If you have taken the initiative to get fit, and you have kept up your regime, you may be looking for ways to take your new passion to the next level.
Physical fitness is a lifestyle and can be a vocation. Becoming a professional personal trainer is the perfect way to monetise the skills and techniques you have learned, and also gain financial freedom. But how do you do it?
Here we are going to take a look at the steps that any dedicated physical fitness enthusiast can take to become a professional personal trainer and turn their passion into a career.
Get Qualified
Even if you have a lot of training experience, you need a qualification to operate as a professional personal trainer. From a business perspective, people will always choose a qualified instructor over an unqualified one. You cannot afford not to have accreditation in the field. A certificate in personal training is the difference between an amateur and a professional.
There is also a lot of opportunity for you when you take a professional personal trainer course. Not only will you learn more about fitness training, but you will also develop your business skills and begin to create a network that you can rely on to help build your new business.
The Fitness Group offers some of the highest-rated online personal trainer courses in the UK and can help you take the first steps towards your new career.
This type of support does not end when your course does either, you will continue to receive guidance and help to guide your career. Knowledge and expertise can be the difference between success and failure in the competitive world of professional fitness training.
Look For Your First Job Early
Before you complete your qualification you should start making plans for the near future. There are two main avenues to go down if you are planning on becoming a professional personal trainer.
Employed or self-employed? You have access to both and can even follow both paths at the same time. Working in a gym or fitness centre as a professional trainer has its advantages over being a self-employed instructor, and can be a great way to gain experience and build your network. As an employee, you do not have to take on responsibility for paying your taxes, finding clients, or providing equipment.
Self-employed personal trainers have to run a small business as well as run on a treadmill, and they have to hustle to build a client base. For qualified instructors in the early days of their careers, working in an established gym or fitness centre can allow them to gain experience working with clients and build a reputation without the distractions or pressures of building a small business.
Starting your career as a self-employed instructor can be challenging, but also rewarding. If you relish a challenge and want to go your own way, begin building a presence early and get your name out there as you are completing your qualification.
Be Social, Online And Off
There is no better advertising than word of mouth. People who enjoy your training sessions will become evangelical, telling anyone who will listen about their fitness journey and your role in it. Your first clients are your most valuable resource, whether self-employed or working in an established gymnasium.
Their experience will help you build your client base. You should have an online presence on social media apps like Instagram and Facebook. Whether you are working on your own or not, you need to get your name out there and your expertise recognised.
Savvy social media influencers do not use these platforms for direct advertising. You should not exclusively make posts and videos that offer your services, but instead offer information and guidance.
This will help to generate interest in your instruction without your followers feeling like they are being sold a product. This interest will lead to enquiries, which you can then convert into clients.
Some occasional posts which show that you can be hired and what your rates are is recommended but think of these as a seasoning and not the meat. Sprinkle these posts lightly through your social media, and make your content the bait on the hook that will reel in new clientele.
Set The Example
Your physical fitness is your best advertisement. People will be reluctant to take instruction from someone who does not appear to practice what they preach. You and your body need to set both physical and psychological examples for your existing and potential clients.
This should not be too difficult if you are working regularly, whether as an employed or self-employed instructor. Your job will help keep you fit and healthy and it is important to set a motivational example too.
Enthusiasm is contagious. One of the things your clients will be looking to you for is motivation, which is something they may be struggling with themselves.
Using social media to promote your motivational techniques is a great way to show you know how to keep people focused on achieving their goals and maintaining their fitness regime.
As well as showing techniques that can help people increase their fitness levels, you should show how people can stay motivated and how you will keep them motivated.
This will help you to gain new clients and swell your customer base, which is the key to success whether self-employed or working as an instructor in a gym or fitness centre.
You have had the motivation and dedication to get fit and make physical fitness a part of your everyday life, are you ready to take the next step?
Becoming a professional personal trainer is a great way to turn your passion into a profession, and build your own small business.
The path to financial freedom is wide open to you if you can take the first step and start to create a network of fitness contacts, build a client base, and get the qualifications you need. Do not delay, and start your new life in fitness today.