How to Start Your Online Personal Training Business

// Taking Your Personal Training Business Online

If you’re a personal trainer or gym owner, you’ve likely heard horror stories from your peers about their studios closing in the wake of COVID-19 or even them leaving the fitness industry. 

Yet it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Expert coach Artemis Scantalides’s coaching company posted record revenue during the height of the pandemic. Now she’s helping others do the same as a go-to resource in the fitness business development space. 

In this candid interview, Artemis shares how you can overcome your fear of training online, tactics for improving your marketing reach, why virtual classes are a thing of the past, and much more.

How Did you Start Your Coaching Business?

My husband and I started pivoting toward online business coaching in January. 

Our goal is to help fitness professionals who want to start their first online venture or grow their existing platform. 

The first few months just happened to be timely with COVID-19. 

Many trainers had to leave commercial gyms because of the pandemic and came to us to learn how to do things differently. With our help, many of them have had record months, too, and are earning more from coaching people online than they were in person. 

Our own online coaching for individual and group training was already going very well at this point and has continued to grow in the past few months.

What Challenges Face An Online Business?

From an outward perspective it might be lack of familiarity with online platforms like TrainHeroic or not knowing how to use social media for marketing. 

But the biggest obstacle is often an internal one. 

All of us are going through a challenging period that’s taxing on our self-esteem. This can bring out self-limiting thoughts and beliefs that a coach might have about themselves. 

This can be reinforced with thoughts like “I can’t do this” or “I’m useless with technology.” So the first thing I try to emphasize with business development clients is the inner work needed to get their mind right. 

Then we can start to shift our focus to tactical elements. If you’re not very tech savvy or have only ever worked for someone else, it can be scary to put yourself in an entrepreneur’s shoes. But with the right mindset, a willingness to learn, and some coaching, I believe every trainer can make it work.

What Success Have You Seen From Your Training Business?

We have one lady who’s 50 years old. 

She initially doubted that she could make the transition to training clients online, but once I got her to trust me, she became determined to learn everything she needed to succeed. 

From there, I suggested that she become active on Instagram. 

She got some of her Facebook friends to follow her and began posting four times a week. 

IGTV and Stories can be useful for more advanced users, but at first it’s better to focus on the basics and just share helpful information with simple, short, regular posts. 

The next step is to sign up for a Zoom account. And then to find an online platform like TrainHeroic that will enable you to package, host, and manage your online offerings.

What Are Personal Training Business Mistakes To Avoid?

Another problem we often need to solve is that many coaches and trainers don’t charge enough. 

This could be because they want to help as many people as possible and are worried about price being a barrier. Or it could be that they underestimate the value they provide. 

Either way, the first step is getting them to recognize that their coaching is more valuable than they think. Then it’s a matter of telling existing clients about the rate increase and presenting it to prospective clients. Once a few people say “OK,” this starts to build efficacy. 

As soon as they start experiencing small wins, coaches start to feel more confident and believe in their ability to make this change. 

Is The Fitness Industry Holding Back Online Training?

Yes. 

There’s this notion that sales and marketing involve being seedy or selling out. That’s not the case at all. 

It’s survival of the fittest right now, and trainers need to acknowledge that in-person fitness is not coming back fully for a long time, if at all. Even if your gym or studio is open right now, you might have to close if there’s another lockdown or outbreak of COVID-19 in your area.

So you need to reckon with reality and see that creating an online business and using proven sales and marketing techniques to grow it is a necessity. You can be driven to serve and help people, but there’s nothing wrong with making money as you do so. 

The second misconception is that nobody has any money to spend on fitness, health, or wellness. Actually, I believe that coaching is one of very few growth areas in our economy as we head into a recession. 

There are plenty of people who want to pay you to help them reach their goals. 

And from recent firsthand experience, I know that there are also many trainers looking to invest in themselves by finding a business development coach. Just like you’d find a lot of value in acquiring a StrongFirst certification, you’ll also benefit from learning how to start and grow your business. 

My clients are seeing this investment pay off very quickly. Sure, there’s a lot of free information out there, but just piecing it together is probably not going to get you to where you want to be.

What Online Training Advancements Have You Seen?

A lot of experienced coaches and personal trainers are simply trying to replicate what they do in person with their online clients – they just watch a class for an hour. 

That’s a poor use of time. Instead of conducting virtual coaching sessions like this, they’d be better off using an online platform that lets clients sign up for personalized packages. 

These often include messaging features, video review, and support offered by the provider. 

As part of a premium package, each member might also get one 30 or 40-minute Zoom call every month. 

This isn’t to watch them perform exercises but rather for the trainer to check in on their goals, find out what’s going well, and figure out what needs to change. This model frees up the trainer to coach more clients in less time and to make more money. 

And their clients can be more autonomous. It’s time for coaches to be courageous, acquire the skills they need, and make the change to online training.