I also asked a million questions about administrative things, how to charge, and a lot of “what-if” scenarios. Right after I got certified, I shadowed a couple trainers that to see their approach to training. You need to know when to slow it down or when those clients need to be pushed a little bit harder. You need to be able to read each client and understand what he or she is trying to get out of your sessions. Regurgitating facts out of a book is great, but it’s how you UNDERSTAND and USE those facts that makes or breaks you. One thing to understand about personal training is that you can pass an exam, get a certificate, and still be a horrible personal trainer. You will make mistakes (but learn from them) In preparation for our trips to CA, for example, I saw clients on the weekend (which I don’t normally do), and packed my schedule so that I didn’t miss many sessions.
Since you don’t accumulate paid time off (wouldn’t that be great?), you’ll need to be prepared to put in extra hours before or after a vacation in order to make up lost income. During these times you need to be prepared to alter the workout on the fly to make sure they are getting the most out of their time with you. You may show up to an appointment with a workout planned out only to find that your client isn’t feeling well or has injured something. I can’t tell you how many times my schedule changes in a week!Īnother way you will need to be accommodating is in the spur of the moment. Other times someone may need to move to a different time/date because of a scheduling conflict. Sometimes clients who cancel early in the morning want to reschedule later in the day. You need to be accommodatingĪlong with understanding that people can be unpredictable, you will have to learn to be flexible in order to accommodate rescheduled sessions and client requests. Word of mouth is BIG in personal training. The first couple clients are the hardest to get, but if you do a good job, clients will be more likely to refer you to their friends and then it kind of grows from there. Lo and behold, one year later and my schedule is finally almost maxed out. I couldn’t fathom that amount of time, so I smiled politely and disregarded it. 3. It could take up to a year to build your client baseĪfter I got certified, other trainers told me that it would take at least a year for me to build a regular client base. Luckily, I am on Neil’s through his work, but if you need to sign up on your own, that’s another expense to consider. If you are single, you will also have to look into providing your own health insurance. You can either file quarterly self-employment taxes or wait to do it all at the end of the year, but then you might cry a little bit. My income from training wasn’t terribly substantial last year, so I’m just getting into actual tax stuff this time around. It’s awesome to get paid for sessions and think THIS IS AMAZING I’M RICH AND MAKING SO MUCH MONEY and then maybe cash it out and throw it on the bed to roll around in.Īfter you’re done making it rain, set aside anywhere from 20-30% of it for taxes. Working for yourself means that there is no one taking out taxes from your income. You need to be prepared to have your schedule altered and for certain clients to be more wishy-washy than others. I’ve been surprised at how many people late cancel their appointments, even though they know they will get charged. I went into personal training thinking that if someone spends money for a workout, the likelihood is pretty high that they will show up and stick to that commitment. Trainers - if you have other thoughts to add, please share them in the comments! 1. These tips are all based on my experience and other trainers may have different points based on how their business is set up and how they are seeing clients. Also, if we didn’t have Neil’s income, I probably would have had to hustle even more and I may have started in a chain because they are more predictable.
Luckily I had my teaching job at Sweat and some other side projects that helped pay the bills during that time. I have mad respect for (good) trainers who do this well, I’m just not one of them.īecause I was planning on working for myself, I needed to put in a LOT more work. I’m not good at selling myself and when I try, everything comes out sounding super fake and contrived.
Since I became officially certified last May (how has a year already passed?), I wanted to reflect on my journey and share with you some of the things I wish I knew before becoming a personal trainer.Īfter I got certified, I knew that I did not want to work in a large chain gym.
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