some games.
Mostly: waiting.
NC BUDO built something different. Something that keeps 150 kids engaged daily without the chaos you'd expect from that many children in one building.
Their secret: 30-minute rotating stations.
Every student rotates through different stations each day. The schedule flexes based on age group, but everyone cycles through the core elements:
1. Homework area: School gets done first. Supervised study time in a quiet room. You can't have fun until responsibilities are handled. Parents love it. Kids learn time management.
2. Martial arts training: Age-appropriate instruction. The younger kids get foundational Okinawan karate—balance, structure, core principles. Older students can choose: traditional kata, boxing, kickboxing, stick fighting, even lightsaber choreography (more on that later).
3. Mindfulness and yoga: This isn't filler time. It's core curriculum. Breathing exercises. Emotional regulation. Learning to self-regulate in a noisy, chaotic environment—which is what real life feels like most days.
"When you go to the library, if we learn to use your inside voice in the library, does that skill carry through into everyday life?"
4. Arts and crafts: Creative expression. Building things. Making things. Using hands differently than punching and kicking.
5. Animal care and nature: Responsibility in action. NC BUDO keeps an axolotl, a bearded dragon, and an overly friendly bunny. Kids rotate through animal care club, learning feeding schedules and habitat maintenance.
6. Community garden: Growing plants. Donating produce. Contributing to something bigger than themselves.
7. Optional clubs: For kids who want to go deeper:
- Weapons training (bo staff, traditional Okinawan tools)
- Lightsaber choreography (stage combat, collaboration over competition)
- Groundwork club (grappling basics)
- Leadership helpers (older students earn the right to assist instruction)
Why Rotating Stations Work
Kids come in after a long school day. That's the hardest part of their day. Sitting them in one spot for 3-4 hours until parents arrive? Recipe for chaos and behavioral problems.
Thirty minutes is the sweet spot for young attention spans.
Long enough to engage. Short enough to stay focused. Variety keeps them interested. They're not stuck doing homework for two hours or martial arts for three.
They rotate. They move. They stay engaged.
And the scheduling flexibility matters. If a kid needs to leave early for another activity, they don't miss their favorite station. The rotation ensures they hit everything important each week without rigid lock-in.
"We don't just have our kids come in like a lot of schools do and stay in one spot. They rotate with 30 minute rotations through a different schedule each day."
The scale surprises people—150 people rotating through their space on any given day. But it doesn't feel overwhelming because of how it's structured.
Logistics that make it work:
- Bus partnerships with local schools. Buses drop kids directly at NC BUDO starting at 2:30 PM.
- Seven pickup vehicles in their own fleet for school runs when buses don't cover it.
- Classes capped at 20-25 students. Boutique feel even at scale. Kids don't get lost in crowds.
- Age-appropriate grouping. Five-year-olds don't train with 15-year-olds. Developmentally makes sense. Socially makes sense.
This isn't babysitting. It's structured enrichment that happens to include martial arts.
Parents get: homework help, physical activity, mindfulness training, character development, animal care education, and martial arts instruction.
In one program. One monthly fee. One pickup location.
It's a program structure that addresses why kids quit karate by keeping them engaged through variety.
Check out the full episode here to see how it all works:
Why This Model Became Their Foundation
The rotating station model solved the engagement problem. But it did something more valuable: it built a business that could sustain everything else they wanted to do.
Jena says it plainly:
"Definitely what puts food on our table is our after school program."
The after-school model is their bread and butter. It's the stable base revenue that allows everything else NC BUDO does to exist.
Mike can teach his lightsaber choreography class. (Parents wanted in on that one too—he had to create a separate adult session.) Jena can run boxing and kickboxing classes with pro boxer Ricky Rainey.
They can keep class sizes small. They can hire specialists for specific arts instead of trying to be everything to everyone themselves.
Passion classes don't always fill up. Some nights five people show up. Some nights fifteen. That's fine when your after-school program is consistent revenue nine months a year—a classic alternative income stream strategy where stable income enables experimentation.
The growth has been steady and aggressive:
"The biggest key to success in our market...reaching children who wouldn't have otherwise come through our door through our after school programming."
But the real ROI isn't just financial. It's relationship depth.
In a traditional 30-minute class model, you see students twice a week. Maybe an hour total. You teach techniques. You answer questions. You correct form. That's the relationship.
When kids are with you 3-4 hours a day, five days a week—you become family.
Mike tells a story about a student struggling with a bad day. Multiple things had gone wrong. The kid was spiraling. In a 30-minute class, you wouldn't even notice. You'd teach the lesson and move on.
At NC BUDO, they had time to sit down.
Make sticky notes for each bad thing that happened. Make sticky notes for each good thing that happened. Talk about how good things can balance out bad things. Talk about how sometimes you have to create your own good things instead of waiting for someone else to hand them to you.
That conversation became a mindfulness worksheet for everyone. That one kid's struggle became a teaching moment for 150 students.
