1. Tyler Endriga
Nichols College
MGMT 100-08
James Nam
Victorville Tae Kwon Do
I met James Nam when I started going to
his Tae Kwon Do studying in 2006. Also I
began worked as an instructor at Victorville
Tae Kwon Do in 2008.

2. Description of the Entrepreneur
company
• The type of business that James Nam has is a Sole-
Proprietorship
• He chose Sole-Proprietorship because he wanted
to start his own business and did not have a
business partner to start his business with.
• He teaches Tae Kwon Do, Self Defense and Respect
to students of all ages
• He opened his Tae Kwon Do studio in 1998.

3. Background of Business
• He started his Tae Kwon Do studio when he found
his dream of teaching children and adults self
defense and respect.
• He took out loans from the bank and borrowed
money from family.
• He started his business by putting his ads in
newspapers and on the internet.
• The company is a lot more successful than is was
when it started. With the word of mouth and
success of the company, the number of
customers are around 1,200.

4. Success
• The successes have been the amount of children and
adults that have attended the studio and learned Tae
Kwon Do and self defense.
• The rewarding aspect is to see the smiling faces of the
children and to see the teens grow into proud adults.
• Some of the critical success factors are to have great
instructors that know what they are teaching and the
success rate that we have. The amount of students we
have and the amount of them that the parents see the
growth and change in the students.

5. Challenges
• One of the challenges have been the amount of competitors in the
martial arts industry. It comes down to the way they advertise the
company and the people who work there.
• The most challenging aspect of running the business is the amount
of students that they have and keeping all of them on the road to
success.
• They overcame the challenges by hiring former students who knew
the curriculum and knew the best way to teach the lessons.
• Some of the fatal flaws are if a students is seriously injured in a way
that could have been stopped or at the fault of a instructor.

6. Competition
• Two of their closest competitors are the Cobra Ki Gym
located about 5 miles from Victorville Tae Kwon Do and
Hook Taekwondo located about 25 miles away.
• They try to achieve competitive advantages by having
their year contract for less than the other studios. Also
they try to have a friendlier facilities.
• They build customer loyalty by having discounted
prices the longer the students stay at the studio. After
the students year contract, the next year will be
cheaper. Also the higher ranked the student is, the
better the equipment they receive.

7. Marketing & Staffing
• They show their proven success though
customer satisfactory articles and great
history to market their company.
• They hired former students the have proven
themselves and shown that they have what it
takes to be an instructor and have the
leadership. Also the have a G.O.L.D team
which is a group of students that they groom
into young instructors.

8. The Future
• The owner does plan to stay in business into
the future. They are actually extending their
business to the building next store to add on
the facility. Adding more room will give them
more floor space for the students to work on
and also give the instructors their own space
to work with the students in.

9. Unique Questions
• I asked if he had plans of extending the business out of the
town of Victorville? His response was no, he plans to keep
his business in Victorville only and doesn’t plan on opening
more than one location.
• I asked what was the hardest part of start his business? He
said the beginning. The first steps on finding a location,
getting his first set of loyal customers and keeping the
business above water the first couple of years.
• I asked if at any point if he didn’t believe he could continue
his dream of opening a martial arts studio. He said that
once or twice in the beginning but he knew that he could
get though the tough part and make the town a bit better
by teaching students self defense and respect.

10. Summary
• Some advice that he gave was that it is tough to
start a business but if you really believe in
yourself and believe in your dream that your
product or company can help the people in your
town or even the world, follow it. Never give up.
• I learned that the hardest part of opening a
business like a Tae Kwon Do studio is to get the
first couple of truly loyal customers. If your
business can not get that in the beginning, it is
extremely tough to start your business of the
right foot.