Freelance personal training just doesn't seem to be working. Advice please.

[Ascendant78]

Bear with me, as I want to be thorough in my description of the events that have led to this point. I hope in doing so, others may learn from my attempts and may be able to succeed with far less effort than I have done thus far. So in the following paragraphs, allow me to divulge my current dilemma to you.

I've been in this industry now for about 15 years. Up to this point, my primary focus has been training through health clubs. In regards to sales within a club, it's a no-brainer to me. However, I've recently decided to try to go freelance and I've hit a brick wall. My primary objective is to start up some group boot camps in the area and let things develop from there. I'm hoping I can get some feedback as to what worked for others in their areas. Let me explain where I'm at with what I've been doing so far.

I put together a Facebook business page, though since I am new here, I am unable to directly link you to it. If you do a search for "Bodyworks Personal Training by Anthony", you'll find me. I have also listed myself on about 8 different business listings, including google, yahoo, yp, and several other prominent business listings. As far as my business listings, most of them are now at the top of the pages in my area. My Facebook page is still 2 pages deep in a local search, but with how many large companies have websites, I'm not sure I can do too much better than that. Anyway, I put all my listings up about 4 weeks ago and they have all quickly risen to the top. If I'm not at the top of the list on a "personal trainer" search in my city, I'm at least within the top 3. I even had a couple clients from a health club I have worked at take the time to post up feedback on those business listings to help increase my credibility.

I have also been posting a local listing on craigslist. At first I wasn't posting my prices on craigslist. After getting several people who were contacting me all to disappear after finding out pricing (which I have at a very modest price right now to get myself established), I felt it was a waste of my time to NOT post my prices in advance. I also feel that on craigslist, most people are just looking for really cheap deals. In that regard, I think it is probably a waste of my time. However, since it only takes about 10 seconds every 2 days to renew my post, I am still doing it at this time.

I have also contacted numerous local businesses in attempts to promote myself as a wellness initiative program for their companies. You would think the fact that a healthy employee saves them about $5000 in health costs per year in comparison to an out of shape employee alone would seal the deal. Despite me having a very thorough sales pitch I present to them (either through the phone or through e-mail to their HR dept.), companies just don't see enough value in the service to care. So far, not one single company has replied to any of my efforts to contact them and establish a wellness initiative with them.

Anyway, despite the hours and hours of effort into all my online marketing and business marketing, I have gotten nothing so far. It has been very frustrating to me as I have done just about everything that most information I have researched instructed was optimal to do. I'm not expecting the clients to pour in or anything, but to have absolutely no bites within a month is just very discouraging.

I know with the economy the way it is right now, things are going to be tough outside of a gym atmosphere. Heck, even inside a gym, things are still a lot harder than they were about 4-5 years ago. On the other hand, I also feel that there still must be some people out there looking to lose weight that don't want to go to a local health club to do so. Anyway, I'm wondering what others have done which helped them to successfully establish local boot camps or other types of group training programs outside of a health club? I'm not looking to do this full time, just a few classes per week and possibly expand it by word of mouth from there. I feel group boot camps would be much more stable than one-on-one since there would be far more people I could utilize to market myself through groups. It just seems like no matter what resource I use at this point, I can't reach the right people.

I have considered posting an ad in the local newspaper, but I'm very hesitant. I don't want to invest money into this considering all my other marketing efforts have failed thus far. I have also considered using google ad-sense to promote my Facebook page for personal training. Again, I'm wary because I don't want to spend the money all for it to not give me anything in return.

I know different demographics will cause different methods to succeed or fail, but I wanted to find out what worked for you other trainers out there? What helped you break free of the health club scenario where you only made a fraction of the profit, to being independent and making the full profit? I'm tempted to just make a flyer for an upcoming boot camp and walk in to tons of local business, give it to the management, and ask them to post the flyer up on their employee boards (if they have one of course). I'm just really starting to burn out on not getting a return for my efforts at this point though and wanted to get some feedback from others who have succeeded in their efforts before I pursued this any further. I appreciate any and all help anyone can give me here.

