Your rant is kind of random. Mind sharing some context?

Mate... Get out of my head.

The amount of messages I get a week asking for pricing without looking at the website. Then complaints about the fees.
If these people actually looked we're the cheapest in the country considering the number of classes and facilities.

That pretty much sums up the western society these days. BJJ gyms are not immune to it either.

Generally speaking you could see it at many bjj forums, and I had some cases were one or two students complained about entrance fee or because we use direct debit, or because we have uniform polices and they want to train in many gyms at the same time.to be fair, I’d say that having some of those polices helped me filter who I want in the gym. But the gossip that come afterwards is a pain…

That’s the point they demand everything, they give nothing hahaha. My experience getting people who never trained before is the best way to have piece.

Honestly, it surprised me when I moved to Ireland. But it comes from a certain group age. Let’s see how things will turn out.

This is a universal thing. Most people verbally complain behind your back, some to your face. Stick to your guns and use that as a filter to give access to people you want on your mats. The complainers will continue to complain if you let them in, even when the service or product is free they will complain. Better to let them complain elsewhere about something else.

100% honestly I got those things as a filter for the culture we build in the gym. But as I always see someone posting against coaches and gym owners I just wanted to voice the other side too.

Listen I am one of those people that teaches and runs a school not for profit as I have always been personally uncomfortable making a living off the arts and training. But I am in a fortunate position I own a business and like what I do also.

That said people have every right to make a living training others. You put your time, knowledge, passion and energy into teaching and and helping others you deserve compensation. You go out on a limb with rent, equipment, heat etc. you owe nobody anything.

They don't have to come in and train it's not like they are doing anything for free out of the goodness of their hearts and those that complain the most tend to be the most self centered in the group. If you can't afford to keep the school open they will be the ones complaining the most that you let them down by having to close

Amazing #vent and fair we all need to some times.
Every type of person is going to walk into your gym, you get to choose who to reject.

A lot of members of our gym paid full membership thoughout COVID with zero access to the gym, just to keep the small business a float. Everyone that did knows we were and still are getting a good deal for our hard earned cash.

Allow me to present the other side.

I trained at a place that was very cheap because the instructors gave up their time for free. The downside was that the coaching was simply dreadful and wasn't preparing me for the realities of competing. The hours I have to train in the week are more limited than the budget I have, so frankly it got annoying being told that we couldn't tell the instructor the classes sucked because he wasn't getting paid. I'd rather pay and and then be treated like a customer.

Ultimately I quit the classes. The downside is that I have a smaller pool of sparring partners. The upside is that I actually learn something. Honestly the instructors were worse than if they just left us on the mat and said "figure it out".

The irony of a person vouching for running a business in the capitalist environment spending time and energy complaining about attitudes of (potential) clients or people deemed never to become clients.

In all honesty, this isn't a profit or non profit issue. Been to plenty of gyms where the coach just didn't give a damn and was just going through the motions. Been to others where the coach genuinely cared and was a gifted athlete, but just not a good teacher. Knowing how to train people isn't intuitive and it's a lot more work than most people realize when they decide to open a gym.

Uniform policies are bullshit. I have never seen any sensible arguments to the contrary. Forcing people to wear a certain gi is a money grab and I deeply, deeply hate it. One of the main reasons I left the school I used to teach at to set up my own.

It is annoying when people ask about prices when they are RIGHT THERE on the front page of the website. Same with class times. And all the other questions that are answered in the same place that people find the contact details for the school.

However, while it is frustrating, I can understand people wanting to double check (especially as quite a few BJJ websites are out of date), others just want a human interaction. Phone calls I completely ignore, however: only way somebody is going to get through to me is WhatsApp or email. ;)

This has nothing to do with BJJ; it's every business out there right now. People have no idea what it costs to run a business. Rent, utilities, insurance, labor, etc. all add up. And insurance in martial arts is insane. We've got ~500 students at the gym I train at. Probably 100 of those are on scholarship of some kind being military, LEO, or disabled vets. So at $100/month each that's $40k per month. Sounds like a lot, but start taking out the things I mentioned above and it doesn't last very long. Our professor still makes an excellent living doing what he loves and that's fine.

This also reminds me of my days as an auto mechanic. Rarely a day passed by that someone didn't call asking our price for an oil change, which was $59. There were usually two responses: 1. when can I bring it in? and 2. I can get it done at quickie lube for $19, will you match that? Customer 1 we are happy to serve. They know we aren't the cheapest in town, but they appreciate the fact that a certified master technician (which within the business means absolutely nothing) is going to work on their car instead of some teenager that doesn't care. Customer 2 we don't really want and we won't match that price because we were already losing money on an oil change at $59. If customer 2 is going to complain about the cost of an oil change, how bad are they going to be when their car really needs work? When they completely ignore the noises from their brakes until a $200 brake job becomes a $1000 brake job what kind of BS are they going to throw at us? It's just not worth it.

And one thing most people simply can't understand is that free usually costs more in the long run. There's the old saying "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" that is absolutely false. If someone is giving you a free horse you better give it a good looking over before you accept it. If you don't you're liable to get a horse that you have to feed, water, and care for that can't do a thing to make doing so worthwhile.

Lastly, expertise costs money. There's a story about an old retire machine operator. Not long after he retired the machine he used to operate quit working, so the company called to see if he could fix it. He said he would and came in to take care of it. He looked at the machine for a few minutes, then hit it with a hammer and it started working. The manager was very happy and told the old man to send him a bill. When the manager got the bill for $10,000 he was shocked. He called the old man and asked him why he charged him $10,000 to hit the machine with a hammer. The old man said he only charged him $2 to hit the machine with a hammer. He charged him $9,998 for knowing where to hit it and how hard. The same is true of quality instruction from someone who really knows what they are doing. High level BJJ practitioners are everywhere. High level teachers are everywhere. Finding a high level practitioner that can also teach is pretty rare and you should expect to pay a premium for that.

All that said, it is likely that you will learn relatively little directly from the professor of a well established school. You will probably do most of your learning from the blue, purple and brown belts that have gone before you. But this doesn't discount the value of the professor because that is who created the people wearing those colored belts that are going to help you the most.

I run a school, it's my full time job. I charge students £50 a month, and it took 10 years for me to raise the price to that from £40 a month.

In my view, BJJ prices are frequently unjustifiably high. Part of the reason I set up my school was to counter that.

Now, I have paid off my residential mortgage, I don't have kids, I don't run a car and I don't drink, which cuts out lots of typical expenses. Nevertheless, I don't think it's reasonable for people to be charging more than triple my prices, especially the massive fees in the US.

If you run a school in Manhattan or somewhere crazy pricey like that, it goes some way to explaining super high fees. But many places charge too much, IMO.

Underrated point, completely agree