Want To Know The Fastest Way To Grow Your Personal Training Business?

Get More Paying Clients? 

Earn More Per Hour? 

If you said YES to any of the above then this post has been written for you.

The aim of this article is to help personal trainers out there who are either struggling to get clients and make ends meet, or those PT’s that are doing ok, BUT want to do much better!

This article is particularly relevant for those of you who are relatively new to the PT industry (qualified BUT with less than 3 years experience).

The Fastest Way To Grow Your Personal Training Business | 5 Tips To Accelerate Growth 

#1 Give Yourself Time

The first point… “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and neither is a successful personal training business. You don’t go to the gym for two weeks and then expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger – so don’t expect to be a millionaire PT after only being in the industry for a short period of time. 

It takes time to build a successful PT business – at least 1-2 years depending on how smart/efficiently you work. If you are 100% serious about building a great PT business then make it your top priority for the next year. 

ACTION POINT: write down how you want your personal training business to look this time next year…

How many clients would you have?

How many sessions are you doing each week?

How much are you charging per hour?

How many enquiries would you be getting per month?

Write down your goal(s) on a piece of paper and then post it on the wall above your computer. Look at it everyday and remind yourself of what you are working towards.

#2 Strategy 

A personal trainer could work 60-80 hours a week (inefficiently) or they could work 35 hours a week (efficiently) – how many hours you spend per week on your business is not as important as ‘how you spend those hours’. 

You need a strategy and to be smart with your time. 

When I started LEP Fitness – 7 years ago, I worked every hour I could. Metaphorically speaking I would through lots of stuff at the wall, in the hope that something would stick. Yes, I invested lots of time, BUT often on the wrong things. I wasn’t clear on what I wanted and lacked strategy.

You need a strategy and plan of action. To be a successful personal trainer you need the following…

• Good People Skills
• Expertise 
• Results
• A Constant Influx of New Leads and Enquiries 
• Regular Content
• Business Management – Sales and Systems 

You then need to allocate time each week on improving each area, for example…

Good People Skills – read 1 chapter a day of the book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ – Dale Carnegie – Weekly time = 2 hours 

Expertise – invest in an online coaching course, like the Phil Learney ACA Academy – spend time each week learning about the body, and building a PT business – Weekly time = 2-4 hours

New Leads – talk to 30 new people in your gym each week. Strike up a conversation and aim to build relationships with them. Ask them about how their training is going, offer to give them a spot, give away some free advice, etc. Weekly time = 1-2 hours 

Content – write 1 article for your fitness blog each week, and 3 posts each for Facebook and Instagram. When writing content direct it to your target audience – think about what problems they have and how you can help solve them? e.g. say your target market is women trying to lose weight… how about something like ‘How To Drop A Dress Size in 28 Days’ – then you share 5-10 tips to help your readers. Weekly time = 2-3 hours 

Business Management – sitting down each week and going through the numbers and analysing your progress – how many people signed up? how much did you make? did you get through your tasks for the week? Use this time to reflect and get organised. I’d recommend keeping a spreadsheet of the following… sessions delivered, amount earned from sessions, hours worked, leads/enquiries, sign ups, and whatever else you’d like to monitor.  Weekly time = 1 hour 

QUICK TIP: With strategy you need to first think about your end goal i.e. to get 10 more clients, and then you need to think “how do I achieve this goal?”… i.e. I will talk to 30 new people each week, advertise on Facebook, do free talks at my gym, give away a free PT session, etc, etc.  

ACTION POINT: sit down for 30-60 mins and write down what you want to achieve with your PT business in the next month i.e. get 3 new clients. Then make a plan of action for how to obtain it. Come up with at least 3 goals for your business i.e. 3 new clients, 12 social media posts, 10 hours of personal/business development. 

#3 Content 

Sharing valuable content is one of the best ways to pick up clients and build your brand. Whether you are a face to face PT, or an online personal trainer – in this day and age you need to be sharing content regularly – at least 1-3x per week… 

This builds trust with your audience, and provides value. You need to first give before you take. Too many personal trainers expect clients to fall at their feet as soon as they become qualified. BUT any PT who’ been in the industry for a while knows that this is not the case. It’s a highly competitive industry (there’s a personal trainer popping up on every corner!) – you need to provide more value than the next PT, and content is a great way to do this. 