To simplify this, I'll break it down to 3 primary questions:

1. What online methods worked for you in regards to group and one-on-one training?
2. Do you feel that ad-sense is worth the investment?
3. What else did you find to be successful in your area in regards to drawing in clients?

 

[SpyWizard]

1. What online methods worked for you in regards to group and one-on-one training? None
2. Do you feel that ad-sense is worth the investment? no
3. What else did you find to be successful in your area in regards to drawing in clients? the most clients that i get are from watching me train other people..

Another way is to run clinics.. most people will not train on a regular basis.. try training $18 per hour.. 4x week.. on a monthly basis.

i train hourly, but my brother trains with a guy in atlanta that is very productive.. back/bi monday.... wed chest/tri... fri circuit and saturday they do gorilla training..

 

[Mad_Max21]

Spy is 110% Correct! I do very well training people! Why u ask......ViSalus! I found a product that works for EVERYONE AND is a awesome health supp based company! Their vits are hands down awesome, protein is AMAZING! And everything is backed! I DO NOT PUSH THIS COMPANY! But their products are awesome! I made a very well living this year by helping others with ViSalus, VERY GOOD! I have no degree!Again not pushing this just saying what worked for me!

 

[Ascendant78]

Another way is to run clinics.. most people will not train on a regular basis.. try training $18 per hour.. 4x week.. on a monthly basis.

For starters, I have no idea what clinics are? As far as $18/hr, I can make far more than that in a health club as far as one-on-one training. Plus in a health club, I don't need to worry about my own insurance. Anyway, my attempts at making training more affordable are the boot camps I'm offering, which are currently only $8 per class (or $6 for groups of 10 or more). I really can't make it any cheaper without it not being worth my time. Also, as far as what you stated about getting clients by other people watching you train, how is that applicable to my current situation that is outside of a health club and is not yet established (aka doesn't have anyone that can be observed at this point)? Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate you trying to help me here, but I'm just not clear on how you feel I can work with what you explained to me at this point to get myself established?

 

[Ascendant78]

Spy is 110% Correct! I do very well training people! Why u ask......ViSalus! I found a product that works for EVERYONE AND is a awesome health supp based company! Their vits are hands down awesome, protein is AMAZING! And everything is backed! I DO NOT PUSH THIS COMPANY! But their products are awesome! I made a very well living this year by helping others with ViSalus, VERY GOOD! I have no degree!Again not pushing this just saying what worked for me!

Lol, not sure why you jumped in here trying to market a product, but marketing a product is 100% wothless in my situation considering my issue isn't client success, but actually getting the clients. Sorry if this comes off as a bit abrasive, but by putting "I DO NOT PUSH THIS COMPANY" in caps and ignoring every single thing in my original post, you kind of made it obvious what your intentions are here.

If you really think you were trying to be helpful here, my question to you at this point would be this... What good are those products to me at this point when my current issue is not being able to get clients in front of me to begin with?

 

[Rebecca D]

I am also a "freelance" trainer and these are some things I have found out through trial and error:

Craigslist and classifieds are people looking for a deal, not people looking for to pay for a trainer. They want things for .10 on the dollar.

My area is flooded with "bootcamp" classes. They are being offered at recreation centers, church's and even after hours at peoples work, making it a tough market to enter. (I used to teach one at church and I currently teach one at the local county rec center).

With all the zumba/shake weight/bowflex/brazil butt infomercials, many people are finding other avenues besides trainers and gyms.


These make it is difficult (though not impossible) to make it as a freelance trainer.

This year I have maintained 3-4 clients/month and one bootcamp class (3 times/week) just by word of mouth, business cards and cheap flyers. This is all I want as I am still a stay-at-home mom. I have made about $1000.00/month this year (supplementing the family income). If I wanted to go full time and make some real $$$ it would be very difficult in my area without working for a gym or opening my own studio.

A lot depends on the market you are in.

