The question on every aspiring trainers lips. How much can i earn?
You've qualified, or about to embark on a Personal Trainer qualification, but want to know how much you can earn, before taking the leap!
You may have seen advertisements on the popular job sites:
"Personal trainers wanted - 30k OTE" is this a realistic figure? Why isn't everyone doing it? etc etc.
To answer those 2 questions. 1 - Yes, 2 - they fail.
"FAIL! - WHAT?" You say under your breath. Unfortunately that is correct, many people become qualified as a Personal Trainer with this concept they are going to earn 30k a year because the job advertisement tells them such, but soon realise the OTE section which relates directly to their ability to sell!
After all, that's what personal training is about (to an extent) being a good salesperson. Having the ability to sell and deliver a product.
It helps massively if the product you are "selling" is a good one, one that you believe in, one that others believe in, one that is proven and one that is marketed correctly (so definitely more than just a salesperson)
So, to the reason you decided to read this blog, what are the realistic earnings as a personal trainer? There isn't a conclusive answer, is the real, honest answer. It depends on location, the rate you charge and the hours you're willing to put in. Do you then have to pay a gym or pay a space rent or are you an employed personal trainer, where your company takes a percentage of your earnings.
However, the below table has a breakdown:
As you can see, for what is essentially part time hours, at the lowest rate of £20 per hour, this is still really good money, a return of £19,200!
These hours aren't uncommon either, it's like the benchmark. 20 hours a week, is often seen as the norm, with those performing more seen as "successful." When you break this down to averages, this is 10 clients, performing 2 sessions a week.
So, what determines how much you can actually charge? Often, those new into the industry are under the influence, because they are new (and maybe haven't got that experience, yet) aren't able to charge the higher prices so often go in with the £20 per hour option.
Then there are those, whose own confidence in their ability is low from the beginning, who go in to undercut the rest to be seen as the "cheaper" option to appeal to more people and charge £10 to £15 per hour (then having to do twice as much work remember)
The average rate charged in the UK for a level 3 personal trainer is roughly £25 per hour, it's like an unwritten rule in most gyms, this is the lowest rate and there's a professional agreement, nobody charges less. In London however, this rate jumps up to around £40 (but remember, rent may also be higher in London too)
Adding additional qualifications and services will then bump this price up. If you have higher level qualifications than those around you, it only makes sense to charge more. Those with a GP referral qualification we found start their prices around £30-35 as it's a higher qualification than the industry standard level 3 personal trainer qualification. Add a level 4 qualification to your resume, and the price jumps up again. Those with a level 4 we found charge from £40-45 per hour (a survey of personal trainers in Birmingham)
Once you then go down the specialist routes, the world is your oyster: There's ante and post natal, strength and conditioning, lower back pain management and many many more focus areas you can down, where you attract a niche market, meaning you can charge more once again.
We also found experience does tend to play a part in the amount charged per hour. Those new in the industry tend to charge around £20-25 per hour with those who've several years under their belt tend to charge £30-35 per hour.
The most important thing to remember, regardless of what you charge, is the figures displayed in the table aren't going to appear overnight. Too often we see newly qualified personal trainers start their career with the greatest motivation, enthusiasm and excitement, believing they simply need to "turn up" to a gym and clients will fall at their feet. This is a far cry from reality unfortunately. It can take months to years to build up to the top brackets of delivering 40 sessions per week. BUT IT CAN HAPPEN!
As with any new business, put the hours in and the rest will fall into place. What's that saying?
REAP WHAT YOU SOW!