With your content, again you’ve got to focus on your target market, for example…

Target Market = Weight loss

You could write content such as: 5 ways to improve your metabolism, The best fat burning exercises, you could also share low calorie recipes, and mindset tips for those struggling with inner food battles. 

Target Market = Muscle Building 

The 3 best supps for building muscle, how to add 20kg to your deadlift, add 3inches to your arms, etc, etc

Hopefully you get the gist! In a nutshell it’s about writing content to help solve your audiences problem(s). For 60 Great Content Ideas For Personal Trainers check out this post – it will give you plenty of topics to write about. 

ACTION POINT: write down 6-12 content ideas suited towards your audience. Then write an article for each topic and post it on your fitness blog/social media channels over the next month.  If you keep doing this throughout the year progress is guaranteed.

#4 Personal Development 

Arguably the most important area you need to focus on to accelerate the growth of your personal training business. 

Remember this…

“Your Business Grows As You Grow”

The more you invest time in your eduction and self development, the more you’ll have to offer and the more you’ll stand out. You’ll eventually be in high demand and be able to command a higher hourly rate. 

Investing in my own personal development has been one of the best things i’ve done, it has helped me grow my own personal training business. I have invested thousands of hours (and pounds!) into attending training courses, reading books, and hiring mentors. To this day I still do at least 30-60 mins of personal development stuff each day. For me personally… it’s as important as brushing my teeth! 

Ways To Work On Self Development:

Podcasts – listen to them on your commute to work. Check out my favourite podcasts for personal trainers here. Aim to listen to at least 1 podcast per week. 

Books – whether that’s training and anatomy, or business books, or self development books, it doesn’t matter. Read as much as you can. Some of my personal favourites are: 

• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (Robert M. Sapolsky)
• Start with Why (Simon Sinek)
• Mindset (Carol Dweck) 
• Think & Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) 

Mentors – hiring your own business coach could be one of the best decisions you ever make (it was for me!). Last year I spent over 5k on coaching, which helped me take my business to the next level. 

Courses – invest in some top quality coaching courses. I recommend the ones at M10 Fitness (Nottingham). Phil Learney also does practical workshops, and Phil Graham is another good personal trainer business coach

#5 Social Proof

Pretty much all personal trainers BIG THEMSELVES UP – or have done at some stage in their career. It’s good to be confident and to make bold claims – BUT can you back them up? 

Social proof is key – read the book Influence by Robert B Cialdini to learn more. People buy what other people recommend. The best two ways for personal trainers to get social proof are:

1. Testimonials 

Having clients write you testimonials can be extremely valuable to your business. Ask them at the end of the session “we’ve been working together a while now, and i’ve really enjoyed it! Would you mind leaving me a review on Google or Facebook?” – your clients will often be more than happy to leave you a review (i’ve never had anybody say NO!). Once you’ve got the review you could also publish on your website – over the years i’ve added hundreds of testimonials to my site…

When clients come to a consultation I always ask…

How they heard of LEP Fitness and Why they choose LEP Fitness – often it’s because of the reviews. 

Testimonials, whether written, or done in video format is something all successful personal trainers do. If you want extra help to manage your reviews and social proof, check out TrustMary.com for ways to make more sales and get the most bang for your buck. They will help you reach more people, which will therefore enable your PT business to gain lots of additional clients.

2. Results 

The other way of getting social proof is ‘before and after pics’ – showing off your results. This shows people that you are as good as you claim, and have the knowledge and experience to get results. As well as ‘before and after’ pics you could also share stories, for example I have a section on my site called LEP Fitness Success Stories – which includes my clients achievements, such as: before and after pics – with the story of how they achieved their results,  marathons, money raised for charity through walking, etc, etc.   

Social proof is key and a sure way to accelerate the growth of your PT business.

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂

Want More Help Growing Your PT Business? 

Then why not check out my ebook The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Personal Training Business. It’s 85 pages, and full of knowledge bombs! I teach you everything you need to know to build a successful PT business:

• Marketing – how to attract new customers to your business
• Sales – get more clients 
• Branding – building a brand that stands out and gets people talking about you
• Cancellation Policy (which will save you thousands in lost revenue each year) 
• SEO – how to optimise your site to rank well in google
• Payments – best ways to take payments, invoicing, managing finances 
• Growing Your PT Business Further – taking on a new trainer, PT studio, online PT
• Blogging – how to make money by blogging  

And much more!

Read more about the ebook here it will totally transform your PT business.