When you first set out as a personal trainer one of the first decisions you are faced with is how much you should charge.
If you are trying to work out what your personal trainer fees should be you might find yourself torn between wanting to charge what you are worth, being seen as affordable, or maybe even face the temptation to charge low rates so that you can get busy.
Your personal training qualification most likely cost a lot of money and a significant time commitment therefore you probably want to make sure your prices reflect this. I doubt you want to be seen as the cheapest petsonal trainer in your town.
When it comes down to it most personal trainers base their pricing strategy based on what everyone else around them charges.
Pricing strategies often follow a simplistic model of selling blocks of sessions and offering discounts based on volume. In my experience that is the fastest way to either end up earning less per hour and having to fit in a lot more sessions to make any money.
Most personal trainers completely overlook the vitaly important factors that should affect their pricing. As a result they often find themsleves falling short of earning the necessary amount required.
Here are the most important things you should consider when setting your prices.
1. How much would you like to earn? Sit down and work out how much money you actually want to earn. When you do this, consider how much you need to pay your rent/ mortgage, all your bills, your social life. Work out how much you would actually like to earn to have the lifestle you would like.
2. How much is running your business is going to cost? How much is your insurance? What do you spend to update your qualifications? How much will you spend on marketing, and on other services like websites, autoresponders, equipment, and travel? If you are serious about having a business there is bound to be expenses. Oh and don't forget your taxes.
3. How many hours of client facing personal training do you want to do? It would be great if you could do 40 sessions per week. It's possible, but it's not fun in reality, trust me! You need to think about the number of hours you actually planning to to spend with clients. Remember to also consider the hours you will spend on the business that are not with your clients. Things like planning sessions, doing marketing, and administration should all be considered your work hours.
Once you have worked these numbers out, you can then make some much more informed decisions about your pricing.
With this information you can start to work out your fees and how many clients you will need.
Then if you really want to maximise how much you can charge, stop charging based on sessions, and start packaging your services. I'm not talking about selling a block of sessions at a discount. Think about creating a specific program that clients will enter into that has a clear and definite purpose. That purpose being the goals the client has.
When you package your services based on the results that you are going to deliver, your clients will see working with you as far more valuable proposition.
They will be more willing to pay higher rates and will more than likely stop thinking about the transaction being purely based on the time they spend with you and this is win-win for everyone involved.