4 Ways To Start Your Career As A Personal Trainer
Now that you have survived all the studying and passed your personal trainer certification exam, you are surely feeling ready to get your career as a personal trainer started as quickly as possible. Finding those first few clients can be tricky as a new personal trainer, but there are a few ways you can make this process go a bit quicker, build up your word of mouth, book more clients, and change more lives.
Train Family and Friends For A Discount
While you might not be able to offer your services for free, you can offer them for a steep discount to your family and friends. Not only does this help you gain experience in training a variety of different body types, but it also gives you an opportunity to collect testimonials you can use on your website and social media sites.
When deciding to train family and friends, be sure they are the right fit for you. They might agree to some training sessions as a way to support you, but may have trouble really committing to the plan if they are not ready to make health changes.
Offer Punch Cards
One truth we know about most people is they love to find a good deal. Offering some type of punch card where after 10 sessions a client gets one free will keep them coming back to you.
If the punch card method does not work for you, they are plenty of other ways to entice people to work with you longer. You can offer a discount on an extra week of training or for booking so many sessions in advance. You could even offer a free training session for your client and a friend to not only help build up your credibility with a potential new client, but to keep that feeling of a bargain alive and well in your current clients.
Continuously Collect Testimonials
Regardless of whether or not you had a customer 360, or they just made a few changes, you want to be sure you are collecting testimonials from everyone you train starting with your very first client. You can post these accolades on your social media sites, on your website, and use them as references for new clients.
Do not hesitate to ask your current clients to write you a quick review or fill in a short questionnaire. If you are getting those clients results, they will be happy to do it!
Create an Online Component
Not only does having an online personal training product help you build your client base, but it helps you build some more revenue as well. Whether you opt for virtual training sessions, a pre-made workout package, or video workouts, you will be able to help more people achieve their fitness goals with your online personal training.
If you are not quite ready to create an online product, you can still create a solid online presence so clients can more easily share your work and who you are.
As you get started in your career as a personal trainer, remember to be bold, take risks, and rest in confidence that you were able to pass your personal trainer certification exam and do know how to help people change their lives for the better. Putting a marketing plan in place as well as a plan for how many clients you need to see each week will help you rest easy in knowing that you are building your career at a pace and price that works best for you.