Trends in CHL class enrollment, revisited

Over the last couple of years, the enrollments in my CHL classes have varied quite a bit, but what I now consider a ‘small’ class is what I would have considered a really large class 6 years ago. Back then, I was happy to get more than 3 students in a class. Business got a lot better when I located a facility that could accommodate up to about 30 students, with a range and fingerprinting service on the premises. The convenience of having a one-stop class that took care of everything made a lot of difference, and I started averaging 10-15 students in each class.

About 2 years ago, my courses started consistently selling out. Back then, I capped my courses at 16 students (two sets in an 8-lane range), but the demand was much greater than that, so I worked out ways to handle larger classes. It’s a lot more work, but I can now handle classes with up to 32 students — with the help of another instructor. My brother Tom now co-teaches with me whenever I know in advance that I will have more than 16 students. I also have standing arrangements with some other instructors to help with range testing if I need it.

I have noticed that recently, the demand for CHL classes has eased up a bit. For instance, tomorrow’s class only has eleven students, which is a comfortable size that is fairly easy to handle, even if a few of them have little or no handgun experience. With less than 15 minutes of one-on-one coaching, I can get almost anybody shooting well enough to pass the ridiculously easy Texas CHL range qualification. Of course, I make more money with more students, but I have not yet found the magic marketing trick that will predictably fill my classes.

Something happened today that might change that. Actually, a couple of things. One, I have been studying search-engine-optimization (SEO), and I have discovered a number of things that I have been doing wrong. And I will be correcting those problems over the next few weeks. But the Big Thing that happened today is that I got a very nice mention in Martin Avis’ email newsletter, ‘Kickstart’. I don’t recall how big his list is, but I think it is in the hundreds of thousands. When I saw that, I went and bumped up the bandwidth limit on my site by a factor of four — and I hope that is enough to handle the traffic surge.

If you are interested in Martin’s newsletter, you can sign up for it here. (Opens in a new window)

So, if you are here as a result of Martin’s email, welcome, and I hope you find something here interesting enough to come back. I also hope that the increased traffic leads to more students.

A Florist Went to the Barber…

This has been going around the ‘net for about a year now. The earliest version I found was on a Nissan forum, but I’m pretty sure it was copied from somewhere else. Any rate, I have no idea who originated this. It’s one of those parables that is both funny and not funny, if you know what I mean.

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut.

After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you , I’m doing community service this week.’ The florist was pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you , I’m doing community service this week.’ The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, ‘I can not accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

The psychology behind the SEP field

I came across a very good article on another blog which has some research on what is commonly known as the “Bystander Effect”. Read more about it here.