If you’re making the average personal trainer salary, they say you're poor.
It's not nice. But it’s true. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average personal trainer works long, hard hours to make about thirty-five thousand dollars a year. That's not a lot of cash to spend on fancy cars and 52" plasma TVs. In fact, for many big cities, that income isn’t even enough for a decent house and nightly mac-and-cheese dinners.
But there is good news.
Thirty-five thousand dollars a year is only the average salary for average personal trainers. But are you "average"?
If your answer is "yes, I'm average", then there's really nothing I can do to help you. But there's no reason you can't make far more than what the government says most trainers take home annually. All you need is some business knowhow.
The secret key to making more money as a personal trainer is really a secret to no one: you need lots of clients. And to get more clients, you have to market yourself.
You're probably staring in disbelief at your monitor right now and thinking, "marketing? I'm a fitness professional, not a salesman!" And you have every right to feel that way. You didn't become a personal trainer so you could put up with things like market research and demographics; you became a personal trainer to help people, and possibly make some decent money along the way.
The bottom line is, if you don't step up to the plate and put some time each month into marketing, you'll be stuck making that average salary.
Don’t panic.
I won't mince words here: marketing isn't easy. That said, it doesn't have to leave you penniless: the spread of the World Wide Web in recent years has made sure of that.
The key for fitness experts hoping to boost their income is the Internet. All trainers should create their own websites and blogs: these sites should feature a schedule of available fitness classes, testimonials from satisfied clients, short videos of exercise classes and your latest discounts or special offers.
Trainers should try to promote their web homes through the social networking giants such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s relatively easy to collect friends on either site; try for both if you can. Once trainers have a large enough database of these friends, they can send them regular announcements on current events in the world of fitness.
And don't think the Internet has completely killed offline ways to market your business. A good fitness trainer should help out their local community as well. They should talk at local hospitals and YMCAs. They should hold free group exercise sessions at their local Rotary Clubs or park district facilities. Basically, a fitness trainer should be willing to do anything and everything to get their name out there.
You shouldn’t skimp on the traditional advertising, either. In this recession, you can purchase advertising space in your local newspaper for relatively cheap - and a weekly ad can prove to be a wise investment.
I understand that all this marketing takes time, and that you’d rather spend your working hours helping clients shape up. But you can’t afford not to market yourself and your business. The only way you can make sure that your salary continues to grow is by expanding your client base. Who wants to work the kind of hours that personal trainers log only to make thirty-five thousand dollars a year? To me, that just isn’t worth it.
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