With the fitness industry continuing to boom in recent years, more people than ever are eyeing up a career as a personal trainer. Switching careers is never an easy thing to do successfully, however, and this is particularly true in an industry as crowded by newly qualified professionals as the fitness industry. If you want to successfully transition to a new career as a personal trainer, either online or in person, keep reading for a few quick tips on how to get started and, most importantly, how to set yourself up for success.
Getting the right credentials
Once you have decided that a career as a personal trainer is the one for you, the next step you will need to face is pursuing the right credentials. This is not necessarily a straightforward step, however, as not all credentials are created equal!
When selecting the right credential, there are a number of options available, all with varying degrees of time commitments and costs. Some personal trainers undertake specialized degrees in subjects such as anatomy and exercise physiology, though these are not necessarily a prerequisite to training clients in a professional capacity. They will, however, give you a solid base of understanding how the human body works, which you can then use to pursue other professional credentials.
The most popular option is a specific personal training certificate. Of the many options available, the NCCA is the most well-recognized and has essentially become an industry standard for would-be personal trainers.
When choosing a credential to pursue, there are a number of factors you need to consider before making your decision. These include the total cost associated with it, whether it is self-studied or delivered through in-person classes, and what it actually qualifies you to do. You also need to make sure that the qualification you do decide to undertake is fully accredited by a body such as the NCCA.
Managing your business
An aspect of becoming a successful personal trainer that is often overlooked relates to the business side of things. In fact, many new personal trainers completely fail to recognize themselves as a business at all! Being business savvy doesn’t mean that you need to go out and get yourself a business degree or an accounting degree. It does, however, mean that you need to think of how you conduct yourself not just as a trainer but also as a business. This means thinking about profit and loss, long-term business planning, and keeping your tax affairs in order. Long-term planning could include, for example, thinking about future equipment purchases you want to make to expand your business and planning for these months or years in advance.
Another element to the business side of things that is often overlooked is ensuring that you have the right insurance policies in place. As an exercise professional, you need to make sure that you have the essential policies when training clients, which will protect you from any risks associated with running your business.
Where do you want to work?
One of the great things about the popularization of the health, wellness and fitness industry is that there are now more options than ever for those of you looking to work as a professional personal trainer. This includes commercial gyms, corporate fitness gyms, hospital and wellness centers, personal training studios, and in-home training. You also have the ability to tailor your credentials and qualifications to the type of environment you want to work in. For example, if you want to get started in the commercial gym or corporate fitness sector, you can pursue group training-specific credentials. Based on this, you can then choose to further specialize in certain types of fitness training or specific demographics.
Relationship management
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of building a successful personal training business is the importance of relationship management. The relationship between trainer and client is an incredibly unique one, and if you do everything correctly from the beginning of your career, you might end up establishing relationships with clients that last for years. Although the relationship between a client and trainer is often thought of in terms of being short term or results based, the reality is that even after a client has achieved their fitness goals, they will stay with you beyond this. As such, treating every client like a long-term investment, rather than a short-term project, is important to cultivating these lasting relationships. Another incentive to building these client relationships is that a good portion of your business will come from direct recommendations.
To help build up these relationships, remember to keep in touch with your clients, give regular assessments, tailor your training sessions to their specific goals, and offer extras that can help them achieve these.