This document discusses various topics related to running a successful personal training business, including treating it as a legitimate business, getting certified, deciding between independent and employed work, marketing strategies, and steps for goal setting. Some key points covered are treating personal training as a profit-driven business, obtaining proper education and certification, considering starting as an employed trainer for experience, understanding client churn, creating value for clients, and using various marketing approaches like referrals, advertising, and cold approaches.

1. Business Conduct & Marketing
Section 8 (LAST SECTION)

2. Business Conduct

3. Personal Training As A Business
● It’s vital for aspiring personal trainers to treat personal training as a business if they wish to have
financial success and for this opportunity to become a viable career for themselves in which they
can support themselves and their families.
● The difference between a hobby and a business is that the primary purpose of a business is to drive
profits. While it’s noble to change lives for the better, to do this as a business and a full time living
you must treat it as a business.
● It’s not only important to focus on driving profits but to build a sustainable and respected business by
ensuring that you are happy, your client is happy, and that you are providing more value than
anyone else.
● By providing more value than anyone else you will keep clients longer and increase the amount of
referrals you receive. You will foster a community, gain rapport with a large amount of people, and
become a bonafide fitness professional.

4. Certifications & Education
● The first step to providing value to your clients is by having an education. Although it may vary by
state or municipality, personal trainers are not required to hold a personal training certification in
order to practice personal training.
● With that being said, it is nearly impossible to find an employer unless said employer will sponsor
and assist you in getting a personal training certification.
● Education is vital to your success as a personal trainer as scientifically backed and empirical
information helps to keep your client safe, effectively reach client goals, and have clients feel happy
with the money they spent with your business.
● Since you’ve already purchased this course, you are on the right track as the National Academy of
Sports Medicine is accredited from the NCCA (National Commission for Certifying Agencies). Avoid
non-accredited certification if you intend on becoming employed.

5. Starting Out (Independent vs. Employed)
“Find a job you love doing and you will never work a day in your life” - Mark Twain
● Aspiring personal trainers should already strive to live a healthy lifestyle and are already passionate
about fitness. This, however, does not mean that personal trainers have to be in the best shape or a
competitive bodybuilder.
● When you start it’s a good idea to sit down and write a business plan, research and include some of
the following: salaries/pay rate, how much money you need to make, the timeframe in which you ‘d
like to grow your business, and the methods in which you will use to get there.
● There are a number of places to work as a newly certified personal trainer including: local
gyms/health clubs, commercial health clubs, corporate health management, online personal training,
and more. However, with little personal training experience, you may want to focus on working as an
employed personal trainer or an independent personal trainer.

6. Starting Out (Independent vs. Employed)
Employed Personal Trainer
● Strict focus on sales & client training. Some
employers may not require sales.
● Pay rate can vary wildly.
● Enjoys benefits such as health insurance, etc.
● Steady flow of clientele.
● Paycheck regardless client payment to gym
or other.
Independent Personal Trainer
● Can scale income greatly. Tend to make more
money than employed personal trainers.
● Must run all aspects of business: accounting,
marketing, legal, etc.
● No benefits such as health insurance, etc.
● Paycheck depends on clients paying in timely
manner.

7. Resumes & Interviews
● Going the route of getting employed as a new personal trainer isn’t a bad idea as it guarantees you
an income and gives you hands-on experience at the expense of the employer.
● To get noticed as an applicant, a well-structured resume is necessary. Resume should include:
○ Objective statement that express employment goal.
○ All education and certifications.
○ New college grads should list education before work experience.
○ All work experience and applicable learned skills from prior jobs listed.
○ List of references on a separate piece of paper.
● For the interview be sure to shake the interviewer’s hand, smile, make eye contact, and have
positive and receptive body language.
● Be honest and thoughtful with your responses. Articulate yourself clearly and relate questions asked
by interviewer back to the position for which you are applying for.

8. Understanding Cash Flow & Churn
● Some view personal trainer’s income as the
wild west and luck when it comes to making
sales.
● As a personal trainer, especially one who
works independently, you are entirely
responsible for your business and success.
● Over time you will begin to notice trends in
the average amount of clients lost per month
and can thwart loss of income by being
prepared with new clients.
● Your average client loss or turnover is
referred to as churn.

9. Creating Value
● As mentioned earlier, the ever increasing
competition means you must differentiate
yourself and by creating value you not only
stand out but provide an overall better
service.
● For clients, whether or not they want to be
trained comes down to a simple cost-benefit-
analysis: is personal training worth more than
the cost?
● By relating their program back to their goals
and the emotions attached to those goals
one can create value.
● Value can also be created by great customer
service, communication, and professionalism.

