by Matt Weik
Being a new personal trainer isn’t easy. In fact, it can be incredibly challenging. Gyms around the nation are full of personal trainers who have more experience than you and an existing client list. How can you enter the space and make a splash (and some money)?
What’s covered in this article isn’t going to be what you’re expecting. No, I’m not going to tell you to go work at a gym and mingle with the gym members while giving them your 30-second sales pitch of why they should hire you to help transform their life. Instead, we’re going to look at some other methods that you can implement as a new personal trainer so that you can make money doing something you love.
Note: Some of the things listed below will cost you nothing, others there will be an investment you’ll need to make. Decide which of the below you may be interested in leveraging and turn the idea into a reality.
1. Set Up an Online Training Business
These days everyone wants things to be convenient. We all live on the internet, and if we can purchase something online without ever needing to leave our home, we’re going to do it. Personal training is no different. There are plenty of people you can train online by setting up an online training business. The clients you attract can have a gym membership or simply work out at home. Create programs they can use to help them reach their goals. Being online, no one will know that you’re a new personal trainer. Social media will be your friend for this method to help you properly market yourself.
2. Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube is a wildly popular platform. So much so, that many people don’t even pay for cable anymore and simply watch content on YouTube. If you are able to build your audience, you’ll be able to take advantage of monetizing ads on your channel. When commercials play on your videos, you make money. While it may not be a lot per view, that ad revenue can add up quickly if you have a large audience.
3. Make a Fitness Blog
When people want information, where do they go? The internet. If you like writing, go ahead and create a blog. Write content that answers many common questions you get and monetize your blog. With the information you have in your head, it doesn’t matter if you’re a new personal trainer or have been in the game for over a decade. The key is to build your followers and even consider an email list to promote your content. You can get sponsors, run ads, and utilize monetization tools like Amazon Associate to promote and link various products in a piece of content where if someone makes a purchase, you earn a commission. But remember, the content needs to add value. If a reader sees you’re only trying to make å commission off them, they’ll never come back.
4. Write Meal Plans
This may not apply to a new personal trainer with zero nutrition background. If you have your hand raised, skip this and move along to the next method. But, if you have a background in nutrition, consider writing meal plans for people online. Create a plan that your client can follow to help them reach their health and physique goals.
5. Sell Your Own Healthy Snacks
If you think you can go toe-to-toe with Betty Crocker, go ahead and create your own business selling your very own healthy snacks. Sure, as a new personal trainer, you may be itching to start training clients, but why can’t you do more than one thing? After all, if you can make healthy snacks, there may very well be a market for you to sell to. Why not share your healthy creation with the world? Start off small by working with local retailers and build out from there. Once things take off, consider moving to an e-commerce business model and selling your delicious and healthy treats across the nation.
6. Build a Private Label Supplement Company
I’m not going to lie, this is going to cost you some coin. So, if you think as a new personal trainer that you’ll create a supplement company for a few grand, consider it wishful thinking. However, if you have a passion for supplements and sports nutrition (maybe even have a few good ideas for formulations), it can be a lucrative business for you to start.
7. Publish a Book
With the amount of information in your head, you should easily be able to write a book — either a paperback or e-book. Write about how to build muscle, or how to effectively burn fat, or whatever your heart desires. But the wealth of knowledge that you have up in your head can be utilized to change lives. So, why not profit from it? Once you write the book, assuming you’ll continue to market it, you can make a commission off it for the rest of your life!
8. Run Your Own Seminars
Just like what was mentioned above, your knowledge can help people. By running your own seminars, you can help a group of people all at once make better decisions with their health, fitness, and nutrition. You can help businesses by speaking at their location in front of their employees, you can speak at gyms if you have a name in the industry, or you can do it virtually online through something like Zoom.
Regardless of what you use from above, there are many ways that a new personal trainer can make money. What it comes down to is, “What are you passionate about doing?” Figure out that answer and dive in. And again, you can move forward with working in a gym as a personal trainer if that’s what you really want to do — I’m not trying to talk you out of it. But you can also utilize some of what is mentioned above to help further bring in even more revenue.
