The best thing about being a self employed personal trainer is that you get to work for yourself. The worst thing about being the same PT is that you work for yourself! These words of wisdom were shared with me over 8 years ago when I first started out. They still ring true. Any self employed person will tell you that they spend most of their time thinking about work. In the private personal training arena one tends to earn money by selling their time. The more training sessions delivered, the more money earned. It follows therefore, that private fitness coaches want to fill their diaries. However, there is a fine line between enough and too much. This fine line has implications for a successful business.
Quality personal training versus Quantity personal training
In an age where big business seem intent on gaining new customers, at NK Fitness we believe that personal training really is an business that must focus on current customers. Simply look around at companies and websites offering deals for switching service provider. The focus is on volume of sales. Do this as a Fulham personal trainer and you risk losing your current client base. Self employed personal training isn’t scaleable in the same way as some big business. The gym industry is an example of scaleable fitness. One to one expert fitness coaching has a finite resource – your time. Supporting the needs of each individual client requires preparation and attention to detail. Filling the diary back to back can seriously reduce the quality of coaching that you can offer.Therefore, one cant fill the working week with 40+ sessions.
When planning your training week as a self employed personal trainer consider total number of sessions and their distribution. The client that you see at the end of the working day deserves the same level of service as the client you see at the beginning of the day. Too many sessions in a day will cause a trainer to go into auto pilot. Clients are not stupid, and they will sense if a trainer is fatigued and distracted. If a client perceives a mismatch between cost and benefit then they may opt out of sessions. In simple terms, losing clients means that PT’s have work hard to find more business.
Maintaining a balanced personal training diary
Working as a successful self employed personal trainer requires the same attention to detail as an effective programme. Of course there will times when the diary is overloaded. This is ok, but it can’t be everyday. When you give people your time and energy in coaching, you can burnout if there’s not enough rest. One of the early considerations to maintaining a high quality of service is to plan sessions. Sounds simple doesn’t it? You’d be surprised how many personal trainers will ‘wing it’ or simply deliver the same session to clients with varying needs. Planning sessions in advance means that the client, who is paying good money, gets an effective programme.
With a decent programme in place, it’s important to deliver it well. Therefore, personal trainers need to plan downtime into their diaries. PT’s must bring energy to their sessions – clients sense energy levels. No need to be a cheerleader, but there must be enough energy to create a positive coaching environment. It is no secret that successful ventures are led by people with genuine passion for the product. Simply take a look at any fitness class or business – those with genuine passion have a habit for making it work. Passionate Fulham personal trainers tend to retain their clients!
In short, being an expert self employed personal trainer in Fulham and Parsons Green is just as much about managing your time and effort as it is about your training programmes. Existing clients are more valuable than potential ones.