So You Want To Become A Personal Trainer?

A career as a personal trainer is one of great privilege, reward and immense satisfaction –  but its not all glitz and glamour. Achieving the qualifications and passing your personal training course is often the easy part, with the hard work starting once you are qualified.

Ask most people what they think of Personal Trainers and it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to anticipate their response! The modern-day Personal Trainer has to overcome these old stereotypes and set a new standard, one that conveys an image of professionalism, passion, enthusiasm, care and competency.

Prospective clients need assurance and confidence that their Personal Trainer can meet their needs and solve their problems. All great businesses have the same thing in common; they are the solution to people’s problems, and Personal Training is no different.

Great Personal Trainers are not employees that need direction and instruction from others; they are leaders, directors and business owners. Over 50% of all new businesses go out of business within their first year of trading and Personal Training is unfortunately no exception. Its not that there isn’t enough jobs for Personal Trainers, its that most Personal Trainers approach Personal Training as exactly that, a job!

A job is something you turn up to. Something you work in and usually for someone else. A job doesn’t tell you about a person, who they are, what drives them and what’s important to them.

Any successful entrepreneur or business owner will tell you that the mission, values and principles of their company are the same as their own – it’s their identity; they are one and the same.  In his book, The E-Myth, Michael E. Gerber advises new business owners to “work on their businesses, not in them.”

Working on the business requires planning, strategy, research and above all vision. In order to work in a business, you first of all have to envisage, design and build it. Too many newly qualified Personal Trainers throw on their uniforms and turn up for work expecting customers to be queuing around the corner for their services. It’s these unrealistic expectations that frustrate many new Personal Trainers and crushes their dreams and ambitions before their careers ever really get going.

It takes more than a winning smile or a greet physique in this game; the truth is that to launch a successful career in Personal Training, you have to build a business and create a brand.