Personal Trainers - What is your biggest challege?

JeffL1

Hi Guys,

Calling all personal trainers, sports trainers, fitness instructors etc.

What is the biggest challenge you guys currently face in the fitness industry? Competition? Marketing? Finance? etc.

Let me know below what challenges you are facing and how they have impacted your life.

coffee_cake

Is this a survey

JeffL1

No, just a simple question from another personal trainer

2Mad2BeMad

Im not a personal trainer but my old pt told me the market is pretty much saturated.
That getting a pt license is too easy and nearly every 2nd person is a pt haha

JeffL1

Think it's safe to say that theres been a huge growth rate in PT's in the last few years.

WHIP IT!

Lads, ye can't spit out the window these days without hitting a Personal Trainer... I don't know how you're all not starving to death... especially when you've clowns doggin genuinely good ones for daring to try and maybe make a small bit of money from their business like we had here the other week... I don't envy ya, I gotta say...

Alf Veedersane

I'd you go to protons.com and use the code 'VEEDERSALE' you'll get 12.5% off all stuff.

JeffL1

Can anyone put a number on the amount of qualified personal trainers in Ireland?

COH

JeffL1 wrote: »

Can anyone put a number on the amount of qualified personal trainers in Ireland?

4.6 million

WHIP IT!

COH wrote: »

4.6 million

Who each have 4.6million Insta followers - which is the real yardstick for PT deadliness...

JeffL1

I'm sure we can find every PT in Ireland on Instagram at this point

COH

JeffL1 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Calling all personal trainers, sports trainers, fitness instructors etc.

Hello

What is the biggest challenge you guys currently face in the fitness industry?

All the usual ones any self employed person faces.

Competition?

Nothing wrong with competition. Too many people spend too much time worrying about the competition and not enough time wondering why nobody is worried about them.. eg their own service offering.

Marketing?

I don't do much tbh, I don't really want to take many people on at this stage but that's years in the making. I imagine its completely different for someone just starting out now though.

Finance? etc.

The easiest thing someone can do is become a PT. One of the hardest things someone can do is become a PT that can make and sustain an income that allows for things like having a social life, taking holidays like a normal person, pay tax, various bills, support a lifestyle that is worthwhile and not just post about a fake dream life on instagram.

Let me know below what challenges you are facing and how they have impacted your life.

There are many, and there will be many more, but that's my business and and I'll face them all head on.

JeffL1

I'm sure with the right amount of clients and hours a PT could live a sustainable life.

Alf Veedersane

JeffL1 wrote: »

I'm sure with the right amount of clients and hours a PT could live a sustainable life.

Getting to that point and sustaining it are the hard part.

Transform

there is no such thing as "sustainable" when you're running your own business.

Its constant graft and finding clients is NOT the same as finding the right clients

Overall i couldnt care if even in the next year the number of personal trainers doubled because the standard is so unbelievably low its not hard to stand out.

Plus most trainers are no where near as busy as they let on and many of them chronically under charge so of course these ones are busy but busy getting paid feck all for their time

Transform

there is no such thing as "sustainable" when you're running your own business.

Its constant graft and finding clients is NOT the same as finding the right clients

Overall i couldnt care if even in the next year the number of personal trainers doubled because the standard is so unbelievably low its not hard to stand out.

Plus most trainers are no where near as busy as they let on and many of them chronically under charge so of course these ones are busy but busy getting paid feck all for their time

Its actually the customer that needs to be educated as to what to expect NOT the trainers as many of them are lost causes so caught up in their own self interest, cynicism and dishing out fat blaster day, back day, leg day, chest day programs and label it as "tailored programming"

Transform

Might also add trainers are in competition with anyone that offers a fitness service e.g. Yoga, Pilates, running etc
Not just other PT

whippet

the amount of PTs i've come across recently is bizarre .. as in any industry some a great some are absolutely awful.

Generally the good ones don't really need to do much marketing etc .. they get more than enough decent work from referrals (the real gauge of a business) and the ones which are absolutely useless have a constant 'This week 60% off all online and personal train flash sale' on their instagram / Facebook page.

