At the Gym: Starting Your Personal Training Career

Booking clients can be a challenge for any personal trainer at any point in their fitness career. If you’re working at a gym, it can be even harder to fill your client roster. Over the years, I’ve found some sure-fire ways to attract new clients and build the business that allowed me to strike out on my own and be my own boss. Here are just a few of my suggestions for getting your personal training career off the ground while working at a gym.

Be Present

Every gym has regulars – your job is to be one of them. If you work at a gym, they’ll likely only allow you to have so many hours on the floor per week on the clock. But who says you have to be on the clock? If you’re a presence at the gym and strike up conversations with other gym goers, then that’s a way to organically reach more potential clients. Of course, you’ll probably want to clear this with your supervisor at the gym, but it’s a great way to get your career off the ground.

Go to the gym each and every day. Get to know the people at the gym, both old and new, and before you know it, you’ll have regular clients!

Be Exceptional

If you’re already going to be at the gym each day, then take it upon yourself to welcome new faces and strike up conversations. Make sure to welcome people and let them know if they have any questions or concerns that you’re there to help. Work to make sure a member’s experience is an exceptional one because you’re going above and beyond to make it that way. Over time, people will become comfortable with you and reach out to you for their needs because you’re not giving them the hard sell but letting them form a relationship with you naturally.

Give Complimentary Sessions

I go into great detail about how to successfully use complimentary sessions in my book, Your Fitness Career, because they’re beneficial to a lot of trainers just starting out. I know the idea of giving away your time and services for free sounds shocking, but it really works to help build your fitness business. Most gyms offer complimentary personal training sessions to new members, but you should also consider offering free sessions to some of the members you’re really connecting with.

These sessions are a great way to highlight your training style and also give you a chance to hone your craft as a personal trainer. Remember, the more you train, the better you’ll be. Often, these free clients will turn into paying ones, so it’s ultimately an investment in your fitness business.

A lot of personal trainers are self-starters, so it can be difficult to go slow and do what’s needed to be a success. But it’s just like what you tell your clients – it’s not a sprint, but a marathon. Personal training philosophies have a lot in common with business, because the slow and steady will win the race! Everyone starts somewhere, but the successful use that starting point as a springboard to bigger and better things.

Looking to become a successful personal trainer? Make it possible with my book. Your Fitness Career