Martial Art School Owners : Stop Focusing on the “Fires”
If you own a small business—especially a mom-and-pop style business—you know the truth: stress is constant. There’s always a problem to solve. Always a fire to put out.
What may have started as a passion project, something you loved and wanted to share with the world, can quickly turn into a chaos machine. Suddenly, you’re no longer leading a business. You’re just firefighting, moving from one emergency to the next, with no time to breathe, plan, or grow.
And that’s exactly where many of the owners I work with find themselves. By the time I arrive, their main focus is simple: “Make this pain stop.”
The Hard Truth: No More Band-Aids
When I’m asked to do a business audit, the first instinct of the owner is to point to the most threatening fire. That overdue bill. That staff conflict. That customer complaint.
But here’s the hard truth: unless the business is on the very brink of closing, I refuse to focus on the fires. If we only chase flames, we will never solve the problem that ignites the fire in the first place.
Instead, I take owners back to the foundation. To the structure. To the beginning. Because if the foundation is weak, the fires will never stop.
Why Order Matters
When you’re rebuilding or re-evaluating your business, the temptation is to skip ahead to patch the visible problems and grab at instant relief. But lasting businesses aren’t built by skipping steps.
They’re built by following a specific order:
Start at the beginning. Clarify your vision and document it in a business plan.
Move through the pillars. Marketing, Operations, Finance, and Human Resources—each one deserves attention in sequence.
Take it slow. Understand each area before moving on. Depth matters more than speed.
That’s why in the Martial Art MBA program, we spend nearly a full month just on the business plan. Only after that foundation is solid do we move into the pillars. And even within each pillar, we begin at the beginning. For example, what does “operations” even mean, and what belongs there?
The process isn’t fast. It isn’t flashy. But it works.
The Power of Patience
The Martial Art MBA runs for 30 weeks. On Purpose. We are not in a hurry. Cllarity takes time. Understanding takes time. Building a business that doesn’t constantly burn down….. takes time.
And here’s the deal: I can’t work with people who only want to focus on instant relief. If someone insists on skipping steps, on focusing only on the fires, they won’t see results.
But for those who are willing to be patient, who commit to learning their business from start to finish, the transformation is extraordinary. They move from being permanent firefighters to being confident leaders of sustainable, thriving businesses.