10. Steps to Success
1. To be successful as a personal trainer one should identify their desired annual income and break
that down to a weekly basis.
2. Determine average session profit and divide the weekly requirement by the average session profit to
determine amount of sessions that need to be performed each week.
3. Determine the average amount of sessions a client is doing per week.
4. Divide the sessions that need to be performed weekly by the average number of sessions a client
does per week to determine amount of clients required for goal.
5. Determine closing percentage. Out of the last 10 potential clients, how many did you convert? Use
closing percentage to determine how many new business appointments you need to meet with to
reach goal.
6. Determine the timeframe you’d like to reach your goal by.
7. Divide the time (in weeks or months) by the amount of clients you need to gain to reach goal.
8. Remember you closing percentage? Multiply the last step by your amount of client required to close
one to see how many new business appointments you need for the allotted time measurement.

11. Steps To Success (EXAMPLE)
● Desired Income: $75,000 per year
● Average Session Profit: $55 per session
● Average Sessions/Week: 2 sessions per week
● $75,000/52 (number of weeks in a year)
○ $1,442.31/week
● $1,442.31/$55 (per session rate)
○ 27 sessions (rounded up)
● 27 sessions / 2 sessions per client per week
○ 14 Clients Required (Rounded Up)
● Conversion Rate: 5 out of 10
● (14 Client Goal * 10) / 5
○ 28 New Business Appointments
● Timeframe Goal: 2 months
● 28 NBA’s / 2 months
○ 14 NBA’s per month
● 14 NBA’s / 4 weeks
○ 3.5 NBA’s required per week to reach goal.

12. Closing
● Sales can be lost for a variety of reasons, however many of the objections or reasons can be
overcome with a great initial session.
● The primary reason for not being able to close are:
○ Money
○ Time
○ Spouse / Support
○ Location / Convenience
○ Value
○ Commitment
● By asking the right questions during the initial session you can ensure a higher probability of closing
a deal.
● When a deal is closed, it is important to book the first session within the next 48 hours and to follow
up with the client within the next 24 hours.
● Call to confirm the initial session and first paid session the morning of/the day before.
● Be on time, professional, and continue building and developing rapport.

13. Marketing

14. The 4 P’s of Marketing
● To be successful with marketing, fitness
professionals must have a grasp of the
basics of marketing
○ Product: The product or service offered to
customers.
○ Price: The amount of money charged for a
product or service. This also includes
discounts, sales, and bundles.
○ Place (Distribution): Channels a product or
service will go to reach the customer.
○ Promotion: The communication of information
about the product or service with the goal of
converting potential customers into actual
customers.

15. The 4 P’s of Marketing
● As a personal trainer the product you provide is your personal training
services which can come in many forms such as mobile personal training,
corporate wellness, and more.
● Personal training rates vary wildly across the country and as such it’s
important to research your area to determine how much a trainer should be
making while employed or charging as an independent personal trainer.
● When promoting your service it is important to engage your target audience
while remaining ethical. Many forms of promotion exist such as sponsorships,
paid advertising, and word-of-mouth.

16. Cold Approach
● Cold approach is a method of promotion wherein a personal trainer strikes up
a conversation or attempts to provide value to an individual with no prior
introduction.
● Cold approaching requires tactfulness and one should be cognizant of when it
is the appropriate time (if at all) to ask for an initial session.
● Cold approaching is great when you are first starting out or have moved to a
new area where you have no existing network.

17. Referral & Word of Mouth
● Referral and word of mouth are synonymous and generally are a result of
providing great value to your existing clients.
● Many trainers fail to implement a system that rewards these behaviors of
referring new clients or fail to ever ask clients for referrals which can
drastically affect their business.
● Incentivizing and rewarding clients for referrals is a great way to build your
business.

18. Advertising & Online Platforms
● Advertising online is similar to a cold approach however you have to pay to
have a message broadcast on a platform such as Facebook or Google.
● Potential clients or leads from online advertising can be a bit more qualified
as potential clients due to targeting methods such as targeting based on
income or area.
● Facebook is currently the platform of choice for most personal trainers when
attempting to use online advertising to get new clients.

19. Being Niche vs General
● A niche is NOT required to be a successful personal trainer.
● Many trainers in their attempts to differentiate themselves in their promotions
will advertise themselves as specializing in a certain niche or area.
● Can be a wonderful tool to appeal to the right audience, however when
broadcast to an audience not as qualified can result in alienation of potential
clients.

20. Ethics With Advertising
● Nothing will make your business look worse to the general public than over
promising and falsifying your advertising. If you’ve ever scrolled through
Facebook it’s possible you’ve seen “transformation photos” that state a
relatively short time frame when in actuality the photos were years apart.
● Remaining ethical and delivering honest and expected results will benefit your
business long-term and help you build a reputation as a trusted and
respected fitness professional.