If you like work with people and you have passion for exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, then you may think in making money becoming a Personal Trainer.
Like a life coach, also as personal trainer, you should have enthusiasm, patience, charisma, knowledge and you should really want to help people satisfy their body and health needs.
You shoud understand that modern people have serious difficulties in control their weight and body form, due to stress, emotional instability, work or family problems and you have to be their personal coach, helping their body reach the perfect shape .
Obviously, if you want to be a credible Personal Trainer, you should be yourself in a perfect top shape : if you present as a flabby jellyfish, it might be a bit difficult for you to find customers.
As start, it may help you to have fitness or nutrition background, but it should be important to attend a personal trainer certification course (check in your country or state the better way to accomplish this).
Depending on where you practice, it could not be necessary to be certified, however I can suggest you not to start without formal training, if you really want to make with Personal Trainer a full time income.
You should also have insurance : every Personal Trainer is required to obtain insurance liability that will protect their clients and themselves from lawsuits over accidents and injuries. Make sure you have this before you start practicing.
After this, if you do not have experience, you should apply to some of the many gyms or fitness organizations that welcome aspiring personal trainers to further their experiences through internship programs.
Depending on your customers and the area where you work, the amount of money that you can ask for your services may vary a lot.
Of course the Personal Trainer of famous people as Madonna, for istance, will gain much more money than a Personal Trainer of common people.
In order to expand your business, you can think in opening a gym or a fitness center .
Another idea can be to offer your services online, creating a website for you as Personal Trainer that give instructions, information and tips about health, fitness, nutrition and exercises.
You may want to read now these 12 golden rules for success in life as a personal trainer.
1 . How to Prepare
In order to become a personal trainer, you will need not only your passion, but also commitment and dedication, a careful study of all matters relating to the exercise : from anatomy to biomechanics, from dietary to stretching, by training the resistance to that of the force.
Of course you can learn all these things by yourself, but you will be a mediocre personal trainer!
All these elements can be learned with simple courses and certifications, but if you truly want to become professional, you need to subscribe to a college and get some background on the pharmacology, anthropometry, physical testing, hygiene, kinesiology, endocrinology, and much more.
2 . Professionalism
Eeven if the figure of the personal trainer in some countries is less popular than others, this job can be often confused : a prespectable personal trainer must be able to give a consistently professional image of himself.
The concept of professionalism encompasses all the points listed below.
3 . Customization
Obviously the training programs should be designed based on morphological characteristics, the demands and lifestyle of your customers : every single aspect must be carefully designed to ensure a quality service.
Even the individual sessions need to be adapted from time to time depending on the emotional state and energy of your clients.
4 . Presence
The personal trainer should reflect the general concept of health and wellness, so it is important to have a well-groomed appearance (for istance with short hair, appropriate clothing, no beard, no piercing or no tattooing or similar).
You should have a toned physique : in many cases the figure of the personal trainer is idealized as a model to follow through this mechanism that can think your customer : “if he is training well and it becomes so fit, then I can become that shaped training with him.”
5 . Way of Talking
As a personal trainer is important that you use the correct terminology when addressing to your customers.
The dialectic is very important because, given the high cultural level of people who rely on a personal trainer, you often talk about subjects that are beyond the only physical activity.
6 . Personality
A personal trainer should be charismatic, with strong character, polite but firm.
The customer must perceive security and belief in what you say and what you offer.
7 . Price
The price of your service must primarily cover the costs of your activities.
In such expenses you should include your fixed costs, as insurance or rent to the fitness center and your variable costs, as clothing, phone calls, marketing, administrative and accounting costs.
To all this, you should add your profit margin, which is what you want to make, with your job.
The price fixed for a lesson must be competitive with what is charged by other personal trainers.
Of course you may choose the pricing that you consider the most appropriate for your service : you may want to stay in the middle of the competition or you can choose to stand out for higher prices, with higher quality service.
8 . Payment
Your marketing strategy should also take in consideration the payment methods that you want to accept, because we live in an era in which payment methods are continually evolving.
Customers often prefer to receive a bill or invoice and in this case you should have an accountant.
If you decide to accept payments by cash, check or via internet, providing funding or discounts on your services, you will have the benefits to give prestige to your business by making it more advantageous to your customer.
On the other hand you have to consider the risks involved in various payment methods and ask whether it is worth running the hazard.
9 . Place
In this point, there are two key points to consider. It is primarily intended to examine the place where you live.
Who lives in a big city, even if it must defend itself against a fierce competition, often has more opportunity to realize their business. Those who live in a small town will hardly be able to exercise his profession with success.
The cultural and economic level of residents is important : those who live in small areas frequented by important personalities from the entertainment have certainly a huge advantage over those who live in an industrial area, with no administrative offices.
The second point to consider is the place understood as the physical place where you decide to operate. The places where the personal trainers practice his profession are many: house, gym, hotel, office or workplace, pool, park and sports clubs.
You should decide the most appropriate place according to the opportunities that it offers.
10 . How to Spread the Word
The word of mouth is undoubtedly one of the most important tools of communication, because in a short time may lead you to gain many customers.
Word of mouth is tied to your professionalism, which in turn is linked to all the points mentioned in this post.
Customer satisfaction will inevitably generate new customers and you can encourage this instrument presenting yourself in certain ways, also of course searching contacts by yourself.
11 . Promotion
Success will knock at your door when you learn to promote yourself.
What would be the largest companies in the world without their advertisement campaigns?
In order to succeed in the workplace, you do not just to do things better than the others, but you must also be able to promote your artivity and ensure that your value is recognized by customers.
Any tool can be useful for promoting yourself, like business cards, brochures, websites. Everything must be studied in detail, since bad publicity could have effects opposite to those expected.
12 . Progress
If you want to be professional during the future, you need to keep yourself updated about market trends, regardless of experience gained.
Anticipate ideas and trends is the key to success in this world !
As Personal Trainer you can receive huge satisfaction, but also, and not less important, bigger emotional and personal achievement, from help people feel better, inside and outside.
Stay fit and ealthy in life as Personal Trainer !