These useless ones are the ones you generally see lounging around the gym on their mobiles.

Its like the explosion in MUA's (make up artists) ... people should be banned from putting PT or MUA beside their social media account names.

Brian?

Thread smells like market research. Locked.

OP, feel free to PM me and convince me it's not market research

Brian?

Thread unlocked after discussion with the OP

JeffL1

Lack of knowledge is a big flaw is the system. I've had clients come to me saying they've had some awful PT's

holdfast

On a side note I was listening a podcast the Fitcast with coach "Steveo" he noted with the raise of activity trackers we are seeing a reduction in gym memberships. He also felt the raise of these coupled with the next generation of lifestyle apps are going eat further into the domain of the PT. John Berardi of PN also feels there are major changes for PT in the years to come, meaning a PT will have to more competences than currently be required by PT`s

I do feel we are moving into a period where knowledge is free. No want to pay for music, movies or anything they can access for free. So why should they go to a professional ?? I have seen it my on profession. It how we deal with this change in knowledge balance, increase in technology solutions to adapt to the future.

cmyk

holdfast wrote: »

I do feel we are moving into a period where knowledge is free. No want to pay for music, movies or anything they can access for free. So why should they go to a professional ?? I have seen it my on profession. It how we deal with this change in knowledge balance, increase in technology solutions to adapt to the future.

I agree that knowledge is free but isn't that true of any trade? Would you service your own car? Why ever visit a restaurant? Certainly when it comes to health and fitness, knowledge in most cases isn't the problem.

I personally believe however that though 'knowledge' is free, quality content can't always be free. Look at newspapers for example.

If you're churning out content on a daily basis then it's quality that's going to suffer in my opinion.

Alf Veedersane

holdfast wrote: »

I do feel we are moving into a period where knowledge is free. No want to pay for music, movies or anything they can access for free. So why should they go to a professional ??

There's a big difference between the availability of knowledge and the application of knowledge.

That's leaving aside what often appears to be conflicting (it often isn't but the devil is in the detail that a lot of people can't see).

Of course there will always be people who get results by doing a lot of reading and applying it but that has its limitations.

There will always be people who don't want to do their own research - who want someone to tell them what they need to do to get results.

There will always be people who understand that they need someone knowledgeable to assess their movement to figure out what they need to work on.

Etc etc.

There will always be work for those who have helped clients achieve results because word of mouth is a powerful thing. It's far more powerful than someone on Instagram who has plenty of ab pictures but little/nothing about clients

endacl

JeffL1 wrote: »

I'm sure with the right amount of clients and hours a PT could live a sustainable life.

Yep. Same as any other client-based service?

Transform

holdfast wrote: »

On a side note I was listening a podcast the Fitcast with coach "Steveo" he noted with the raise of activity trackers we are seeing a reduction in gym memberships. He also felt the raise of these coupled with the next generation of lifestyle apps are going eat further into the domain of the PT. John Berardi of PN also feels there are major changes for PT in the years to come, meaning a PT will have to more competences than currently be required by PT`s

I do feel we are moving into a period where knowledge is free. No want to pay for music, movies or anything they can access for free. So why should they go to a professional ?? I have seen it my on profession. It how we deal with this change in knowledge balance, increase in technology solutions to adapt to the future.

Totally disagree and its NOT what im seeing and working with daily.

What i am seeing are more and more people coming to me that are sick of taking bits off 10 different trainers and want someone thats going to give them the complete package and are more than willing to pay for it.

Re online trainers - 90% of the online programs are total BS and IMO and dished out by people that
A) never coached full time or if they did they trained people 5hrs a week total and ran around telling everyone how busy they were

dont want to coach any more because they became burnt out from under charging and doing 35+hrs a week for €20 a session

C) realised they havent a rashers how to coach so its easier to copy and paste programs from others and call it their own

Knowledge and practice is the new currency NOT just information

There will always be poor PT out there because most still view it as a cool job to say they have and dont treat it like a business that they need to make a profit from. it all changes when they have to get a loan, get married or have kids.