The fitness sector is booming, with a plethora of specialists offering a variety of services.
If you google, you'll be able to find businesses of various sizes, whether it's nutrition coaching, yoga, zumba, pilates, HIIT, strength training, sports coaching, etc.
As a newly certified personal trainer or a personal fitness trainer ready to offer fitness services outside the commercial gym, you may be thrilled to take up new clients but may also feel a tad bit overwhelmed.
It's normal to feel this way – after all, you're responsible for helping your clients reach their fitness goals while establishing a business in a highly competitive industry.
Don't worry! We have come up with 10 tips for new personal trainers like yourself to start their fitness business on the right foot.
1. Learn as much as you can about health and fitness
There is a lot of information out there about how to get in shape and eat healthy. To become a successful personal trainer , it's important to gain the right knowledge and learn as much as you can both about personal training and nutrition coaching.
By staying up-to-date on the latest research and trends, you'll be able to better help your clients reach their goals. Plus, learning more about fitness and nutrition can also help you improve your own health and wellness.
For the same, you can join more certification programs, follow blogs or social media accounts of other experts in the fitness industry, take part in discussions that interest you, attend relevant online and offline events and conferences, etc. There are no limitations to learning.
2. Find your expertise (training niche)
The art of niche marketing is a tricky one. It's important to spend time working with clients who have fairly generic goals and wide personalities before you rush into finding your perfect fit for personal training services.
Niche-marketing can be an elusive thing - you might not know what will work until you try different things out or get input from other fitness professionals in the industry or your prospective clients.
Hustling through this process takes patience and time, but once you understand your training niche, marketing becomes easier and you will also know in which direction should you drive your business efforts.
Also Read: How To Pick A Profitable Niche For Your Fitness Business
3. Expand your network
Friends are like a safety net, supporting you no matter what life throws at them.
Building your own supportive network will help you get successful in any business venture and expand on previous accomplishments!
Be friendly at all times because it can lead to something big down the road - but don't forget about making connections within other networks too. Everyone has their own unique skill set, resources, and ideas, which is invaluable when pursuing anything these days.
A successful PT business owner needs friends or acquaintances who have been there before with successes as well as failures; this way they know firsthand what to do and how to go about it.
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Companies cannot afford to ignore social media and digital marketing any longer.
These platforms are very popular and valuable for any personal training business. They can help with customer engagement, client retention, brand building aesthetics of products and services offered by business owners. They also help in building a brand and community spirit.
Creating an online community center where clients who want more information about their progress can communicate regularly through posts on various topics, including questions asked by other group members, encourages open discussions among all clients involved.
Also Read: 4 Social Media Platforms For Your Personal Brand
5. Understand your client base
As a successful personal trainer or coach, you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. Your clients are counting on you to help them achieve their fitness goals, and that's a big deal!
But don't let the pressure get to you - remember that you're the expert, and as long as you take care of your clients and your own business, everything will work out well.
To make it easier on yourself and to run your fitness business seamlessly, however, you need to understand your client base, i.e., their characteristics, their commonalities, how they react to your fitness plans, etc.
Analyzing your clients will also help you find your niche or expertise. For instance, are most of your clients looking for weight loss solutions? Do you cater to more women than men?
6. Stay true to your unique brand
Many personal trainers try to copy what their competitors are doing, without evaluating whether it will work for their brand and audience.
To stand out from the crowd, you must stay true to what you value. Your uniqueness makes you different and sets the world at large apart.
You might think that someone else is more successful than you or they seem happier so why shouldn't I try to emulate them? That doesn't mean going down a path that does not fit with how you want things for your business.
Also Read: Things To Be Kept In Mind While Building Your Personal Fitness Brand
7. Invest in a good client management and personal training software
In recent times, a business that does not employ tools and technology to its full potential risks experiencing poor growth.
It is always better to work smarter rather than harder, as the saying goes. That's where technology comes in.
Whether you're a pro or just starting, an efficient personal training software or client management platform will help you scale your fitness business. Even if you already run a gym, a personal trainer software can help you improve your system.
For example, FitBudd helps you develop and launch your own fitness app and manage clients from a centralized all-in-one dashboard that you can access from your laptop or phone while on the move!
This means you can coach clients at any time and from any location. There are also a plethora of features that, if used strategically, can reduce hours worth of coaching efforts into minutes without compromising on the quality.
Also Read: How To Onboard And Coach New Fitness Clients In 2022
8. Be patient with the process
As a fitness trainer or coach, you oftentimes have to remind your clients that they didn't get out of shape overnight, and it will take time and patience to reach their desired level of fitness.
The same goes for you when you're training clients. Rome wasn't built in a day.
So be patient, stay focused, and keep putting in the hard work and you'll get there eventually. All the successful personal trainers that you look up to have reached that level with hard work and determination. Similarly, obstacles will come your way during a training session, or while planning your business strategy, while reaching out to new clients, and so on. Just continue doing what you are, and you shall reach your goal. And even if you don't get where you were expecting to be, you will surely gain experience in the process.
9. Be flexible to change
One of the great tips that high level athletes give to a newly qualified PT is to keep up with the constantly changing times.
Sometimes things don’t go to plan. Remain flexible in your approach, and do not worry. A plan isn’t set in stone, a plan is simply a better idea to guide you in the right direction and help you achieve your learning outcomes.
If you spend too much time on an activity, don’t worry about it – just adjust your plan and spare time accordingly. The most important thing is to respond to your clients and help them learn the information. It doesn’t matter how you achieve your training objectives as long as you meet them.
10. Have fun!
The last tip for every newcomer personal trainer would be to have fun while training clients and building their business.
Sure, there's always the serious side to things like developing workouts and monitoring client progress, but at the end of the day, your clients are coming to you because they enjoy your fitness plans and feel good with them.
So make sure your classes are enjoyable and upbeat, and your clients will keep coming back for more. Who knows, you might even inspire them to stick with their fitness goals even after they've completed your programs. Build relationships and connections and just enjoy the personal training process.
The Bottom Line
Because of COVID 19, people have become more conscious of their health conditions and have realized the importance of a healthy and fit lifestyle. And with social distancing norms, hectic schedules, and the convenience of at-home workouts, clients looking for fitness solutions resort to fitness apps.
This is why more fitness gyms and personal training businesses are building a greater online presence and launching their fitness apps.
But developing an app can be expensive. Not with FitBudd!
FitBudd helps you start or transition to online training with your own app. You can opt for a common coach app or a fully custom branded fitness app.
Personal trainers that have used FitBudd find it to be the easiest way for fitness coaches to launch their own fitness app and scale their fitness business.
As mentioned before, there are a plethora of features such as creating tailored training plans, nutrition coaching, taking live training sessions, tracking client progress through intelligent analytics, etc.
Also, trainers can customize digital in-app experiences to be unique for their clients. Features include stylized branding, personalized videos, chat, schedules, and the ability to build an extensive workout library.
Redefine online personal coaching with your own fitness app and drive unparalleled client engagement.
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Meet the author
Sangeet Thakur
Sangeet is a dedicated content writer specializing in the fitness industry, crafting tailor-made content exclusively for personal trainers.
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