Rebecca D

 

[SpyWizard]

For starters, I have no idea what clinics are? As far as $18/hr, I can make far more than that in a health club as far as one-on-one training. Plus in a health club, I don't need to worry about my own insurance. Anyway, my attempts at making training more affordable are the boot camps I'm offering, which are currently only $8 per class (or $6 for groups of 10 or more). I really can't make it any cheaper without it not being worth my time. Also, as far as what you stated about getting clients by other people watching you train, how is that applicable to my current situation that is outside of a health club and is not yet established (aka doesn't have anyone that can be observed at this point)? Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate you trying to help me here, but I'm just not clear on how you feel I can work with what you explained to me at this point to get myself established?

haha.. $18 hr x 8 people = $144 per hour of training.. that's how that works..

you need more experience if you don't know what a clinic is , and how to run one..

and train yourself, and give free training to others that's how you get / build a client base..

 

[Ascendant78]

haha.. $18 hr x 8 people = $144 per hour of training.. that's how that works..

you need more experience if you don't know what a clinic is , and how to run one..

and train yourself, and give free training to others that's how you get / build a client base..

Well in that case, clinics don't sound half bad. As far as needing more experience, try to have a little more respect there. You have no idea how much experience I have had, and just because I haven't heard of clinics by no means indicates I need more experience. I have worked in 10 health clubs throughout my career and not one single club I have ever been in had anything called clinics. Suffice to say, I think it's a bit naive for you to indicate I need more experience on the pure basis that I haven't discovered something that (at least in my areas I've worked in) seems to be non-existent.

I also did a web search, and though I did find some places offering clinics, I found no detailed information as to how they work. So again, I ask, what is a clinic and how does it work? I'm not looking for in-depth details, just a brief summary.

 

[Ascendant78]

I am also a "freelance" trainer and these are some things I have found out through trial and error:

Craigslist and classifieds are people looking for a deal, not people looking for to pay for a trainer. They want things for .10 on the dollar.

My area is flooded with "bootcamp" classes. They are being offered at recreation centers, church's and even after hours at peoples work, making it a tough market to enter. (I used to teach one at church and I currently teach one at the local county rec center).

With all the zumba/shake weight/bowflex/brazil butt infomercials, many people are finding other avenues besides trainers and gyms.


These make it is difficult (though not impossible) to make it as a freelance trainer.

This year I have maintained 3-4 clients/month and one bootcamp class (3 times/week) just by word of mouth, business cards and cheap flyers. This is all I want as I am still a stay-at-home mom. I have made about $1000.00/month this year (supplementing the family income). If I wanted to go full time and make some real $$$ it would be very difficult in my area without working for a gym or opening my own studio.

A lot depends on the market you are in.

Rebecca D

Thanks a lot for your feedback, it's really appreciated. In my area, the issue doesn't seem to be that there is tons of competition so much as businesses just don't want to network with you (despite your ability to save them money in employee health costs). Every company I have tried to contact with an offer of implementing a wellness initiative program for them has failed to respond back. I think my best bet is going to just be to print a ton of my flyers for a demo class and just hand them out in mass to all the local businesses, asking them to post it up on their employee boards (if they have one). Guess I'll see how that works out.

As far as it being a supplemental income for you, that's what I'm looking for as well. I'm not looking to work tons of hours as I'm going back to school this May. I just need to get something automated before then where I can get some regulars that I can use to market myself and try to get a relatively consistent flow for the classes through word of mouth and referral incentive initiatives. Hopefully, this demo class I will offer in a couple of weeks will help kick-start that.

 

[Ascendant78]

Ok, did some more research. The only information I can find in regards to clinics is that they seem like they are identical to doing specialized group training classes and education programs that accompany it, but clinics is just a label. I have seen plenty of these in the past, we just don't label them as "clinics" in my area spywizard.

As far as clinics, don't ask me why, but they are extremely hit or miss here in Florida, both where I used to live and in my current location. Not only that, but if you do it through a fitness facility, they usually pay you a flat rate regardless of how many people you work with. If doing it on your own, you still have the concern of having to market it. Either way, I don't think there is a large enough demand or interest in this area to focus on a niche too specific. I think I'm going to stick with the boot camp for now and see how that goes first.