CLAY— Iannuzzo’s Karate & Kickboxing Fitness studio generated 18 percent revenue growth in 2015 and forecasts another double-digit increase this year, says Rick Iannuzzo, owner of the martial-arts school located near Moyers Corners in Clay.

Even after 44 years of martial-arts-training under his belt, Iannuzzo is still restless and searching for new ways to transform his 26-year-old business, which produced revenue growth last year without raising its prices.

“I’m not one who likes to be complacent about things, we’re always developing, tweaking, changing our program,” Iannuzzo says. 

The business has more than 400 clients, 60 percent of whom are martial artists under the age of 15. Iannuzzo says he’s seeing a trend toward younger and younger children — even those as young as age 2 or 3 — getting involved. 

“Parents are looking for activities even younger now,” Iannuzzo says. “We’re a necessity for parents nowadays … the majority of both parents are working and they really need someone to help them fill the gap.” 

Iannuzzo has started to offer more family-oriented courses where parents can train with their children for the first six months at the school. After that, the kids train with people of their same size and age, which is critical for self-defense and sparring classes.

Possible future expansion
To meet the demand and avoid over-crowded courses, Iannuzzo has added more courses to the evening schedule, running multiple classrooms at the same time. He is also beginning to consider the idea of an additional location for another studio.

“The challenge in our industry is that we could always use 3,000 more feet for three hours a night,” Iannuzzo says.

Iannuzzo’s Karate & Kickboxing Fitness is currently situated in an 8,000-square-foot building on 2.22 acres of land at 8553 Oswego Road. The property’s full market value was listed at $459,397 for 2015, according to Onondaga County property tax records. The combined county and school tax bill for the current fiscal year is nearly $16,000.

Opening a new location would also give Iannuzzo’s most dedicated employees a possible business partnership. 

“I have so many students that have been with me for so many years; one of my full-time instructors has been with me for 24 years,” Iannuzzo says. “There’s a need for an opportunity for people to grow. It’s really more to create more jobs for instructors that want advancement.”

Bob DeSimone, floor supervisor and instructor for 24 years at Iannuzzo’s school, would be one of Iannuzzo’s prospective partners in a new location, he says. He says he has no set timeline for the possible expansion.

Over time Iannuzzo’s Karate & Kickboxing Fitness has seen an increase in competition but it hasn’t hurt its revenue numbers. “Back in the 90s there were only two karate schools within 10 miles, now there’s seven,” Iannuzzo says. “My numbers have stayed the same or increased.”

He attributes the steadiness — regardless of competition — to parents looking for a way to teach their children core values like discipline, control, and respect. Karate is also recommended as a treatment alternative for people who have attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and more children are diagnosed every year. “The percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis continues to increase, from 7.8 percent in 2003 to 9.5 percent in 2007 and to 11 percent in 2011,” the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

Another fast-growing trend in the industry is the popularity of mixed martial-arts (MMA) fighting, led by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) stars like Ronda Rousey and Nate Diaz. However, Iannuzzo doesn’t teach this more aggressive, violent style of fighting at his club.

“Our base is more children and I think children should learn control before they learn how to be out of control,” Iannuzzo says. “We’re careful what we teach kids as far as self-defense goes. We don’t want them to go out and ground-and-pound on someone or choke someone unconscious.”

Instead, Iannuzzo focuses on blending several styles of martial arts to improve self-defense. His school offers the styles of taekwondo, judo, aikido, Muay Thai, and jiu-jitsu — to name a few. 

Online training
Iannuzzo also previously diversified his business by launching an online-training program, called internationalkarateschool.com. However, after encountering negative comments about the school on social media, he took the website down, he says. 

“There were all of these people writing this negative stuff about it because they were saying, ‘oh this guy is looking for money’ but it really did fill a void,” Iannuzzo says. “This was to fill a void for people who maybe don’t live near a school or were a former student and wanted to continue to train.”

Iannuzzo first started the online school after getting multiple requests from his former students who had moved away and had no adequate karate schools nearby. 

“I thought it was a great thing, but there were a lot of people who were very negative about it,” Iannuzzo says. “So I said, you know what, if people are just going to write negative things like that, I’m just going to take it down. So it really bugged me.”

Iannuzzo still sends personal training videos to his students who request them, and is planning to relaunch the online school in the next year. 

“I think I’m going to put it back up there because I know a little more about social media and think I can combat against those people a little more,” Iannuzzo says. 

Originally the online program cost $39 a month while in-person classes run for $139 a month. The online price may change while in-person classes will see a $5 rate increase next month, Iannuzzo says. He adds that he hasn’t increased rates in a while, and needs to do so for employee raises.

The school has consistently employed 10 instructors since opening in 1990. All of Iannuzzo’s kickboxing instructors have worked with him for at least 15 years while his son, Nikko, works full time as an instructor. His other son, Dalton, a student at Syracuse University, works during school breaks and helps with bookkeeping. 

Iannuzzo’s wife, Julia, is a personal trainer and nutritionist who has been with the business since opening day.

Julia and Rick Iannuzzo met on a blind date on Sept. 28, 1989. Four months later they were engaged, and then married on July 28, 1990. That same year they opened Iannuzzo’s Karate & Kickboxing Fitness studio and two years later had their first son, Nikko. 

“It was a busy few years for sure,” Rick Iannuzzo says.

Looking back on the first year with his wife, he says she was not the muscular nutritionist and personal trainer she is today. “When I met her, she wasn’t really working out,” Iannuzzo says. “Two weeks after we met, she got up at 5 o’clock in the morning and would go to the gym with me.”

Julia Iannuzzo also pushed Rick toward his goals. “She was the one who really recommended that I do my own thing,” he says. He attributes much of his initial drive to open his own studio to the support of his wife. Now, 26 years later, their business and marriage are thriving more than ever, Iannuzzo says.