If you want to Become a personal trainer this is a big decision and you should consider very many points.  It is a very worthwhile and rewarding career, and for those that are good it is financially lucrative.  However, as with all professions personal training requires dedication and hard work if you are to achieve the status of a top personal trainer.
Many gyms and health clubs employ hourly-paid or contracted Personal Trainers.  There are different models, but here at Discovery we try to persuade new Personal Trainers to enroll with an organization that will provide a basic salary alongside an incentive to increase the number of personal training clients taken on.  A good case load for a new personal trainer would be 10 – 15 clients each week.  Once you have reached 20 clients each week, this may be the time to consider going freelance.
Being a freelance Personal Trainer means that you will pay the club a monthly fee to operate within their premises and approach their members to provide your personal training services.  You can then pocket everything that you earn and don’t have to pay the club anything other than your “rent” for being there.   It is this model that works best for the good and hard working personal trainer, as it is not uncommon to earn £50k plus at some of the top clubs.
If you are not already qualified as a personal trainer, then you could start as a fitness instructor and for this you will need a minimum qualification of level 2 (gym instructor).  At this stage you could also qualify in exercise to music, circuits, step, gym, aqua, body conditioning, Pilates and in this way increase your earning potential by taking classes which typically pay £30 per hour. Health clubs and gyms usually support staff who wish to develop their skills and with such courses you will be a good and valuable all-rounder really maximizing your employment and earning potential. Don’t forget that basic duties, even a stint on reception, would bring you into contact with clients — all good stuff when needing to prove that you understand customer service.
If you are thinking of working freelance away from gyms and visiting people in their homes or at their own gym, then you will need to be prepared to do lots of travelling and have lots of down time between clients.  Again this can be more lucrative as you don’t have the rents to cover but attracting new clients is more difficult as you don’t have a captive audience.  Most personal trainers advertising on the internet charge £30 to £60 per hour and at first you should look to charge at the lower end of the scale.  The time to put up prices is when your books are full and you want to get more yield from the same number of hours.
Discovery have a number of links with the best employers in the industry and you could do a lot worse than speaking with us first to put your CV forward to good clubs in your area.  For more information visit www.discovery.uk.com

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