I told you some time ago that while personal trainers are capped at how much money they can make, there are some ways to get around the inherent flaw in the concept of trading time for money.  And here they are:

First, borrow a page out of the playbook of a professionally run hair salon … sell your client a product.  Here’s the scenario – you’re getting your hair cut (or styled, colored, etc.) and the stylist uses a product in your hair – for example, styling gel.  Assuming the stylist does a great job on your hair, you look in the mirror and you love what you see.  So of course it makes sense that when they recommend this product, you’re going to buy it – right?  I mean, how else are you get that great look after you get home?

As a personal trainer, you form an even deeper relationship with your clients than the stylist does with theirs.  After all, a stylist sees their client once or twice a month, where you see your client once or twice a week!  But what product do you sell?  I am going to recommend you stick to your chosen industry and sell them health and nutrition products.  Examples would be vitamins, weight loss supplements, protein products, and so on.  Yes, you are going to need to find a product line that you feel good about, and you are going to have to get some education on the products – after all, there is a big difference between a product you put on your body (hair gel) and a product you put in your body (supplements).

My wife Carin is a personal trainer, so I’ve seen first hand how providing her clients with supplements has provided her with supplemental income.  In fact, one year while she was personal training full time, she sold an additional $26,000 of nutritional products to her clients!  Even with a modest 30% profit margin, that resulted in an additional $7800 in Carin’s pocket!  But beyond the extra money Carin made, something else happened – her clients also achieved results the likes of which they would not have gotten without the supplements.  In fact so much so, that the 2 other trainers at the gym started asking Carin what she was doing to get these kinds of results from her clients.  And before long, Carin taught both of them how to do the same thing.  In effect, our 2 trainers became Carin’s newest distributors.  And that brings me to an important business concept that I have mentioned before – leverage!

Leverage has to do with creating a system where revenue is being generated on your behalf, but without your direct involvement.  In this case, the 2 trainers that Carin taught how to provide supplements to their clients (and who were now her distributors) were generating revenue for not only themselves, but for Carin!  This powerful concept of “leverage” was displaying its power right before our eyes.  In fact, so much so that Carin began showing other personal trainers (outside of our gym) how to do the same thing – creating revenue sources from trainers in other gyms.  Wow!  This was powerful!  We learned business concepts that were relatively new to us – for example “duplication”, “residual income”, and of course “leverage”.

Now keep in mind, selling products is a great start to boosting your revenue as a personal trainer, but in order to really reach a level of an unlimited income, you need to better understand how to develop a distribution network.  And the only way I know of to do this is to join a network marketing organization – specifically, it needs to be one that focuses on health and nutrition products.  In other words, we aren’t talking about a company that sells electricity or phone services, we’re talking about a company that sell high quality health and nutrition products.  In a future post, I’ll explain more about the company that we have partnered with (Market America).  Now don’t be scared off by the fact that this is basically network marketing – I will show you how this concept actually fits perfectly into what you do as a personal trainer.  And as a side note – there are many other professions that this can work well for – such as massage therapists, health professionals such as chiropractors, physical therapists, etc. and many more!  After all – what we are really talking about here is a basic business principle of building market share – that is selling more products and services to your existing customer (or client) base.  Plain and simple, we are talking about “leveraging” your existing customer base to achieve a greater share of their their spending habits.

Stay tuned for future posts about the power of network marketing – especially as it relates to personal trainers and gym owners.

Curtis from Sacramento, California asks, “I’m a fairly successful personal training in the area.  I train out of a local gym and also out of my client’s homes.  I work 6 days a week and put in about 10 hours a day.  Even with what I feel like is a heavy client load (which has taken me 5 years to get to), I’m not making the kind of money I would like to.  Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but I thought by now I would be making really good money – and in reality, I can’t even afford to buy a house.  What can I do about my problem?  At this rate I’m just going to be working forever and not getting any further ahead.”

Curtis, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard personal trainers say they aren’t making the kind of money they thought they would be.  In fact, when I talk with personal trainers around the country, and they express this sentiment, I first try to find out how much they are making annually.  I just figured one person’s idea of “enough money” may be different than another’s.  Can you believe out of the dozens of personal trainers that I’ve asked this question – I have yet to find one that is making a 6 figure income?

I use the “6 figure income” reference because when I dig deeper and I ask them, how much money they would like to earn, it seems that more often than not, they feel like someone that works as hard as they do should be making $100k a year.  In fact, only once did a I meet a trainer that even comes close, making $78k last year.  Keep in mind though that he lives in the very expensive Upper East Side of Manhattan (which is where all of his clients live).  In fact, he has some clients on his list that are names you would know – so he is sort of an East Coast “trainer to the stars”!

So Curtis – if you are like most trainers that work out of a gym, you are paying the gym something for this priveledge.  Usually it is a % of revenue – I’ve heard figures as high as 50% and as low as 10%.  I’m going to assume you’re right in the middle at 30%.  So in effect, the client is willing to pay 30% more than what you are making to receive your services, and the gym owner pockets that 30%.  So one question to ask yourself is – what do I get from the gym owner for his 30% cut?  Well clearly, you are using his or her facility and equipment – and that has value.  Also, is the gym owner actively promoting you and finding you your new clients?  You are responsible 100% for client retention, but where are your new clients coming from?  If you’ve been in business 5 years, my guess is that your existing clients are referring most of your new ones.  Is that’s the case, then you really need to take a serious look at the 30% cut – what does it translate to in dollars?  For example, if the gym is billing out $50k on your services an then paying you 35k, then the cut translates to $15k per year.

The real question is, could you replace what the gym owner is providing you with for less than $15 a year if you were to open your own personal training studio?  It’s doubtful.  So what options do you have?  I am curious about the clients you say you train out of their homes.  It isn’t uncommon for wealthier individuals to have high quality fitness equipment in their homes and hire a trainer to come in and work with them there.  And since the relationship with them is direct, my guess is that you aren’t paying anyone a percentage or cut.  So do you maintain the same prices that the gym is charging?  I hope so!  I wonder, could you slowly start replacing your gym clients with “in home” clients?  If you were able to start to do this now, and once you reached a tipping point, maybe you could move to this arrangement exclusively.  Then the extra 30% could go in your pocket instead of the gym owner’s.  This would be something I would seriously look at in your case – it could be the answer to giving yourself a 30% raise!

In summary – look very closely at the numbers.  Compare and contrast the money you make from the gym clients against the money you make from the “at home” clients.  One or the other should emerge as the clear cut winner – my guess is it will be the home clients.  Remember, the only thing you have to sell is time – so the dollars per hour is what we’re looking at here (not total revenue).  If I am correct and the in home clients make you more dollars per hour, focus your business efforts fully in that direction – eventually to the exclusion of gym clients.

If you are a gym owner or personal trainer and you would like to see one of your questions answered here, please complete this form.  If I use your question on my site, I’ll provide you with a free 20 minute phone consultation so we can go into the answer in more detail!