The weird thing about personal trainer courses is that they don’t really prepare you for life as a personal trainer.
Seriously.
I type this as a veteran of the fitness industry, having spent the last 22 years working with people in the gym, and I can honestly say that the majority of the knowledge which helped me grow my business was learned outside of the classroom.
It saddens me to read that over 80% of new personal trainers quit the fitness industry within just two years, and I’ve always believed one of the biggest reasons for this is that PT courses focus way too much on teaching fitness and nutrition, and not enough on teaching the necessary business skills. I touched upon this subject in my recent article about the reality of being a personal trainer, and today I’d like to go more in depth for you.
So here’s 6 things I wish my personal trainer courses taught me… but they didn’t!
People Skills Matter More Than Training Knowledge
If you go to your local gym right now, I guarantee you’ll see two things:
- A client-free PT at the front desk who has the personality of a wet fish.
- A busy PT on the gym floor who seems to have an endless line of customers.
Make no mistake, being a personal trainer is a people business, so your ability to communicate with others is crucial. Some of the most intelligent PTs I’ve met over the years have struggle to find clients due to their poor communication skills.
So remember this:
“The success of a PT hinges not just on their knowledge, but on their ability to teach it.”
Why Diet Coke Doesn’t Cause Weight Gain
The first time I went to a business convention, a lecturer asked us all to write a short sales pitch describing what we do.
Mine looked like this:
“I’m a fully qualified fitness instructor and personal trainer who can help people with weight loss, strength training, bodybuilding, and implementing the necessary steps for a healthier lifestyle.”
Fucking kill me now.
Because even though this is an accurate description of what I do, I was basically just trying to say all the right things in order to attract as many clients as I could (cuz money).
The lecturer explained that the this was a mistake, and he was dead right.
Because in a bid to appeal to everybody, I wound up appealing to nobody. My little sales pitch sounded bland. He explained to me that my customers didn’t care about all of the different things I could do, or how many areas I could work in, they just want to now how I can help them with their specific problem.
This was the first “Holy shit!” moment of my career at this point.
It led me on a journey which included several courses designed to help me become a better salesman, rather that just adding more fitness qualifications.
The first of those taught me how to create an elevator pitch, so suddenly I stopped being “Russ who is the same as every other PT in 180 characters or less”, and I started being Russ Howe PTI: The Fat Loss Guy.
Holy flaps!
This change revolutionized my sales numbers – not because I was suddenly better at my job, but because I could more easily convey the benefits of working with me to the public, and the icing on the cake is that it fucking rhymed.
Don’t Negotiate With Bastards
My business mentor Derek Halpern always said:
“Nothing feels worse than being offered $500 for a $5000 job.”
This is why you need to be firm about your prices and policies from the outset.
Because if you’re not, people will try to take advantage, and you can’t help your clients the way you want to help your clients if you feel drained, unappreciated, and undervalued.
So here are my two simple rules:
- My price is my price. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere, there are other trainers.
- If you cancel a session with less than 12 hours notice, you will still be billed.
That’s it.
Having these two policies in place will save you from so much bullshit.
You see, people can be absolute dicks, and if you’re not used to dealing with them face-to-face it can feel daunting when someone tries to haggle your price, or even worse, they ask you to train them for free in exchange for social media posts. This industry requires a certain level of toughness, and a willingness to turn customers away, that you might not have experienced in other jobs.
If Certainly Helps If You Look The Part
Let’s be honest here, the fitness industry is very superficial.
We all want chiselled abs, and buns of steel, and biceps peaks so tall they have snow on them.
So this is why looking the part is important.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying you can’t be a great trainer if you’re not in great shape (Usain Bolt’s coach cannot run faster than him), but the public mostly makes decisions in a split second, so the fastest way to convey that you know what you’re talking about is to look like it.
I’m also not saying that fitness qualifications are a waste of time, because you most certainly need them in order to safely and legally run your business, and the more of them you own the more knowledgeable coach you will be.
I’m just saying the general public doesn’t give a fuck.
The Side Hustle Method
Most people don’t have thousands of pounds to be able to buy their own premises and/or equipment.
I certainly didn’t.
So a lot of new PTs either make knee-jerk financial decisions which come back to bit them on the ass, or they enter into long-term contracts with commercial gyms whereby they pay a monthly “rent” in exchange for being able to walk the floor and pick up clients.
It’s a risky strategy, because people often borrow the money to get started (credit cards, loans, family members) in the hope that they can make it all back before the next monthly installment is due.
And, of course, most of the time it fails because the majority of new PTs have poor people skills (see above) and becoming established in a commercial gym takes time.
What usually happens next is the new PT quits his/her business with a bunch of debt, and the commercial gym just spins its revolving doors and brings in a new group of unsuspecting meat for the grinder.
Fuck that shit.
I recommend using the side hustle method instead. This is where you’ll get a part-time job alongside your budding PT business, and you’ll keep it until you reach the point in time where where you no longer need it.
Honestly, the peace of mind and easing of financial worries is immense!
This will allow you to take your time in building your business to ensure you get it just how you want it to be.
I personally used this method when I was starting out, and I still look back at it as a crucial moment in my eventual success. My side hustle job was at a local supermarket. I remember my first day vividly. The boss handed me a florescent green t-shirt so tight it looked like it’d been sprayed on, and off I went, carrying heavy crates of fruit and vegetables from the warehouse freezer to the shop floor. I met some great people there, and even picked up a bunch of future PT clients (no doubt the shirt helped!), but the biggest benefit is that it afforded me the luxury of growing my business without any financial worries.
Eventually I reduced my hours at the store, and then went full-time self-employed.
In the years since then I’ve passed this method onto several ex-clients who transitioned to becoming personal trainers themselves, and it never fails!
Keep Your Receipts
You wanna hear a funny story?
Of course you do!
During my first year as a PT I lost thousands of dollars (which I’d saved diligently at my side hustle job!) by purchasing a new laptop, gym equipment, custom made t-shirts, and other stuff to help me get started in my business.
You see, I didn’t keep any of the receipts.
What a fucking dick.
At the end of my first financial year I received an email from HMRC saying I could write off any business expenses (including all the expensive shit I’d just bought) by including them on my end of year self-employment tax return.
I didn’t know this was a thing, so I was angrier than dwarf with a yo-yo!
And why didn’t I know?
Yep, because this is just another thing my fucking PT courses never taught me! So learn from my mistake and make sure you keep receipts for everything relating to your business from day one (this includes equipment, training gear, travel, working lunches, fucking everything!), then check the eligibility of these items at the end of the year and you’ll probably save yourself a small fortune by being able to claim the majority of them back on your tax bill.
There you go, I hope you’ve liked this article!
