Urban Martial Arts in the News

10 Workouts for People Who Hate Working Out
The L Magazine
January 4, 2012
The L Magazine reviews Urban Martial Arts’ kickboxing class and names it one of the top 10 workouts for people who hate working out: “Owner Sensei Serge Sognonvi is a great motivator and will make you feel like you’re working with a personal trainer.”

How to Use the Cloud as a Disaster Recovery Strategy
Inc.com
June 23, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, explains the benefits of storing files in the cloud. Not only does it allow easy access to information whether she’s working at the school or from home, but it can be a disaster recovery strategy as well.

Summer Camps in NYC: Summer Sessions Throughout the City Pack Tons of Fun
New York Daily News
May 15, 2011
Urban Martial Arts’s Karate Summer Camp is featured in this round-up of New York City’s best summer camps. The Daily News says: “Karate kids will get a kick out of this Brooklyn dojo, which runs a seven-week camp full of nonstop action.”

41+ Must-Read Business Books for Solopreneurs
Strategies & Tactics for Women
May 9, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, explains why she believes every entrepreneur should read “Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You” by John Warrillow, even if they don’t plan on selling their business.

Angry Reader of the Week: Carmen Sognonvi
Angry Asian Man
April 1, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, is featured on this blog about Asian-American issues. She talks about her transition from racial justice activism to becoming a small business owner and mom.

Location-Based Services: Factors and Considerations for B2C and B2B Marketers
GigCoin
March 8, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses the challenges of using services like Facebook Places and Foursquare: “I don’t see a whole lot of checking in going on. I think that these location-based marketing platforms are still a couple years away from becoming mainstream.”

Facebook Ads: What You Need to Know to Create a Successful Campaign
GigCoin
March 1, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses how Urban Martial Arts uses Facebook Ads to reach prospective students, and offers tips to business owners: “You should make some kind of appealing offer in exchange for their contact information. I see so many companies driving people to their homepage and that seems like a waste of ad dollars to me.”

Lessons Learned in 2010
Fox Business
February 4, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses how one simple operational change — carrying less inventory — made a massive financial impact for the school: “This year, we changed our processes so that students have to pre-order their gear, and we ourselves don’t order it until we’ve received payment. It sounds like such simple advice, but that one small change has made a huge difference to our bottom line.”

Foursquare for Small Business
National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
January 18, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses how Urban Martial Arts uses FourSquare to implement a simple loyalty program for their students: “Don’t overlook promotion. Sognonvi promotes the Foursquare offer on Twitter and Facebook, in the school’s e-newsletter and on posters hanging inside the venue.”

Seven work habits of effective entrepreneurs
Crain’s New York Business
January 9, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses how using free software Dropbox allows her to work more effectively from home in the evenings: “The great thing about it is it is so effortless. It’s like saving a document to your computer.”

Niche brands boost Facebook campaigns with analytics, but still desire more data
Direct Marketing News
January 1, 2011
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses the limitations of Facebook Analytics: “I’m better off just creating a Facebook-specific landing page on my website and using Google Analytics to track how many hits that page gets.”

10 Real Small Business New Year’s Resolutions
AllBusiness.com
December 31, 2010
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, shares one of her new year’s resolutions, which is to produce quality blog content on a consistent schedule: “Blogging is such a great way to build expertise, boost SEO, and provide useful information to our students and prospects. I just haven’t been doing enough of it!”

5 Ways Your Kids Can Set New Year’s Resolutions They’ll Actually Stick To
A Child Grows in Brooklyn
December 31, 2010
In this guest post, Sensei Serge Sognonvi, owner and head instructor of Urban Martial Arts, shares tips with parents on how they can help their children set effective new year’s resolutions: “It’s important to celebrate when your child accomplishes a goal by giving them a reward. But don’t think these rewards have to be expensive. At Urban Martial Arts, for example, we recognize our student’s achievements by adding stripes to their belts.”

Plan Your Work – Work Your Plan
Strategies and Tactics for Women
December 20, 2010
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, shares tips on how creating a simple event calendar can help business owners plan their marketing activities in the new year: “Each year, we decide whether or not to do 
the event again based on how well it met our goals the previous year.

”

Success By Web Design
Fox Business
December 8, 2010
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses how investing time and money into her business’s website design and search engine optimization was worthwhile: “We went from getting one or two leads per month through the site to now getting one or more leads per day.”

The One Thing You Were Not Prepared For As An Entrepreneur
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: Cleaning Up in Business
December 7, 2010
Carmen Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, discusses one thing that took her by surprise as she transitioned from juggling Urban Martial Arts with her day job to working on the business full-time: being able to set your own schedule can actually cause more second-guessing of one’s priorities.

5 Faces Of Urban Entrepreneurship
BrandMakerNews
November 23, 2010
Serge Sognonvi, owner of Urban Martial Arts, is featured as one of “five urban entrepreneurs you should know.” In the article, he shares what motivated him to open the school, what obstacles he overcame along the way, and what advice he would offer other aspiring urban entrepreneurs.

Marketing Success Stories and Tips from Real Small Businesses, Courtesy of Yellowbook 360
Small Business Trends
November 22, 2010
This blog post reviews the Yellowbook360 video featuring Urban Martial Arts. It quotes Carmen and Serge Sognonvi discussing the importance of choosing good mentors and trying different approaches — both online and offline — to marketing.

How Urban Martial Arts Maximizes Their ROI
Yellowbook360 Building Success
November 19, 2010
Serge and Carmen Sognonvi, owners of Urban Martial Arts, talk about maximizing the return on their marketing investment in this Yellowbook-sponsored video series on small business and marketing.

Side Hustle and Flow Interview Series: Carmen Sognonvi
Escape from Cubicle Nation
October 21, 2010
Author Pamela Slim interviews Carmen Sognonvi, co-owner of Urban Martial Arts, as part of a series about entrepreneurs who started their businesses while they had a day job.

Danger Ahead: Small Business Owners Warn of Common Mistakes
Business News Daily
September 4, 2010
Sensei Serge Sognonvi and Carmen Sognonvi, owners of Urban Martial Arts, share how they narrowly avoided what could have been a disastrous plan to move into a larger space.