New School Owner
Mr. William (Bill) Kyner

3rdDegree Sr. Black Belt
Excel Martial Arts

Jacksonville, AL

 Mr. Kyner took his first class at Ted Turgeon’s Taekwondo in October of 2010, not realizing that just seven years later on December 25, 2017 he would become the new owner of the school.

 Taekwondo helped him become more confident, and he saw becoming an instructor as an opportunity to do the same thing for other people. One defining moment for him was when a family enrolled their foster child at the school. They told him frequently how much the child looked up to him and wanted to be like me. It helped Mr. Kyner focus on building better habits and setting goals for himself so that he could be a good role-model for the students.

 It was challenging to transition from being a key employee to being the owner of the school and making changes to the culture of the school to reflect the values he felt were important.

Some of the best moments that have come with being a school owner are when students have break throughs in their training and he sees their confidence grow! He also enjoys having his students in a region where they can look up to people like Mr. McCoy, Mr. Church, as well as all the other great instructors they meet or hear about from tournaments.

 His advice to others considering opening a school includes “Hire an accountant. No, you cannot do it yourself. An accountant will do it ten times better than you. Also, build relationships with everyone in your business. Parents matter so much, the better they know you, the more they will trust you and look at you as an integral part of their child’s life. Early on, start training people who can do your job as well as you can. Teaching is demanding sometimes, and you will want a break. Also, your students will love the variety of having another talented instructor to lead classes in a different style. I love being a part of TA, and I’m grateful for all the opportunities it provides me and my school. I can’t wait to see where TA goes as an organization, and how far it takes me and my students!”