Personal trainers, you are in the unique and fortunate position where you not only get to make a living doing what you love, you also get to make great money while doing it.
With personal training, there is no limit to your earning potential, you just need to know how to scale. You need the right strategies in place to build a business that grows quickly but sustainability so that you can keep doing what you love for years to come.
We have many successful personal trainers using our app, and we want to share their secrets. In this article we will see how you can scale your personal training business, and actually have a shot at 6 figures or more income in 5 years time!
Yep, it’s possible. But we never said it would be easy. Think you have what it takes?
Table of Contents:
- Chapter 1: What does it mean to have a scalable personal training business?
- Chapter 2: Why are most of the personal training businesses not scalable?
- Chapter 3: How to build a scalable business
- Chapter 4: Scale your business with the right tools
What does it mean to have a scalable personal training business?
If you get 100 new clients tomorrow, will you be able to serve them all and bring them equal results? If your answer is no, then you do not have a scalable personal training business.
A scalable business grows with you. In order for this to happen, the amount of time you need to spend on each client can not linearly increase with the amount of people you take on.
Of course, you will still be busy as you get more clients, but if you have to double the hours you put in to train the clients, you’re doing it wrong! And you will not be able to grow sustainably.
Why are most of the personal training businesses not scalable?
Directly tying your hours to income means that your business scalability is limited by your capacity.
Additionally, another big reason that many personal training businesses aren’t scalable is because no two clients are the same.
Each client has a different profile, different problems and goals. If you create a program to train one client, it may not work for another. This makes it nearly impossible to use the same training template for everyone.
Some fitness businesses might attempt to scale by hiring more trainers and/or building bigger training facilities. This may seem intuitive, but just think about the cost and overhead! To make it worth the money, you would need to double (or triple) your clients quickly! Not an easy task.
How to build a scalable business
Ok, enough about what makes a business hard to scale, let’s talk about the strategies you need to fix those problems and grow exponentially.
1. Find a razor sharp niche
If you haven’t already, you need to get really clear on the type of people you are serving. To determine your niche:
- Think about who your happiest clients are ; these are the people that understand the value of your service, have worked with you the longest, and are eager to share their positive experience. Are they busy women looking to lose weight? Or are they seniors looking to gain more strength and mobility? Which client have you been able to bring the best results?
- Make sure your niche is the right size . So when thinking about your happiest clients (and not-so-happy clients), you may have a few segments come to mind. The important next step is making sure that those segments are the right size. For example, targeting “people that want to get in shape” might be a bit too broad. Whereas, “people with rotator cuff injuries” might be a little too narrow.
- Pick a niche that matches your passion and your skills. Lastly, an incredibly important part of niching down is making sure you are qualified to work within your niche and that you actually enjoy doing so.
Having a niche is vital for scaling because it helps you serve your clients better. It ensures that your clients have similar starting points and end goals and lets you create content and programs that you can use over and over again.
2. Build a signature program
You’ve got your niche, now it’s time to design a great signature program for your ideal clients.
Get really clear on the challenges your ideal clients have. Think about the perfect program you would design to bring them results. Ideally, your niche will all have a similar starting point and end goal. Add as much value to your program as possible.
The more value you add, the more reasons people have to join your program. The more people you can get to join your program, the faster you will scale!
What are some things to include in your signature program?
- A personalized workout plan
- Nutrition coaching
- Habit coaching
- Supplemental content like sample meal plans, recipe guides, tips and tricks
- Community support
Are you feeling a little stuck on how to build your signature program and deliver it to clients? TrainerFu has you covered. Our personal training app makes it easy to design signature programs and online group challenges for your clients and include the components that will make your program stand out.
3. Get pricing right
Once you’ve worked out the details of what your signature program will include, it’s time to price. You need to determine what you will charge each client for this program based on your revenue goals and how much value clients will receive.
Depending on your program, clients may receive more or less one-on-one support from you. Factor this is when pricing, as well as other time consumers like marketing and admin. Think about what you want your hourly rate to be, and charge accordingly.
We find that a good sweet spot for most programs is between $150 - $300 per month. Remember, that you can always adjust your price down the road.
4. Build a high converting marketing funnel
Remember when we said that scaling wouldn’t be easy? This is one of the most important, but also the most involved steps. Now that you’ve got a great signature program, you need to get people to sign up. It’s time to put on your marketer cap and get busy creating a sales funnel.
A sales or marketing funnel is how you move clients from point A to point B and get them ready to buy from you. The three steps on this journey are:
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Attract
- This involves building awareness and getting people interested in who you are. A couple of the main methods in this stage are getting someone to visit your website, join your YouTube channel, or follow you on Instagram. Get people curious enough to open up a communication channel with you.
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Nurture
- Once your prospects have opened that channel by providing their email address or following you on Instagram, it’s time to nurture the relationship with engaging and informative content. Your content helps you communicate to leads that you’re relatable, an expert, and the personal trainer that can solve their problems.
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Offer
- You’ve spent time nurturing your relationship with leads and building trust. Now, you can directly ask leads to join your signature program. Prospects that have made it to this stage will feel more confident buying from you. Include directions and clear CTAs in your content to make the sale.
Here are a few sales funnel examples you might use to get participants for your signature program:
- Free PT session + sales meeting + signature program offer
- Instagram post + signature program offer CTA + sales call
- Free resources (lead magnet) + content marketing (email + Instagram) + signature program offer
Scale your business with the right tools
As you can see, to scale your business you need to break away from the typical hourly personal training model. Creating a signature program that is less hands-on, but still brings great results to your clients is the best way to do this.
To build your program, nail down a niche, figure out your pricing, and sell the program through high converting funnels.
Easier said than done, right?
That’s why you need to have the right tools in place if you really want to scale. A personal training app like TrainerFu makes it easier to build your signature programs and expand into online personal training so that you can attract and retain more clients. Try it for free today.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does it mean to scale a personal training business?
Scaling means creating a business model that allows you to grow without being limited by your time. It involves strategies to handle more clients while maintaining or improving service quality.
2. Why do many personal training businesses struggle to scale?
Most personal training businesses tie income directly to time, making it hard to serve a growing number of clients. Additionally, each client’s unique needs can make standardization challenging.
3. How can personal trainers identify a profitable niche?
Focus on clients who see the most value from your services, enjoy working with you, and align with your expertise. Ensure your niche is neither too broad nor too specific.
4. What should a signature program include?
- A personalized workout plan
- Nutrition and habit coaching
- Supplemental resources like guides and tips
- Community features, such as group challenges or support forums
5. What are examples of effective fitness sales funnels?
- Offer a free session, hold a sales meeting, and pitch your signature program.
- Use Instagram posts with direct calls-to-action for sales calls.
- Provide free resources (e.g., meal plans) and nurture leads with email campaigns.