Personal trainer: Your body is your billboard

Do you like to exercise? Are you in good shape? Do you find yourself giving workout tips to people in the gym? Do you like helping people succeed? Personal training might be a perfect business for you.

There’s more to personal training than just working out. A personal trainer has to be as or more disciplined with their time as they are with their bodies. Personal training requires you to convert your time into dollars because you bill by the hour. 

A personal trainer has to know more than just how to lift weights. They have to know how to teach others to exercise and achieve their desired results. That requires being able to recognize people’s body types, how to motivate them, and how far you can push them. Every client has different goals and personalities, therefore you can’t deal with everyone the same way. You must be able to adapt to their needs and personality type. Remember, they are paying your bills and putting food on your table. 

Personal trainer basic business information

“You Are A Walking Billboard”

INCOME RANGE: $25-$250/hour or more.

TRAINING: Years of gym use, plus studying for certification.

LICENSING: Varies by state, but most insurance companies require you to be licensed in order to get insured. Most gyms require ongoing proof of insurance for you to train there. There are a lot of different training programs to get licensed with, from online to university level. Check with your state to see what is required in your area, what fits your budget, and what training/licensing can help you reach the type of clients you want to serve. If you can pass a ninth-grade biology class you can easily pass the certification test.

SPECIAL SKILLS: You have to be a great manager of time, be likable, have an outgoing personality, have the ability to read people, be a good conversationalist, be able to motivate people, and have the ability to work with lots of personality types and backgrounds. Knowledge of muscle groups, nutrition, and anatomy is very helpful.

EXPERIENCE: None required, but your body is your billboard, so you should know your way around a gym.

THINGS TO READ: To get licensed study the coursework and find books and articles to help you study basic anatomy in plain language. I also suggest the book Body For Life and reputable fitness magazines that serve your target market.

NEED TO INCORPORATE: No

Nick’s success story

In the early 2000s Nick was an 18 year-old college student who was athletic, had an outgoing personality, was entrepreneurial, and was sick of working the low paying jobs that fit into his school schedule. He paid $900 for a week-long course to earn a personal training certification. Once licensed, he went to work for a large national health club chain. 

Nick’s job, in addition to personal training, was to attract and sell personal training to new clients. Nick got his start just visiting with people in the gym while they worked out. His friendliness, knowledge, and the condition of his body all helped Nick strike up conversations and friendships with the members. He then would offer a free initial training session and fitness evaluation, and used the success of that free session to sign up new training clients. 

Nick noticed it seemed that the big gyms wanted the customer dependent on them for life instead of teaching them lifestyle changes so they wouldn’t need a trainer someday. Nick realized when he showed clients how to make positive lifestyle changes that they would refer all their friends and family to him. 

Nick, due to his passion for fitness and helping people, quickly became the most popular trainer at that large gym. They paid him $12/hour while he was personal training, $8/hour when he wasn’t training. The health club was charging Nick’s clients $70/hour and Nick quickly saw an opportunity to help his clients save money and make a lot more money than he was making working at the gym. When Nick launched on his own he worked part-time–about fifteen hours per week–and earned $35,000/year doing something he loved! He was on track to make $100,000/year but he used personal training to launch into something bigger in life. 

Because of a potential conflict of interest with his employer, Nick trained his private clients off-site. It made sense for Nick to target clients with workout equipment at home or that had in-home gyms. He later even focused on and “farmed” specific upper-income areas where he had customers or where well-off middle-aged professionals lived. Nick went door-to-door, introducing himself. He left a card or flyer that explained his in-home training services. This is another example of a successful entrepreneur who knew that “all marketing is personal.” Nick also used Google AdWords and Craigslist to promote his business. He had a website, but said he never got business from his website. Nick said that if he could talk face-to-face with a serious prospect then he likely would have them as a new client.

Nick charged his customers $60-$100/hour, and customized workouts and training for their needs. Most of his customers were housewives. Often after feeling the benefits of training the wife would convince the husband to train as well. Nick would give discounts for couples who trained. His clients trusted Nick as he kept relations strictly professional, which was important to the husbands of the wealthy wives he trained. Because of client trust, Nick regularly got referrals from his customers.