Kelly West - What I wish I knew Before I became A PT

Personal training can often sound rather glamorous, especially coming from a personal trainer course provider.

The money, the training, the hot guys and girls, great hours and of course working for yourself.

Here are a few things I have learned and that I hope will help newly qualified PTs with a little reality check...

Everyday I’m Hustling

Starting a business from scratch with little or no reputation takes a lot of hard work. It doesn’t matter how good you are when you become a personal trainer, if people don’t trust you they won’t buy from you. You need to have to put the hours in, whether it be cleaning gym equipment, guest blogging for anyone who will have you, or even training people for free.

Many PTs qualify and expect to be able to land high end clients who pay big bucks. If you haven’t got the experience or the proof this it’s just not going to happen.

Action Point: Play the long game. Do something every day to push your business forward. It takes time to build momentum and trust, the fruits of your labour will start to come good after 6 months.

Find Yourself

This sounds very holistic and spiritual but I genuinely mean it. Think about what makes you happy, what you’re good at, what your hobbies are and where you're strongest when it comes to fitness knowledge. When I started out I was marketing to everyone and their dog hoping to land a client. It’s only when I started finding myself and what I stand for that I gained clients and we clicked as what I stood for, they believed in too.

Action Point: Know what you want to do and who you want to work with, market to them and only them. Only do what you are comfortable doing and what you enjoy doing. If your work is your passion it is effortless to sell.

Blog like you mean it

If you are not talking to your audience how are they going to know that you know what you are talking about? How are you going to gain their trust? In order to gain an expert status you need to be blogging consistently. Blog for yourself and blog for others, as long as your guest blogging for your market obviously. You may not make direct money for blogging – for this you need to be very good, and yes you might suck at it at first. Practice makes perfect!

Action Point: Set a routine for you to blog, weekly, bi weekly, monthly – whatever works for you. Write a list of core subjects for you to cover which your clients will be interested to read about. Put them in your diary like an appointment and start spreading the word. If you ever get stuck for content – go to where your clients hang out and LISTEN to them.

Clients won’t come looking for you

When you qualify you will not have clients constantly hammering at your door. You have got to earn every single one of them. Building trust is a huge factor in this, you need to put the work and it’s not easy. What I want to get at is you will ALWAYS need to keep posting good content, keep interacting with your clients and you can never kick back and relax while clients come to you.

Action Point: Getting into a routine and giving all your clients the best service from the higher end clients to the ones that bought your latest eBook. Constantly go above and beyond for your clients and you will gain referrals – it’s the best marketing you can get – FREE and genuine!

You have to be able to deal with rejection

It’s a given that your clients won’t stay with you forever, it still isn’t nice when a client decides to go it alone or even worse after the consultation and saying they will go ahead suddenly disappear off the face of the earth! I like to call these “tire kickers”, I used to beat myself up (not literally) when clients didn’t come good after blatantly saying they were going to sign up, sometimes they were friends too. However this is not a reflection on you, they are just not ready and they have done you a favour – you want 100% committed client’s right?!

Action Point: To avoid “tire kickers” I have introduced a charged consultation which covers my time and means I don’t get any time wasters. Since introducing it I haven’t had one person not convert to a client. The £20 fee is then deducted off their package and they feel like they are getting discount too (WIN WIN).

You have to be a disciplined like a Monk

In order for your business to grow and to make a name for yourself you are going to have to miss out on some fun. I am not saying you have to be a kill joy and constantly work, however businesses aren’t built on a few hours here and there. It takes dedication to the cause, this will affect other areas of your life, your training, your partner, your tan…Being your own boss is great, no one telling you off for being late, no one to make you do anything you don’t want to. There is also no one else to go get your clients, no one to give you holiday pay or sick leave.

Action Point: Understand that there will need to be sacrifices to get to where you want to be. Nothing worth having comes easy right. So set yourself targets, have working hours, set yourself deadlines and keep yourself in check.

This blog is not meant to be negative, it’s a realistic overview of becoming a PT and getting to a point where I not doing my “hobby”. Thinking like a business will change your life, every day is different and the proud feeling you get when you hit your targets is the best feeling in the world.

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About Kelley West

I have been a qualified for a year now, two as a gym instructor it feels like so much longer! I have always looked after myself and been an active person. So when I had my daughter and gained some weight I needed to train smart as I had limited time and energy. After 6 months of personal research and self-education I decided to enrol to become a PT; thinking it was the best idea for someone that enjoy working out and meeting people.

This is NOT what being a PT is all about, I am self-employed and being one on one with a client is a small fraction of what I do.