Becoming a PT is a very rewarding career. We hear from many former learners, we’ve taught who said the career change has been one of the best things they have done. The biggest reason people want to become a PT is to help people. But today, I thought we’d address the elephant in the room. Money. The one reason business planning is important for personal training.
It’s all well and good wanting to help people and we do believe that does need to be your primary focus. But you can’t help people if you can’t pay your bills or have a strategy to attract clients.
So, what have we done to ensure you’re able to make more money and have a viable business strategy?
Well, the level 3 course now has a great emphasis on business planning in personal training.
It used to be believed that you would make an Instagram post stating you’re a personal trainer and you’d be flooded with hundreds of messages, asking for your service.
But there is a lot more to it.
What’s interesting though, we’ve noticed that the students who take the business plan modules seriously and implement their actual plan after qualifying, do actually do very well.
Our former learner Michelle Vitesse, implemented her business plan 100% to the letter, now she’s thriving in the online fitness world.
Why does the business plan module work so well? Because it forces you to have clarity on your goals and what you want to achieve as a PT.
The plan focuses on areas such as:
- How to address your strengths and weaknesses
- Addressing opportunities
- How to advertise
Addressing strengths and weaknesses
A lot of personal trainers have the same weakness in common.
They are afraid to sell. This is where business planning for personal training, comes in useful.
Unfortunately, when it comes to running a fitness business, the customers won’t come running to you. It’s your job to find the right people to work with, then it’s down to you to outlay the benefits of them working with you.
Without the ability to sell, you won’t be able to run a successful business.
This is why the business plan is great for personal trainers, as it gets them to acknowledge this weakness, then asks them what they think they can do to combat it.
What we’ve noticed, when they have done this, people actually implement what is on the plan and then find they are able to get decent results.
Here at NHF, we have guest speakers teaching you how to sell, lessons on marketing and with the detail the business plan module go into, we’ve set you up to succeed when you’ve completed your course.
Addressing opportunities
Like weaknesses, there are plenty of opportunities around for personal trainers.
Maybe your local area is missing a niche, which you would fit directly into.
Maybe you carry more than a level 3 Diploma, you might also be a level 4 nutrition coach, meaning you can go into deeper detail about nutrition, which would help with your client’s body weight goals.
Anything about you which is a little different can be seen as an opportunity. Once you have to put it on paper, you can then go and utilise those skills in your market.
How to advertise
Unless you’ve worked in marketing, advertising will be a completely foreign concept to newly qualified personal trainers.
As stated earlier, most believe, they can put a couple of posts on social media and customers will fly in.
On our Saturday workshops, we like to teach our learners about various forms of advertising.
We go through how to create a Facebook ad, how to target the right audience and demographics. How to install a Facebook pixel to your website. We’ve spoken about the ins and outs of email marketing and have spoken about the importance of SEO.
In the digital world, all these forms of advertising are paramount in getting your name out there.
Conclusion
We believe the business plan module in the course is vital for PTs once they qualify. It’s something we believe was lacking from the course in past years.
Though the business plan is a great addition, we pride ourselves on going above and beyond.
That’s why we teach our learners about the importance of having a digital business presence. This is why we sit down with them individually and discuss their ideas, once they qualify.
Finally, even if you did want more support and guidance after qualifying, we’re still an email, phone call, or a knock on the office door away.
If you want more details, email us back, or look at the courses we have on offer.
Written by Joshua Forster
