How to Grow a Personal Training Business

Have you heard the statement If you are not growing, you are dying? We can apply this saying across a wide variety of topics but it is especially true in business. Starting a personal training business doesn’t mean you open your doors and a flood of clients come through the door. It requires continuous feeding, watering, pruning, and caring for to make sure your business doesn’t wither away.

Why Do You Want to Grow Your Business?

The reason we ask is because it may not be the actual question you intend to ask. For most, they really mean “How do I make more money as a personal trainer?” This is a distinct difference between the two questions. You may need to make more money to meet your living expenses and building a business does not guarantee more free cash flow.

Amazon.com ran on a very slim margin for many of its growing years. The goal wasn’t to make more money but to grow the business. Even if that meant making less money, market share was their top priority.

So assuming that you may be interested in making more money, let’s begin with ideas on how to do that while you grow your business.

Keep it Simple

Following the 80/20 principle, there are certain actions you can take to make more money in your business. These are simple and practical decisions that require very little creative thought. Before we get into more detailed business strategies, let’s see if a few simple changes can positively impact your bottom line.

Should You Raise Your Prices?

When Warren Buffett purchased 7% ownership of Coca Cola, he remembered to keep it simple. When considering a strategy to add more profits to his business, he thought about the potential of raising prices by a single penny. That would equate to $450,000.00 per day of increased revenue.

As a personal trainer, your business won’t benefit much by such a small increase, but the overall thinking process is something to consider. Are you charging enough based on the value you bring to your clients? If not, then you shouldn’t fear raising your prices.

Should You Get a Job?

A tough question to ask but when facing the reality of a situation, removing prideful emotion is a necessary step to making the correct choice. If your business is struggling to grow, you may need a new perspective. Having a part-time job as a personal trainer at a gym can reduce financial strain and free you to explore your business without the fear of paying your bills.

A part-time job at a gym will help expose you to new people and relationships, which may equate to future business down the road.

Are You Spread too Thin?

One way to grow a business is to cut the fat. Sometimes there are aspects of your business that weigh you down and prevent you from implementing new and more innovative ways of doing business.

Now that we have looked at some ways to optimize our business, let’s move into the strategies that can help us grow exponentially.

What Stage is Your Personal Training Business?

Your fitness business may have its own unique challenges based upon your life stage at this very moment. Tony Robbins suggests that there are 4-primary life stages and business experiences.

Infancy
Teen Years
Adulthood
Aging gracefully

We are not bound to these phases for good. New personal training products, fitness marketing strategies, and trends in the fitness industry can inject young blood back into our business. But when looking at how to grow in this moment, understanding your current stage will help you make the best decision.

Three Ways to Grow Your Business

High level marketer and strategic business consultant Jay Abraham has chunked business growth down to three primary actions. Remembering this three step framework will help you determine which area of your business requires attention at this moment.

Increase the Number of Personal Training Clients

Every life stage can suffer from less than optimal number of clients. The infancy and teen phase may struggle to get new client attention. The adulthood and aging graceful phases may experience fall off and become unsure of how to replenish their personal training client roster.

Finding prospective clients and bringing them into our business is the first step to growing our business.

Increase the Average Transaction Value of a Client

A client will be more receptive to bigger packages once they understand the value of the service you offer. Because a client signed up for your basic personal training package doesn’t mean they need to stay at that level for the entirety of time.

In fact, you may end up losing a client to a higher end package that another company offers. You may wave your hands and say “hey I offer that too” but it could be too little too late. Think through your business model and look for ways to offer packages that increase the transaction value of a client.

Increase the Frequency of Repurchase

People are less inclined to make a purchase the longer time goes by between transactions. Each transaction keeps the individual engaged in “doing business” with the person on the other end. It becomes a part of their lifestyle routine.

Some businesses fear that increasing the frequency of the transaction will lead to a faster fall off but this just isn’t true. When you offer a product that people like they are happy to purchase it frequently. Hence why you see many people posting the same thing on social media day in and day out.

Resourcefulness > Resources

Throwing money at a problem is rarely the solution you need. Sure, there are opportunities available to those with cash on hand but it is unnecessary to spur innovation that helps grow your personal training business. Here are three ideas that require a minimal investment.

Work Harder at Referrals (Increase clients)

Are you asking your clients to talk about your business? They don’t have to go out with a megaphone and shout it to the world, but there are ways they can let a potential client know about your business.

Create referral cards that clients can pass out.
Create a selfie wall for social media posts.
Offer a free friend class that has a special theme unique.

Create a transformation contest (Increase Transaction Value)

Creating a transformation contest where there is money on the line helps provide an external form of motivation. While internal factors motivate many people, there are plenty of people who do better with a reward that isn’t purely based on bettering themselves.

Truth be told, we all have an external motivation. Creating a fitness business that nourishes both internal and external motivation is a recipe for success.

Add an In-Between Service Create a (Increase Your Transaction Frequency)

Most personal training businesses offer 30, 60, and 90 day packages. This primary flow of business cash is also a good way to hold the client accountable. Once they have put their money on the table, they are more inclined to show up for their sessions.

But there are things a personal trainer can do to increase the transaction frequency of the client to help support business growth. Here are a few examples:

Put a cooler in the studio with water, pre workout, and post workout drinks.
Offer specialty classes like mobility work for a drop-in fee.
Bring an expert to speak or provide hands-on training and split the profit with the specialist.

The best way to decide on what additional products or services you can offer is to understand the needs of your target audience. What are they looking for or already purchasing that you can do a better job of providing?

Many personal trainers add features to their business but fail because they are not competitive or forget to focus on providing solutions specific to their client base.

Invest In Your Fitness Business

While you should first exhaust your resourcefulness, there will come a time when you need to take the same action as your clients. You will need to put some money down on the table that commits you to growing your business. However, be resourceful in your research to ensure you are spending your money wisely. Here are three ways that you can invest capital into your personal training business.

Offer Virtual Personal Training (Increase clients)

We are relational beings and there will always be a large audience for in-person personal training. With that said, technological advances allow the fitness professional to create an additional revenue stream through virtual and online training.

Not everyone who hears about your business is within driving distance of your location. In order to get the most out of word-of-mouth marketing, offer a professional virtual training product. Sure, you can do this with your phone and if that’s all you can afford, then start there. However, there is equipment available that will help provide an outstanding experience for the client.

Add Fitness Technology (Increase Transaction Value)

Technology has allowed for better experiences and reporting that can take your personal training business beyond yourself. You see this in the health club business with increased membership rates that include hydro or chair massagers. Your fitness business can benefit from this same type of product. Here are 3 examples of fitness technology you can include in your business.

Add an exercise analytics tool like PerchFit.
Sign up with a Nutrition Partner such as MyPTHub.
Create a recovery center with whole body vibration, Normatec leg compression, and other beneficial products.

Earn Passive Income (Increase Transaction Frequency)

Rarely do you find personal trainers seeking to leverage their client base for passive income potential. The reason is primarily because of their respect for the client. But there are ways you can support the client and still earn passive income. Such is the case with Better Body Sports, where our certified fitness professionals receive a commission on all of their clients’ supplement, equipment, and technology purchases.

Business Growth Does Not Happen Overnight

Finance and business personality Dave Ramsey says it took him 25 years to become an overnight success. Any business, but especially a personal training business, is a grind and results take consistent effort and creating new strategies when necessary. We tell our clients that it is a process and results take time, well it isn’t any different from us.

The actual way to grow your business is to stay committed and continue to believe that it is possible. The road you take to succeed may not be the one you intended to travel, but you can still reach your professional destination.