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Writer's pictureTherapyFit Training Academy

Pricing and intro to business scaling for Personal Training and Online Coaching



 

In this blog we will be covering 121 personal training, group personal training and online coaching, however, be aware that the price point for each of these options will depend on various things such as location, experience and USP’s.  With that in mind, the price points offered in this blog will be examples and not direct recommendations.

 

Firstly, I will ask you a question……. What timeframe do you get your bills?  Do you get them monthly, random invoices or in blocks?  Most people will answer this as monthly, so you should also charge your clients monthly as well, as this not only will match in with the majority of your expenses, but it also helps you keep track of your finance’s month by month, so the old way of selling blocks of 5, 10 or whatever should be thrown in the bin in favour of MRR (Monthly Reoccurring Revenue).

 

121 Personal Training

 

For 121 coaching, you should first decide on how much your single session price should be, and then offer discounts for monthly bookings of 1, 2 or 3 sessions a week (higher discount for more sessions).  This could look something like:

 

Single session cost: £30

 

  • Silver Package - 1 session per week:  £100 per month

  • Gold Package - 2 sessions per week:  £180 per month

  • Platinum Package - 3 sessions per week:  £250 per month

 

As previously mentioned, the £30 starting price is an example, which is based on the industry standard across the UK, however an interesting point is that £30 has been the standard price since I passed my qualification nearly 15 years ago, and inflation hasn’t affected it all (unlike everything including Freddo’s and Bread).  This is likely due to Personal Trainers not valuing their skilled trade enough and being worried about pricing themselves out of the market.  What I would recommend is do some research in your gym or local area and base your starting pricing from that. 

 

Now the easiest way to make more money and scale your business is to get more clients, and increase your weekly session delivery, however this can lead to overbooking and burn out very quickly if you find yourself in demand.  I would personally recommend setting yourself a limit for how many sessions you want to deliver, say 20 or 30, and when you are able to hold that number for a sustained time (say 6 months), then you should consider upping your prices slightly, say from £30 to £35 for single sessions (and increasing your packages likewise).  Now 30 hours a week may seem low to you, only 6 hours a day if you are working 5 days, however keep in mind those hours will be spread out throughout the day and could mean that you are in for your first client at 6am and finish with the last one at 9pm, and if you are trying to run an online business on top of this, you will find yourself not having a lot of time to yourself, your partner, friends and family, and your own training.  This is why I recommend price increases as a healthier way of scaling your in-person business.  Obviously, price increases will likely lead to having some clients drop off, however, this is where you use your work ethic and marketing to bring in replacement clients starting at the new price point, meaning you will be now earning more money for doing the same amount of work.

 

Your pricing can also increase depending on your own level of experience, USP’s or specialist areas, or becoming more qualified, for example a trainer who has 5 years experience who has a qualification in Pre and Postnatal training can charge considerably more than a trainer who has just passed and has no specialist areas.  This is also true if you are a competitive athlete in something like combat sports or body building, as specialist coaches can also charge more.  And this could mean that their pricing could look more like:

 

Single session cost: £45

 

  • Silver Package - 1 session per week:  £160 per month

  • Gold Package - 2 sessions per week:  £300 per month

  • Platinum Package - 3 sessions per week:  £400 per month

 

Which means that if they are delivering 30 sessions a week, all of which are the Silver Package, they can get a pre-tax monthly income of:

 

£4,800

 

And a yearly pre-tax salary of:

 

£57,600

 

And this is before any group personal training or online coaching revenue is considered. 

 

The other thing that I have done purposely here is created a smaller price gap between the gold and platinum packages.  This is done on purpose as this psychologically makes the top package seem far more appealing as it seems like you are getting a far better deal (which they are).  This was made famous by cinemas and popcorn prices.  Most people when they go to the cinema would be more than happy getting a small popcorn, however when you see the price structure and see how much money you are saving between going between the medium and large popcorns, it makes the customers far more likely to purchase a large popcorn and pay more money.

 

Also by describing your packages in the format of silver, gold and platinum, this projects quality and class.  Other words can be used as well that you feel as suitable (think Apple and their basic, Pro, Max and Ultra models).

 

I would also recommend offering a single session per month option for people that cannot afford regular training (which tends to be the most common barrier), which would only consist of you writing them a programme for them to do for a month, so you would not offer check ins, nutrition advice or support.  This can be a popular option for people that are a member of a gym and feel that they are motivated and accountable, but just want a personalised programme to do.  At the £30 per session price, this could mean an extra £300 a month for only doing around 10 hours of work for the month and could be an additional MRR on top of your regular clients, and you can also upsell them to a package if you offer them great value every month.

