It’s not very difficult to become a personal trainer, all you have to do is an 8-12 week course, and pass an exam. Ok, the exam can be pretty challenging, and it still takes some work, BUT what I’m trying to get at, is that if you work hard for 2-3 months you can officially work with members of the public and be in business! Compare this to doctors, nurses, dentists, policemen, firemen, etc, etc – who all have to spend much longer studying/training, before they get to deal with the public!

It’s a very low barrier to entry to become a personal trainer, and that’s why there are so many personal trainers – many of whom are struggling because of the vast competition. Becoming a qualified personal trainer isn’t the difficult bit, the challenging bit is…

How to become the most successful personal trainer in your area…

There are personal trainers popping up all over, in gyms, opening private personal training studios, setting up bootcamps at the local park, etc, etc – in a saturated market… how do you stand out from the crowd and dominate your area?

Let’s look at some tips…

#1 Results

This is really important, you need to have proof that you can get results and help people. Whether that’s weight loss, or muscle building – you should have a portfolio of results. This will help you to attract new customers, and help you build your reputation as the best personal trainer in your area. You can use your results and share them on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You could also place them on your website, and write a blog about how each client achieved their goal. For example, on the LEP Fitness website, I have a section called success stories where I share results, and client achievements.

#2 Social Media

This is super important for personal trainers, who are looking to grow their brand and get more clients. Whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc, etc. It doesn’t matter! Although one thing I would say, is don’t try and do them all. Stick to 1-3 platforms, and get good at them!

For LEP Fitness I mainly use Facebook and Instagram (although Insta is my favourite!) I also use Youtube – although not as much as the others.

With social media, the key is to know your audience, who are you trying to help? and what content can you share with them, to help them solve their problems?

For example, say you’re a weight loss personal trainer, you could share content such as…

• Low calorie recipes
• Fat loss workouts
• Tips to improve motivation
• Best exercises for burning calories
• Exercise videos
• Mindset hacks

The above are just some basic examples, BUT hopefully you catch my drift? Using social media to provide value to your audience is key. If you post good content, and regularly 2-3x per week, then you will start to grow a fanbase, and eventually get lots of paying customers.

#3 Reviews

Getting good reviews on Google, Facebook, and on your website is really crucial. Positive reviews will help improve your search rankings, and also act as social proof, for example when potential customers are searching for ‘personal trainers’ online, and they see a business with 20+ reviews, and a business with 0 reviews… who do you think they are more likely to pick?

The one with the more/better reviews!

It’s really important to get your customers to review your business, this will help you attract lots of new customers. As well as getting online reviews, I also add testimonials to my site too – it’s good to get a picture of a client in action, alongside a written testimonial – this is for extra proof! See the LEP Fitness testimonial page – for some good examples of what I mean.

#4 Website

A website is your online shop, it’s where potential clients can go to find out more information, for example about who you are, and how you can help them. I recommend having the following on your personal trainer website…

About You – where you introduce yourself, talk about your passion to help people, background, experience, etc.

Packages – what services you offer, what’s included, price, etc.

Blog – this is really important, as it allows you to update your site regularly and share fresh content each week. It will also help improve your local search rankings on Google.

Testimonials – feedback from happy customers. Like I said earlier, you should also try and get a picture to go alongside the words. Make-sure you get permission from your clients before adding to your site.

Contact Page – where customers can contact you, ask questions, and book in for consultations.

#5 Service

To stand out from the crowd you have to provide a 5 star service, you can do this by…

• Giving clients fresh towels before each session
• Offering clients drinks – water, tea, coffee
• Opening doors, being polite, and well mannered
• Professional – wearing a logo uniform, which is always clean, and fresh
• Providing a top class training facility – great equipment and a positive environment to train. Also, clean, and tidy
• Customisation – letting clients choose their own music, and remembering details for each client – children’s names, favourite football team, partners names, hobbies, interests, etc – building positive relationships with clients (crucial!)
• Going the extra mile – extra contact outside of sessions, email support, thoughtful touches both in and out of sessions

Taking Action…

Thanks for reading, if you apply these tips I can guarantee that you’ll have a thriving personal training business in no time!

Also, if you’re serious about building a successful personal training business then I’d highly recommend checking out my ebook The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Personal Training Business – it’s 85 pages, and I share all of my secrets: marketing, sales, social media, consultations, cancellations policy (saving you thousands of pounds each year!), insurance, payment methods, finances, hiring another personal trainer, group PT, online personal training, blogging, etc, etc – I cover it all!

Swipe up your copy of the ebook here. It will take your personal training business to new heights! I wish I had this book when I started my career!

Thanks again, and good luck!

Nick 🙂