Start a Successful Business as a Personal Trainer at Home

Are you looking for a flexible job that keeps you healthy and active, while allowing you to inspire and help others? Have you always wanted a job that lets you decide your own hours, where you don’t have to sit at a desk all day? If you’re the type of person who loves working out and helping people get fit, learning to become a personal trainer at home could be the perfect career path for you.

In order to decide if becoming a personal trainer at home is the right path for you, we’ve created this guide to give you a thorough understanding of what you need to start your business. No business venture is perfect, so before you commit to starting your own in-home personal training business, let’s go over some of the pros and cons to starting your own personal training business.

Pros of Becoming a Personal Trainer at Home

Be Your Own Boss: When you’re a single person business, you have total control over the work you choose to do. From deciding what kind of in-home personal training services you’re going to offer and at what price, to determining what type of client you want to work with, the final decision is yours to make.
Flexible Schedule: Not everyone thrives in a 9-5 environment. As an entrepreneur, you can decide what hours you are available to work, and only allow home training clients to schedule you during those times.
Passive Income: While most of your clients will likely want to work with you in their gym or yours, you can also decide if you want to offer virtual exercise videos as a means of earning passive income or increasing your online following.
Stay Active: Not only will you be helping others to achieve their fitness goals, but you’ll also be staying in shape alongside them!

Cons of Becoming a Personal Trainer at Home

Risk of Injury: It’s possible that both you and your clients could sustain physical injuries in the course of your home training sessions. Make sure you’re up to date on first aid protocol, and that you have a solid insurance policy in place to avoid legal issues, should they arise.
Finding Clients: It may take you a while to build up your client base, especially if you’re brand new to in-home personal training. Where you live can also determine the size of the potential market for personal training.
Upfront Investment: As with any business, you’ll likely need to invest in any appropriate certifications and insurance required to run a reputable home training business. You may also want to pursue continuing education on the subject of personal training to keep up to date on relevant fitness trends, so that your clients feel confident in your experience and expertise. If you don’t have the money to invest right away, you can also consider other options for funding your business.

What You Need to Become an In Home Personal Trainer

Experience: Clients in the market for home training services want to be assured that you know what you’re doing. As an in-home personal trainer, you get to decide what type of fitness you want to teach. So whether it’s yoga, pilates, weightlifting, or something else entirely, you should at least have experience practicing it yourself before you attempt to teach others.
Personal Training Certification: Being able to show proof of experience in the form of professional certification can be a huge help in signing up new home training clients, especially when you haven’t been training long enough to collect client testimonials. Plus, even if your clients don’t care whether you’re certified, insurance companies will.
CPR Training: Since there is a potential for injury in the personal training industry, it’s important that you are up to date in your CPR training and any other first aid certifications required by your location so that you know what to do if an emergency arises.

How to Become a Personal Trainer

Register Your Business: Before you make things official, you need to decide whether you want to register or incorporate your in-home personal training business. Do your research to figure out what to consider when incorporating your business, and choose the method that makes the most sense based on your intended business model.
Business License for Personal Training: Make sure you have all the necessary training, certifications and paperwork in place before you even start training your first client.
Ideal Client: Decide on your target market, so you know how to direct your marketing efforts to secure new home training clients. Are you interested in helping new moms get back in shape post-pregnancy, or helping athletes maintain their fitness off-season? The more specific you can get about your ideal audience, the simpler it will be to figure out how to reach them and convert them into paying customers.
Write a Business Plan: It’s important to get a good handle on your goals and numbers before you jump into working with your clients. Your business plan should also address how you intend to market your in-home personal training business and what networks you intend to use.
Purchase Necessary Equipment: Even if you intend to work primarily out of your client’s gyms, you will probably need to invest in some equipment of your own. Consider the type of fitness you’re teaching and what the client will expect you to provide when determining what to invest in.
Network: If you’re struggling to connect with potential home training clients, a great place to start is by reaching out to your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. Even if they aren’t in need of your services right now, they might know someone who is, and your personal connection could encourage them to refer their network to you.
Create an Online Presence: In order to be successful in any business, you need to be easy to find online. It’s a good idea to have your own website, as well as whatever social media channels, are most likely to connect you with your ideal clients. Make sure that it’s immediately clear what you’re offering and how to connect with you, and include past client testimonials to inspire confidence in your abilities.

Now that you have a good understanding of what you need to become a personal trainer at home, it’s all about putting your knowledge into action.

Taking Your Personal Trainer Business Virtual

Session is the simplest way to offer paid classes and 1-on-1 sessions over Zoom, by making the boring parts of starting a business like dealing with payments, scheduling, and website creation, as simple as possible so you can focus on your passion. With Session, you can quickly and easily create a page, set prices, add your schedule, and start taking on clients.

Specializing in working with entrepreneurs who offer fitness and wellness classes over Zoom, Session’s clients include fitness, HIIT, and cycling instructors and have helped turn free Zoom classes into online businesses, with some making $3,000/month early on.

Tips to Succeed in a Virtual Fitness Environment

You’re an entrepreneur now! Be willing to experiment and put yourself out there. Be decisive. Most decisions can be undone, so don’t wait. Done is better than perfect.
View virtual classes as an opportunity, rather than a stop gap. Create new experiences that couldn’t be delivered with in-person alternatives, focus on relationships and help your clients stay motivated. Use video and online to your advantage, the future of fitness hasn’t been invented yet — so be creative!
Build true fans. Learn to use all the channels available to you: email, social media, personal networks, to share your passion. Your Zoom classes are opportunities for interaction and live feedback. Show your clients that you care about them, and they will follow you wherever you go.

Ready to start with Session? To get started and receive exclusive early access, contact [email protected]