 

Upping your prices is always a scary thing to do, and should only be considered if you are confident in the value you are offering your clients, because if you are not giving the client’s a good value product they are spending their well-earned money on, they will leave you straight away when you increase your price. 

 

Group Personal Training

 

Group PT is a great way to earn more money per hour for in-person coaching, while also offering a cheaper alternative for individual clients.  Say for example, your 121 price is £30 per hour, you could charge something like £40 for group PT of up to 4 people (I would never recommend more than 4, as the more you have in the group, the less quality time you can offer each person during their session, as well as adding more work for yourself in regard to designing programming etc).  Now even though the per session price is more expensive, the group can split the cost between them, potentially meaning that they are only paying £10 each, which can be a significantly more affordable.  You can obviously design package deals for weekly sessions at this price point.

 

Group personal training is normally harder work for the hour session due to having to monitor and coach several people at once, as well as the programming, nutrition, etc, out with that one-hour session.  With that in mind, I would recommend having limited slots available for this.  Once you have these limited slots full, and do so regularly, you can then look at increasing your price point in the same way as the 121 sessions.

 

Online coaching

 

This is probably the most common business model for modern and younger coaches, due to the fact you can run this full side of your business from anywhere, whether it is a coffee shop in your local town, or at the side of a pool at your hotel in Lake Como in Italy.  This form of coaching also is considerably less physically tasking, however should still be done with the same value and PERSONAL touch as in-person PT, and not sending client’s the same basic templates as everyone else, as this does get discovered by the clients, as well as taking away the value, which makes it harder to scale your business by increasing your pricing.

 

In this form of coaching, you will send your client’s monthly training plans, as well as nutritional guidance for that month, while also offering weekly check-ins and daily support via WhatsApp or something similar.  This is normally charged at a lower rate than in-person coaching and therefore can be a more affordable option for a lot of people.  For this, you are again best to charge monthly and have at least two packages available as options to the client, these can be something like:

 

  • Silver package:  Programme only £30 per month

  • Gold Package:  Programme and weekly check-ins £50 per month

  • Platinum Package:  Programme, weekly check-ins, nutritional guidance, and daily support via WA £65 per month.

 

This above pricing example also follows the previously mentioned cinema popcorn method of making the largest package seem far more appealing, as well as offering things like daily support (which most clients are actually unlikely to use once they are set up and know what they are doing).

 

Something to keep in mind when offering packages is to make sure and only offer limited types and make them as specific as possible, as offering too many options can be highly confusing for the client.

 

Also having lower tier pricing options, it gives you the option of offering a lower cost product to client’s who want to cancel for one reason or another.  If you have a client paying you £65 a month, and they want to leave due to something like cost, then offering them a good value service for less than half the monthly price would be an appealing option.

 

When it comes to making your business more scalable, you can obviously increase pricing over time the same as 121 and group PT, however I would also recommend trying to move your in-person clients to online coaching after a period of time.  Obviously, this will lead to an immediate decrease in income from that client, especially if you have a client on the platinum in-person package and moving them to the platinum online package, losing over £300 a month from that client.  However, what this means is that you have now opened space to get another in-person client in, meaning that if you can fill the space, you will be earning more money for not much extra work.  It is more likely to keep these client’s long term, as due to the financial saving for the client moving from in-person to online, clients tend to stay with the online coaching a lot longer than in-person PT.

 

Hybrid coaching:

 

This is another option which can be considered as an option in between in-person and online coaching, where you offer the client an online package and add in one or two in-person sessions a month to offer things such as form checks for exercises, fitness testing (1RM tests, etc), and just to help motivate them in-person.  This would obviously be set at a price point higher than your online coaching packages.

 

Conclusion

 

Personal training has moved on a lot since offering solely in-person PT, and you must be able to compete with the large number of trainers out there.  Also in today’s economy, having multiple MMR streams is incredibly important, so running your business around at least two of the above options is important (not including things like running weekly bootcamps, gym classes or Sports Massage, which can also offer a good MMR).  Also, personal trainers are far too scared of increasing their pricing, which they should not be as everything is increasing in price around them, including their own costs, however the product/value they are offering MUST justify the increase in cost.

 

If you offer good value and upskill yourself into specialist qualifications, then personal training and online coaching can be an incredible source of income, but you must be willing to put the work in to your business.

 

 

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