Even as a Personal Trainer it can often be difficult to appreciate that you’re a businessman. You’re self-employed because you don’t necessarily want to work for someone. However, with that mind-set comes a few issues. As a business person you’re many things – you’re trainer, a marketer, a book keeper, a strategist, a social media expert – you’re suddenly having to do all of those things, and it’s a lot. I’m sure you know…
And to begin with, often most personal trainers aim at getting as many clients as possible. That’s the game.
You think to yourself…
Damn, if I could get 10 clients / day, work really hard, charge them at least 35/hour – I’m gonna be rich. And, theoretically whilst that actually is often the plan, typically you don’t appreciate the unlikelihood of that happening.
This is because…
- it’s hard to get that many clients
- People cancel
- They show up late
- You never accounted enough time to go from one client to another
- Realistically you see on average 5-6 clients / day
- Some clients stop taking PT
- Takes a while for new ones to jump on.
And whilst there’s so many advantages of doing this for a living – aiming to get rich just off doing one to one sessions clearly wasn’t realistic, well not at 35 or 40/hour anyway. So I started looking and exploring many of the avenues available to me. I’ve tried, and still do, some of the below. And, having a lot of buddies in the fitness world, I was able to distil what I thought was the most comprehensive list of ways to make money as a personal trainer:
- Work in a Gym – Get Clients.
Prospect others. And just keep hustling. It’s less well paid, but there’s a security to it like none other. Moreover, you can to perfect your training skills in these types of environments. There’s of course the added benefit of training yourself as well as meeting new potential clients. The gym provides a stable environment for clients and involves less driving around for you.
- One to Ones at People’s homes
Well this is where you can really up your fees, but you’ve got to take into account the travel, the traffic, the fuel – the works. If you hypothetically charge 40/hour for one to one sessions then there’s no issue in stretching to the 50 / hour mark. 3 or 4 of those a day will hold you in good stead.
- Bootcamps
Start a bootcamp business – I love doing this and it’s a super simple business model. You get a group of people together, charge them something small like 5 or 10 pounds for 45 minutes and work your group to hell. As a business model, yes you have to pitch more people, but with the price point being so low, your hourly rate can often be double what you can make. Line up the bootcamps all summer. They can be a nice little earner.
- Teaching Classes
Spinning, kettlebells, circuits or boxing, whatever – like bootcamps, find a group of people, hire out a studio or hall and get teaching. This may be tricky as getting the numbers requires advertising and leaflets, not to mention the cost of the hall hire. A better option may be to take classes at various gyms as a nice little earner, especially if you have access to a venue / gym / fitness studio whereby the members are already there for you and the class is on the rota so money is guaranteed. These classes can pay nicely from between 20 and 30 pounds for the hour.
If you have a large number of relevant followers on your Instagram account – it’s quite common to get paid to do shout outs. Companies like XX or XX where you can register and people within the fitness industry will pay you to promote a product. Shout outs usually start as little as 25 / pic and the bigger your account the more you can make. Some of my friends are clearing 500USD / shout out and only do 2 of those a week. So this is very good money if you have the right size account (XXX CONNECT TO INSTA ARTICLE).
- Instagram Management
If you are any good at Instagram – there’s the added benefit of managing the accounts for others. For most people, getting to the first 1k is where they need the most help.
- Become an Online Fitness Coach
Whilst I’ve never set out to do this for the masses, I have found myself having to do this for clients who are travelling and still want to do a workout (irrespective of what country they’re in). However, there are plenty of people out there who charge a nominal fee and teach via FaceTime / Skype or any number of more dedicated software’s.
- Start a blog
Affiliate Marketing – if you own a site / or a blog there’s the possibility that you’ll be able to generate some good traffic to that site. At some point, you’re going to want to monetise that traffic and that can come in the form of many things. Affiliate marketing is not a bad way of making a trickle of cash. This generally involves promoting some sort of service or product, and if your site visitor ends up converting and buying that product / service – that company will pay you a %. Now this usually varies from 5-10%. Even if you’re getting heaps of sales, the commissions won’t change your life.
- Website
If you own a site or even like a blog above – affiliate marketing may not be your thing. Once you’ve got a heap of visitors to your site you may consider just placing some ads in the sidebar. You can be very well rewarded by many ad programs for this – and ultimately make yourself a small wage from this venture.
- A Membership Site
There are some membership sites out there that offer so much value, content, video, etc that they are able to charge people about 9 pounds all the way up to 99 pounds to be on this site. Now for you, it could be fitness related, it could be product related – either way, it’s something worth considering when looking at ways to make money as a personal trainer.
- Modelling
It’s not unknown that companies will ring round looking for fitness models. It may not be your thing, you may even be too shy. But if they offer you 500 for a day’s work – part of you will be like “f**k it, I’m on my way”.
- Brand Ambassador
Some fitness companies will hire a bunch of brand ambassadors to permanently promote their product. Whilst this doesn’t mean you have to work full time for them – there are some obligations that you need to maintain, such as, posting x number of pictures a week on Instagram.
- Ask for Referrals
This sounds so obvious and stupid – but just asking for referrals will get you business. If you have an existed roster of clients – start hitting them all up and asking for them to send their friends and family. This is word of mouth at its finest.
- Ebooks
If you think your writing is of a certain standard, then get writing. Mark down anywhere between 4,000-10,000 words and start selling it. Some of the cheapest ebooks have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. So don’t be dissuaded because you can’t sell them for much, it’s a volume game.
- Product
Go to Ali Express – find a gym related product that you’re passionate about and start throwing up some Facebook ads. See if you can drop ship the product and see how that goes. If people start to buy then you’ll have more confidence in ordering more products in bulk and actually sending them from your own home country.
Making Money As A Personal Trainer, Final Thoughts
I hope this helps. I found that if I really thought about this, there’s probably another 10 or so things I could add to this list but for now it’s a good start. Don’t be limited by the number of hours in the day, or, thinking money only comes from one to one sessions. Broaden your horizons and be open to new ways of making money as a PT.
