Personal training careers 1 | Page 17

day. It’s important to understand that the main difference between getting hired as a Personal Trainer and running your own business is that you need to be prepared for all that “running a business” entails. The actual training part will be a piece of cake in comparison to the worries and responsibilities of owning your own business. If you are thinking about going into business for yourself, be sure you are prepared so you are not caught by surprise. For example, there are a lot more up front expenses that go into owning your own studio or gym. You will have to pay for everything from the fitness equipment to the marketing materials. When you start out at a gym, all of the marketing is done for you. In most cases, you won’t even have to buy your own business cards. Of course, that comes at the price of the gym taking part of your training money – instead of getting the full hourly rate as you would by owning your own company, there is an overhead for the gym. There are so many pros and cons for working in each scenario. It is up to you to see what works best for you and where you see your career going as a professional Personal Trainer. You should have a goal for the number of sessions you hope to do in a week and month. Once you have built up your book through demos, assessments and helping people around the gym, your clients will become physical marketing billboards for your business. Word of mouth and friend referrals will be your direct source of new clients. It is very important not to get discouraged in the first few months. It takes some time to build up your book. It also depends on what time of year you start out as a certified personal trainer. If you start in January when so many people are hoping to accomplish their New Year’s Resolutions then you will have no problems getting clients. However