How to increase your income as a Personal Trainer?

As a recognised and an approved FLM Training Personal Trainer, your income streams are almost endless. The purpose of this article is to outline 8 ways you can increase your income as a Personal Trainer as well as to highlight other avenues to pursue. As well as this, if you are considering a personal trainer qualification then this short article outlines where and how you can generate an excellent income.

At FLM Training we have had past students follow these tips and as a result have developed successful careers in a very short time. For more information on past student’s success, please read one of our blogs from earlier this year ‘Becoming a Personal Trainer’.

Tip #1    Offer small group Personal Training sessions

Not everyone can afford £35-£60 (depending where you are based) on personal training. So to overcome this, you could offer small group sessions consisting of up to 4 people for £60 – this means they only pay £15 each but you also get paid your maximum rate. From experience, the small group sessions also result in more training sessions a week because of how cost friendly it is for the clients, and they are fun to deliver.

Tip #2    Be clever with who you target

In the UK obesity is at an all time high with almost 50% of the population being overweight. As well as this, the annual NHS bill for conditions such as Diabetes, Hypertension and other Hypercholesterolemia is growing. It is reported that only 15% of the population is a gym member and / or regularly physically active. With this in mind, FLM Training always advises current students to target the 85% which are not active.

You can achieve this by providing free healthy eating and nutrition events at local church halls, leisure centres and even groups like the Women’s Institute.

Tip #3    Develop a community

Developing a community with your clients is vital for retention and also referrals. If your clients feel they are part of a community which encourage, motivate and praise each other, then they are more likely to have a good experience with you and then refer you to friends and family in return.

A great way of doing this is by setting up a closed and private Facebook group for your clients. This would result in accessibility to your clients and also help you market future products and services to a group of people who trust and have a relationship with you.

Tip #4    Sports teams

Not all sports teams are fortunate enough to have money where they can pay for your services. However, if you provided a service where you consulted on the team’s fitness, strength and conditioning, then in most cases you will receive referrals. Furthermore, this provides a great opportunity where you could always advertise the small group sessions which you provide (see tip #1 above).

Tip #5    Create affiliations

This is relevant to all industries. At FLM Training we network with as many relevant organisations as possible. As a result we have developed and maintained some exciting working relationships with a number of different organisations. As a personal trainer you could do the same.

A good example here could be the affiliation between yourself and a supplement company. Not only would they help advertise your services in exchange for referrals but you could also generate an extra income in the form of commission from sales etc.

Tip #6    Online personal training

More and more services and products are now available online. As well as this, the online personal training service has increased in popularity no end over recent years. This would allow you to work with a number of clients who are not geographically in the same location, it also allows you to utilise some of the quieter parts of the day (usually 10am-3pm) to update and check in with online clients. This way, the quieter parts of the day continue to generate an income.

Tip #7    Structure your pricing according to demand

Something we see regularly is that personal trainers charge their clients the same price no matter what time of day it is. Personal training is like any other business and where there is a demand the cost for that service is usually higher. Therefore we often discuss a sliding pricing strategy based on peak and off peak times which reflects the demands of your service. An example of this can be found below:

Not only will this help you fill the quieter times of the day such as mid morning and mid afternoon, but it will also result you receiving the fee you deserve for unsociable working hours such as 8.00-9.00pm most evenings of the week.

Tip #8    eBooks

EBooks are relatively easy to write and they don’t take up a lot of time. What we advise is that you write an eBook on a topic or something which you are passionate about within the fitness industry. The eBook needs to be informative and help the reader get results. If the reader finds the eBook useful, interesting and helpful in getting results then chances are they will refer others to you directly, your website or even purchase some personal training directly off you. As well as this, if the content is really good, then eventually you can charge for the eBooks which will generate another direct income.

We hope you found this blog useful and interesting. For more information on ‘how to become a personal trainer’ then please visit our previous blogs.