"I apply more martial principle off the mat than I actually do on the mat. I don't think I ever would have realized that outside of this very unique situation."
Mike again:
"We celebrate and talk about the things that happen outside of the gym."
That retention compounds. Lifetime customer value compounds. Word-of-mouth referrals compound. The kids who stick around become the junior staff who teach the next generation. The families become advocates.
You can't buy that with marketing. You build it with time. It's student retention at its deepest level—not just keeping members, but creating lifelong relationships.
The Operational Reality (What It Actually Takes)
The model works. But it's not simple to execute. Here's what NC BUDO learned about the operational side of running an after-school program.
After-school programs are operationally complex. More than drop-off martial arts classes.
Here's what NC BUDO learned:
Staffing requirements
You need multiple instructors rotating through stations. Different expertise for different areas.
Someone qualified to supervise homework. Someone trained in animal care. Someone who can teach mindfulness without it feeling forced. Age-appropriate instructors who can manage 20-25 kids safely.
Licensing and insurance
Different requirements than standard martial arts classes. You're providing childcare. Transportation. Meal/snack supervision. Liability coverage shifts.
Transportation logistics
Bus partnerships require agreements with school districts. Vehicle fleet requires licensing, insurance, background-checked drivers. Scheduling pickups across multiple schools with different dismissal times.
Facilities
You need zones. A homework room that's quiet. Mat space for training. Outdoor access for garden/animal care. Storage for supplies across multiple activity types.
NC BUDO built this into their facility design from day one.
Technology and systems
When you're growing 50 students per year and managing 150 kids daily, spreadsheets don't cut it.
Jena describes their early days:
"We were doing things the real old school way...Three different segments of Google calendar...We were growing by 50 students a year at least. It was aggressive and it was really hard to keep up."
They were using Canva for every template. Spreadsheets for attendance. Multiple Google Calendars trying to coordinate staff, students, pickups, rotations. It was chaos.
They switched to Gymdesk and centralized everything. The features that transformed their operations:
- Attendance tracking. Mike uses it to enforce consistency. You can't cram for a belt test. You have to put in the time. The tracker lets him see at a glance: "You've only taken four classes this month. You're technically ready, but you still got to put in the time."
- Communication. Text and email families from one system. No more jumping between platforms. Cyber Monday special? One email to existing families. Summer camp pre-registration? Create the form once, send it to the right group, done.
- Forms and automation. Build templates once. Use them forever. Update annually. No more rebuilding from scratch every season.
When you're managing 150 students rotating through multiple stations with different schedules, vehicle pickups, club sign-ups, and age-appropriate grouping, you need systems that scale as your gym grows.
NC BUDO learned this by doing it wrong first.
Tools like Gymdesk help gyms manage that complexity—attendance, communication, scheduling, registration—so owners can focus on what matters: time with students.
Key Takeaways for Gym Owners
If you're considering an after-school program, here's what NC BUDO's nine-year journey teaches:
1. Let the market define your business, not your ego
Jena and Mike planned a competitive martial arts center. The market needed after-school care. They could have forced their vision or served the community. They chose community. Nine years later, the after-school program puts food on their table.
Flexibility beats rigid vision.
2. Rotating stations beat single-location models for long time blocks
Thirty minutes is the engagement window for most kids. One activity for 3-4 hours? Behavioral nightmare. Six activities rotating every 30 minutes? Engaged, focused, learning different skills.
Martial arts. Homework. Mindfulness. Enrichment. Each station teaches something different. Together they create a complete development program.
3. After-school programs can be foundational revenue
Consistent. Predictable. Nine months of the year (school calendar). Serves an underserved market (working parents). Allows you to run passion classes that don't always fill up.
The stable base funds the experimental and niche.
4. Time equals relationship depth
Thirty-minute classes are transactional. Three to four hours daily is family-level connection. That depth drives retention, lifetime value, referrals, and the kind of community that sustains a gym for decades.
NC BUDO's students from year one are in college now. They come back to work as instructors. That's the ROI of time.
5. Operational complexity requires systems from day one
Don't try to scale after-school programs on spreadsheets and Canva templates. You'll drown. Attendance, communication, scheduling, registration—automate early. NC BUDO uses Gymdesk to manage 150 daily students without chaos.
Get your systems right before you grow, or growth will break you.
The Lesson Behind The Pivot
The NC BUDO story isn't just about after-school programs. It's about listening to your market, even when it contradicts your plan.
Behind every successful gym is a business plan. Sometimes the best plan is recognizing when to pivot.
Jena Hare and Michael Baez thought they'd teach competitive fighters. They found their calling teaching 3-year-olds emotional regulation through sticky note exercises.
They planned for teens and adults. They built a foundation serving elementary schoolers who needed homework help and animal care education alongside martial arts.
The after-school program they never planned to build is the one that sustained nine years of growth, 50+ new students annually, and a business model that "puts food on their table."
The market knew better than their business plan.
So here's the question: What does your community actually need?
Are you serving your vision or their reality?
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your gym is throw out the plan and listen.
