A DECADE OF FITNESS

This month marks a decade in my personal training career. I started working in a commercial gym in April 2012 and spent the following ten years developing my skills, making mistakes, and learning from others. I often talk about how I help my clients develop in life both in and outside the gym and I have done the same in my life too. At the start of my career, I was a single lad working part time in a pub and now have a family, have bought a house built my business and have been on adventures all around the world.

I mentioned a few weeks ago on the blog is that long term careers in this industry are difficult to achieve. Many drop out in the first couple of years, particularly when they don’t generate enough income straight away. Most personal trainers are self-employed and what many of the short personal training course don’t teach is how to run a business. The qualifications undertaken to become a personal trainer often teach anatomy, the principles of exercise and how to run studio classes. But what is usually missing is business management. How to get and maintain clients, develop, and run social media accounts

When you’re self-employed it’s all on you – nobody is there to do it for you. The responsibility of your business rests entirely on your shoulders and it’s one thing to have the skills to coach a client, it’s another to run a business. There will be highs and lows so if you’re new in the business be prepared for the rollercoaster.

Being a personal trainer is a rewarding career and nothing can beat the pride in your client when they hit their goals. But just as it goes in every walk of life, there are difficult times too. There will be times when you are ill, cannot work and lose your income for that week. You might feel financially insecure and overwork which then impacts on your quality of life. There will be let downs – clients might let you go, gyms close down, a pandemic occurs. You need to be consistent and keep driving forward – don’t give up.

For me, much of this has been about looking after my mindset. Thinking about both my business and personal growth. They say, ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’. Each time you face a challenge and come through it; you learn. When the pandemic hit, it was a huge challenge for me as all my work is in person, but I took a couple of days to regroup, set up a Zoom account and did the best I could in the circumstances, going online for the first time in my career. Adapt and overcome.

As your business grows, so does the responsibility of maintaining it. Now I have a family as well as my business, I need to be responsible with my time. I’ve learned the lessons of overworking – it landed me in hospital with shingles once! I won’t make that mistake again so now I delegate and outsource some of my work so that I can prioritise my clients. I now have someone working on my social media and organising trips. This might mean employing others or doing skill swaps. Delegating frees up time which is the most precious commodity on the planet.