Different Ways Personal Trainers Make Money

How to Make $80,000 Your First Year of Personal Training.

There is a lot of money to be made in personal training.

A LOT.

I trained for a year and a half at a commercial gym straight out of college. I took the job mostly because if I didn't, I would have had to move back home to once again work on a farm. Farming is a noble pursuit, but far from glorious and not exactly where every 23 year old college graduate wants to end up.

So a week before gradua t ion I applied for a position, got an interview, and was hired at a club in the Boston area. To say I was excited was an understatement. It was my first job that didn't consist of shoveling manure or throwing hay bales, so working in an air conditioned environment and wearing comfortable clothes to work sounded like heaven.

When I first took the job I was living on a friends couch. I had a small amount of debt from school, and only about $1,000 in my savings account. Starting out with $10 an hour for 30 floor hours a week wasn't great, but it was better than nothing and I needed the money badly.

Fast forward to a year and a half later. I have left that original job for a much lower paying position with $20,000 in my savings account. I made the tough choice to trade money for an opportunity to learn even more, a decision I would make again in a heart beat. When I left, my bi weekly pay checks were on average $2,700 for a total of $5,400 a month, which resulted in a yearly take home income of $64,800, making my gross annual income to be a little over $80,000.

Think about that. Although I had gone to college I didn't need to, as to become a personal trainer you simply need to be over the age of 18 and pass a certification test. You don't even need a high school diploma. Is that the route I recommend taking? Absolutely not. But if you take a step back and realize how you can make over $80,000 a year right out of college (and potentially much more) by passing a $500 (on average) test, thats a pretty big return for a very small investment.

A friend of mine is also a trainer in Boston, working for another commercial gym. I ran into him this weekend, and we got to catching up about life and work. He relayed to me that he was incredibly busy, but taking home on average $6,500 bi-weekly from training, after taxes. That's $156,000 a year for a 23 year old, with no education higher than an associates degree. Granted he is a very gifted trainer and business person, but still a great example of success in the field.

So what am I getting at? First off, this is not an invitation for everyone who ever wanted to make a quick buck to run out and become a personal trainer. Trust me, the industry does not need any more of those who know little to nothing about fitness becoming trainers. The low barrier to entry has most definitely watered down the quality of personal training, in my opinion.

The message I do want to relay is that if you have a passion and knowledge base for training, it can be a very lucrative career. By following the steps outlined below, you will be equipped with the rudimentary knowledge to start earning more as a trainer whether you are new to the business or looking to take things to the next level.

Step 1: Love It

You know how I just told you that you can make $80,000 a year personal training? What I didn't tell you, and what most clubs hiring you won't tell you, is that you are going to have to put in some serious work to do so.

This means early mornings, late nights, AND weekends. When I was at my peak earning I was getting up at 4:30am, working from 5:30 until noon, running back home to lift, eat, and get in a quick nap, then returning to train from 3 until 8:30 at night. I repeated this process five days a week. Saturdays were my "light" day where I simply trained from 7am to 2pm, then left.

In a typical day by the time I got home, ate, did everyday tasks like dishes and laundry, and got to sleep it was at the earliest 10:30 at night. That meant at the most I got 6 hours of sleep, which rarely happened. I ran, on average, on four to five hours of sleep a night. Some people can do that, but nobody should.

It destroyed me.

I loved training more than anything, even my health, and still found that I couldn't maintain this lifestyle for very long.

You're going to have to love it.

Step 2: Know Your Shit

This should go without saying, but unfortunately this can be overlooked in the hiring process. Large commercial gyms are more concerned with how well you can sell your services, without actually knowing how to evaluate those services in the first place. To be honest, I would gamble that most fitness managers in commercial gyms wouldn't know how to evaluate your ability as a trainer in the first place.

Being able to sell will help you gain a client base, but knowing your shit is what is going to keep them around. If you don't know what you are doing your clients are at the very best not going to see results, and at the very worst suffer serious injury.

Please, for everyone's sake, know your shit.

Step 3: Outwork Everyone Around You

My grandfather used to say "it doesn't matter what you're doing, as long as you are working harder than everyone in the room around you". God rest his soul, as this wisdom applies not only to the field of personal training, but all aspects of life as well.

Everyone wants to be successful, especially young and hungry trainers full of excitement and pride.

If you want to separate yourself from those around you, then you are going to really need to put in the extra effort. Treat your clients like VIP customers every day, get there before everyone else does and leave well after, and make sure to ask for extra call lists after completing the ones you were already assigned.

Not only will your clients and potential customers appreciate it, but management will take notice as well. When it comes to matching trainers with new clients, you can bet your fitness manager will be more likely to hand you new business if you show that you want it as opposed to waiting for it to come to you.

Go the extra mile.

Step 4:Dress the Part

As a trainer, your image is everything. You are literally selling yourself to your clients. Whether you care about your image or not (you should), the cold hard truth is that your clients do. Don't wear the sweat pants that you slept in last night, or the shirt that doesn't fit you well and has food stains on it.

You are going to need to invest in some name brand athletic clothing (make sure it complies with your companies dress code), and take extra care in your grooming each morning. No more bed head, no more matted beard to your face. Show up looking like you take your job seriously and watch how fast your clientele grows.

Step 5:Stay Hungry

Last but not least, stay hungry. Your business as a personal trainer will ebb and flow faster than you would think. Depending on whether or not your club has monthly commitments or not, your session count can change rapidly and drastically.

As a result you need to always be working on improving your business. If you have enough clients already, make sure that you are giving these clients the best service that you can. That way they stick around and even recommend new people to you. If you don't already have enough clients, you can bet your bottom dollar you need to be doing everything you can in order to change this.

The worst thing you can do as a personal trainer is become complacent. In this business, complacency most certainly kills and can rapidly destroy a successful client base that you worked so hard to build.

Stay hungry.

I hope this quick outline helped you evaluate the promise of a career in personal training, or at the very least helped you reevaluate your current career in the industry. There is certainly a lot of money to be made as a personal trainer, just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before you take the plunge.

Want to work less and make more money? Have questions of how to become a successful trainer yourself? Please feel free to contact me in the comments below or via email. Thanks for reading!