How to Start a Career as a Personal Trainer [In 3 Easy Steps]

In an industry that is evolving year on year, guided by consumer trends the modern Personal Trainer of today is part of a multi million pound industry that continues to grow.

Consumers are spending more and more every year on; gym memberships, group training experiences, online fitness, supplements, and personal training. With more opportunity than ever before in the industry, how do you start your career as a qualified Personal Trainer?

Here are 3 Simple Steps to Becoming a Qualified Personal Trainer: 

One: Decide on Your Desination FIRST

Before maing any hasty decisions about your career and the personal training course to enrol on. Spend time thinking about why you want to qualify. What you want to achieve from the qualification and the fitness industry, and how you will transition into the fitness industry with out losing a ton of time, money, or memories in the process. It really is worth investing the time into this before you dive in.

The minimum level now required in the industry is a level 3 Diploma in Personal Training. The industry made a commitment to ensuring that trainers coming into the industry have the skill set to instruct & educate members on how to be more active and reach their fitness goals. A level 3 trainer has the ability to design and prepare periodised training plans that apply fitness principles, while knowing how to motivate and support clients through effective coaching and behaviour management skills. The upgraded qualification will now give you an insight to the foundation sales, marketing, and business administration skills for a self employed personal trainer.

Personal Training courses do take varying lengths of time to complete and this really depends on the level of existing knowledge you have in the subject area prior to your course taking place. The starting point is not the same for everone, your desitination will also be very different to someone else. There are many reasons why people start a personal training career. Some choose a full time option, others a part time option to supplement income. Before you start it's worth putting some time into thinking about what you want to gain from the qualification and how you will use it once you've qualified.

Everyone is different and based on prior learning you can ensure your course takes the right time for you. If you have been studying the subject areas at College or University there is likely to be some crossover in the content you will study. You may already hold a level two fitness instructor qualification allowing you to upskill to a level 3 Diploma.

The important part to remember is that your level 3 Personal Training Diploma is a vocational qualification, like training it requires “reps” to become an expert in your chosen career. Your Diploma gives you technical knowledge allowing access to employment or self-employment in the industry. While you are studying and after you complete your Diploma it's highly important to keep learning and honing your skills.

 Two: Employment or Self Employment?

As a newly qualified trainer you've opened the door to a very rewarding industry with trainers now having what seem to be limitless income (with time, consistency & commitment).

Social media has helped this and specifically YouTube, Instagram and Facebook are now helping trainers achieve substantial earnings. This will not happen overnight and it will require; time and reps to becoming an expert, good people skills, and gaining results for the people you work with. I's easy to post an Instagram post, but lerning how to craft the copy to attract clients and become a great personal trainer requires practice and time. Everyone starts in the fitness industry at different ages and ability but everyone can achieve their own success with the right commitment and mindset.

Note: To achieve this level of success you will need to think really careful about what it will take and what you will need to learn along the way, your sales, marketing, and business skills will require continual commitment to reach the higher earnings.

One decision to make is to choose employment over self-employment. Coming straight out of college or University is the next big step in life for some. Employment will provide a bit of a safety net if you’re looking to concentrate on becoming a strong personal trainer without the worry of finding your own income. Providers that offer employed roles do offer a bonus style of structure these days, this allows you to take home a basic salary and as you begin to deliver a higher number of personal training sessions for the company you are rewarded with a commission of the sessions you deliver. This is exactly how car sales executives work. They receive a basic salary and as they sell more cars they earn more money. Personal Training is exactly the same.

Ok, maybe you are the more adventurous type or you have some life experience, have already travelled, or had a job in other industries where you have learned a thing or two about working with people and how to sell? Self-employment could be a good start for you, the freedom to be your own boss and choose when you want to work. At first you will need to put in the work to make this happen.

Gym operators in the industry offering access to their members do allow you to be self employed, essentially you are delivering a “service agreement” in return for access to the gym members. This option removes spending excessive money on marketing your new business, simply be in the gym and meet as many people as it takes to build your new personal training business. There will be stipulations by the gym to ensure you as a “supplier” are delivering a good service to their members. You will wear gym uniform provided to you so that members know who you are and why you are in the gym. In some cases, you will also provide your time in return for access to the gym members, usually carrying out induction activities such as group classes, inductions, and general gym operations. The time you give to the gym will be on a shift basis of between 10 and 15 hours each week instead of paying a rental payment.

Once established as a trainer and you’re delivering 20+ training sessions a week you may consider paying a rent instead of delivering hours to free up more of your time to achieve a higher number of sessions each week and give yourself the flexibility to work when you want. If you are starting out in the industry this is a common pathway for a lot of trainers. While you are on the way to becoming a fully self employed trainer you will have a clearer picture of where you want to be in the industry. Self employment provides a number of opportunities to “sell” your education. Joe Wicks The Body Coach is a recent example of a trainer who once worked for a national gym chain, ran outdoor boot camps as a self-employed trainer for years then moved his programs online to start “The Body Coach”. Joe applied himself over the years to get where he wanted to be and had fun doing it. He became an overnight success [10 years in the making].

So, this next step of choosing employment or self-employment requires a bit of consideration, here are a few things to consider.

 Self-employment

• Do I want to be responsible for my own tax and national insurance?
• Am I ready to work what it takes to be a self employed trainer?
• Do I feel confident in my ability to “sell” me?
• Do I have a plan of how to build my personal training business?

Employment

• Do I want my working pattern set?
• Do I want a safety net to start my career?
• Do I want to learn more about the industry?
• Do I need that extra support to get my career started?

Step Three: Interview preparation

Once you've made the decision about how you want to start out in the industry, you'll need to prepare your CV and freshen up your interview skills. Updating your CV with your new qualification will be a good start. Consider the key attributes gym operators will be looking for in a personal trainer. Spend some time reviewing your course material and browse through some current job adverts, this will help you understand what gym operators will be looking for.

The next thing to complete is "research" - into the companies you will be applying to, learn about their business and how they work. This will help you build a set of questions you can ask. Interviews are two way and all good operators will look favourably to trainers doing their homework and preparing themselves ahead of interview.

Starting your new career is an exciting prospect and will fill you with unlimited levels of energy to get your first step on the ladder. Yes, it can be rewarding but there are no short cuts in creating a long-lasting career. Spend time learning what you love and make sure every rep counts.

If you're interst has peaked and you'd love to explore starting your career in the fitness industry, i'm happy to connect and chat through your questions.