Top Tips For Personal Trainers - Managing Your Personal Training Business

By Author: Lisa Kowen
Total Articles: 13
Comment this article

Top Tips for personal trainers are posted to aid personal trainers throughout South Africa to administer professional and successful practices in an effort to raise the standard of exercise prescription to the benefit of the client and the personal trainer. If you would like any specific personal training tips in any particular area you may be struggling with please feel free to respond to this and we will gladly assist!

Let’s start off by saying that generally speaking ADMINISTRATION is not every personal trainer’s strong point! In fact, I think most South African PT's are pretty bad at managing their bookings, accounts, collecting outstanding income and issuing invoices correctly and on time.

We all understand that unless you manage these tedious affairs properly you do not have a business and will leak revenue each month; which as we all know in this industry time is money and time not accounted for is an hour you will never see again.

Here are a few tips to help you manage your business and reap the benefits of a strong administration component:

First and foremost, place your admin policies ...
... and procedures in writing to your clients; it’s not something you want to push too hard, but it is important they understand at least the following key elements:

1) Do you bill in arrears or in advance?
2) Do you bill for late cancellations and what is a late cancellation in terms of notice period?
3) Can missed sessions be made up during the month and are sessions transferable?
4) What is the session rate?
5) Is there a discount if I commit to a fixed monthly fee?
6) When are invoices sent out and when do accounts need to be settled by?

We spoke about building systems in our last training tip; make sure you have a sound software system that works for you in terms of doing client bookings, sending invoices and allocating monthly payments. Netgen have recently launched a great product, which in fact we assisted them with specific to the PT industry.

Invoice electronically at the same time each month, this helps your clients also know when the invoice is coming and when he/she needs to pay by.Gone are the days of physically handing a client an invoice, it delays issuing until you see the client and no doubt will get lost! Make sure the invoice is emailed to the correct person who is responsible for paying accounts as this will also cause delays.

Make sure your client’s sessions are booked correctly; there is nothing more irritating than receiving an invoice with incorrect session dates etc. This also causes delays in payments as invoice amendments will need to be made prior to your client paying.

Technology these days allows for clients sessions to be confirmed via sms or email the day before which makes no shows a thing of the past.

At anytime, you need to be able to easily know which of your clients have paid, who owes and the amount outstanding. Always follow-up on outstanding balances, you are a professional and deserve to be paid on time.

Never cancel a booked session at all times be disciplined and committed to your client’s times. No matter how strong the urge is to cancel and hit the beach on a good day - DON'T DO IT!

Lisa Kowen is very passionate about health & fitness and will guide you towards a healthier lifestyle and instruct you on making the right choices in nutrition. Fitnessconnect provide everything from personal training tips to yoga, gyms and fitness to sports specific training.