Meet Jalyn Rangel | Martial Arts Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jalyn Rangel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jalyn, how do you think about risk?
Risk is necessary to gain any real amount of success. Starting a business is risky, you are investing your time and money into something that could fail. You are giving up your comfort (free time, less stress, consistent income) in the present to hopefully live a very comfortable life down the road. You’re risking your present for your future.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Myself and my husband own Iron Dragon Martial Arts in Marietta, GA. I started training at Iron Dragon in 2005. Throughout my years in martial arts I realized that I wanted to own a school. When I met my now husband we realized that was something we had in common. He is a great instructor and is very passionate about working with kids and bringing the best out of everyone. I love business and all of the challenges that come with it.
In December 2019 the then owner of Iron Dragon called me. She wanted to sell the school. It wasn’t doing well and she wanted to step away from the stress and spend more time with her family.
I quickly agreed to buy the school from her, I had always seen so much potential in Iron Dragon and was excited to get started with it. We officially signed the business over on March 1st 2020.
As we all know now, that was very bad timing. We had to close Iron Dragon due to COVID only 17 days after we took over. At first, we didn’t really know what to do. We did online classes during that time and a couple of students were generous enough to support us by continuing to pay. We decided to take the time that we were closed to do renovations. The school didn’t look anything like we wanted it to when we took over so we thought this was a good time to change that.
We painted all of the walls, ripped out carpet, laid new flooring and much more. This felt like a huge risk because no one knew when we would be able to reopen at that point.
Luckily we were able to reopen for classes on May 1st 2020. We started out very small. Most students didn’t end up coming back post shut down.
From then we have been slowly but steadily growing. We have continued to renovate and improve the school every chance we’ve gotten.

We are coming up on three years in business and it has been anything but easy. We have had many struggles and set backs starting with the COVID lockdown. We’ve questioned whether it was a good idea at all to buy the school. But, every time we are having a hard time we can look back and see how far we’ve come. We still have a long way to go until I would call the business “successful”. We are profiting, we’ve been able to hire multiple instructors and our student count grows every month but there is always room for more growth.

We have a lot of competition in our area. There is a martial arts school in almost every shopping center. What sets us apart is how we hold our students to a higher standard. Belt testing makes a lot of money and it’s a great revenue boost in the months that we have it but, we will never test a student to the next belt just to get more money. They have to show that they are ready to test physically and mentally. We pride ourselves on making each student earn each belt. It’s always earned, never given. Because of this, it will take students longer to reach black belt with us than any other Taekwondo school in our area but they will know that they earned it and deserve it once they get there.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since I live in Marietta I’m going to give some places around me first. Marietta Square is a great place to spend an afternoon. There are great food options and plenty of stores to look around.
If you’re into hiking, Kennesaw Mountain is the place to go. There is a lot of history and great hiking trails.
You need to drive by the Big Chicken just to see it.

In the city, I love Centennial Olympic Park. I’m a huge fan of the Olympics so it’s really cool to see where it was held in 1996.
The World of Coke is a great spot and very interesting. While you’re there you might as well hop over to the Georgia Aquarium.
I love going to see shows at the Fox Theatre then walking over to The Varsity for some dinner afterwards.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to give credit to my parents. As soon as I bought my business they were there to help with whatever we needed. They helped with all of the renovations. Painting, laying floors, taking down walls etc. I really appreciate their help.

Website: https://www.irondragonmartialarts.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jalyn_kicks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irondragonmartialarts

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3QwZwYFGAdYfspjuJQ1lfA