As I sit here writing this, my Facebook memories feed popped up showing things about when the government decided to overstep its control and force me to close my dojos down for a little over three months back in 2020. All of us remember that. All of us know the feeling of anger, dread, concern and even worry that popped into our hearts and minds back then due to Covid.
What I remember most was all these Karate/Martial Art schools jumping on Gofundme and other platforms begging, and I will use that word again, begging for money so they could stay open. My students even asked me if it was alright for them to make one for my dojo and I said…NO.
Now, that may seem odd since teaching Karate is my livelihood, but, to me, it wasn’t. I do not beg. I don’t take something for nothing. I want to earn what I have in life. During the Covid lockdown I saw martial art schools raising anywhere from a few thousand dollars all the way to one I saw who raised around $25,000. From the get go I was against this mentality. Rents were paused. Insurance payments were paused. Business owners had access to all sorts of funding through the PIP, EIDL and even self-employment aid. I knew of one dojo that got over $100K in payroll protection and still raised over $10,000 with their Gofundme page.
During that time all I got was the unemployment thing but I ended it the day I re-opened my dojo for classes. I know many people who were still getting it even though they re-opened their schools for almost a year afterwards. To me that was lying, fraud and more. I didn’t get the payroll protection. I didn’t get all that free money they were offering. I didn’t even get an disaster loan…because I didn’t apply.
Some make think that was very stupid of me but, it wasn’t. I have heard everything about how, since we are cheated by the government all of our lives, that we should’ve taken everything we could get from them but I disagree. I hate paying taxes as much as the next person and, yes, it completely pisses me off that over 55 cents of every dollar I earn goes to taxes, but that is part of owning a business. I was offered a $10,000 grant but, the more I looked into it, the more I realized that only $1,000 of it was an actual grant and the rest went into a loan that had to be repaid. Since I was technically unemployed due to being forced to shut down I did apply for the unemployment benefit but that was still very little, especially after the “bonus” (as they called it) decreased over the term of the mandated Covid closure.
When my students asked me if they could create a Gofundme account for the dojo and I said no, many of them were in shock. “Everyone else was doing it so why isn’t our Sensei” is what I heard. Let me explain why…
I started my dojo by taking the $125 dollars I had in my savings account out to pay the first month’s rent and get the gas turned on in my name to heat the building. That first month I made $350 profit. I put that $125 back in my savings account immediately. Over time I would have months where, had I not had a regular job, I would’ve not been able to pay the rent, utilities or insurance and took money out of my savings to cover those costs. There were even times that my personal apartment rent was late because I had to cover the dojo first. I also had my electric shut off at my apartment many times because I had to chose between the bill for the dojo or the bill for myself. I knew, going into opening my dojo, that this would be my life until I established my dojo in the community and people saw the value to what I had to offer them.
Over the years that I have been teaching (33 as this year), I have had to move my dojo several times due to increases in rent, bad landlords or even reduction in student counts. Each time it cost money to ready the new space for training martial arts. Each time I took the money out of my savings to cover it…often leaving me completely broke again. When I had the chance to buy my own building back in 2015 I completely wiped out my savings, cashed in investments and simply went without a lot of comforts to do so. I even sold off many things (including my motorcycle) that most would never have parted with. I never asked for a loan. I never got a handout. I never went to family and said “Hey can I borrow money”.
Either I earned my way or I deserved to fail is how I see it. I have never had a loan for my business. I have never used credit cards for my business (either I had the money or I didn’t need it). I have sold many things over the years to keep my dojos afloat that it isn’t even funny, including my entire Star Wars collection which is worth 10x what I sold it for back then.
When Covid hit I was just like everyone else and thought “What the hell am I going to do now?”. I immediately went to work on setting up a Youtube channel, recording videos every single day to post to it and staying engaged with my students virtually as much as could. I went from spending around 7 hours a day at my dojo to spending over 12, sometimes longer, recording, editing and updating videos. My work load tripled and I worked my ass off to provide them the best instruction I could via the very limited virtual method (Karate is a hands on training environment and videos are a good resource but you can’t learn from them properly). Even though I had asked my students to support the dojo by keeping their tuition coming in, about 40% of them stopped the payments so I was operating on a net loss every single month the dojo was closed. I tapped my savings once again just to keep the payments on the building, insurance and utilities current for months after we reopened. Luckily I had that whopping $185 per week in unemployment coming in LOL. I cancelled all of my subscriptions to Netflix, Youtube and TV. Anything that I didn’t need was cancelled as soon as I heard we were going to be forced to shut down. Funny thing was, I never even missed all those things because I was so busy providing the only platform I had to teach for my students.
Well, it has been 4 years since the Covid lockdowns occurred. Over these past few years I have listened to people I know that have martial art schools talk about “all the money” they got. What I found was the most hilarious was how these same people that had the Gofundme accounts suddenly bought new cars, boats or went on long vacations when they never were able to do so before. I even know of one instructor who raised around $7,500 for his dojo during the lockdown who, as soon as it was lifted, closed up shop and blamed on it Covid. Did he ever give the money back? NOPE.
When people ask me about what I did with the “money” the government “gave us” I tell them I never got any except the $1,000 EIDL grant and the unemployment. They look at me all perplexed and think I am such an idiot not to take it. When I am asked why I didn’t I simply respond “If I didn’t actually EARN IT then I do NOT deserve it”. Even more of them are shocked to hear I never did a “fundraiser” for my dojo either. I was even called an idiot by one so called “Sensei” because I never made a Gofundme account. I expected that from him since he never put ANY of his own money into opening his dojo because he “crowd sourced it”.
In the end I am not bitter against those who used the system to cash in during Covid. It was just who I am. I want to achieve something because of my hard work, dedication, perseverance and willingness to make sacrifices so that, in the end, I can truly be proud of what I built knowing I never relied on freebees or handouts. It may seem silly given the state of society today but that was the same way I earned my black belt…hard work, long hours in the dojo, sacrificing my personal time and never giving up even when it was easier to just quit. This is just who I am and, YES, I am different than most because I have yet to meet another martial art school owner who didn’t go the PIP, EIDL, LOAN, Gofundme way to this day. More power to them but I know, in my heart, that I will make it on my own accord without getting something for nothing.
Steven Franz, Shihan
Shorin Ryu Shorinkan
THE DOJO SHORINKAN 