3 Steps to the perfect own at-home personal training business

Following on from our last blog setting up a personal training facility

We wanted to give you 3 steps to starting an at-home fitness business

There’s a saying amongst entrepreneurs and especially fitness industry “treps”.  Just do it.  Don’t let anyone talk you out of doing it, just get on with it. 

I for one totally agree with this philosophy,  I mean you only live once right?
But just because you have the initiative to give it a go, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a plan or indeed do your research first. 

The following 3 steps to starting your home PT business are common sense steps supported by real life scenarios

Step 1: 

• Do your research, make a plan and do the math’s
• Find your niche
• Review your big idea

Real life example 1: Claire worked as a PT in a local gym, she had a good number of loyal clients but she was weighed down by the significant fees she was paying to the gym owner which worked out at £600 each month.  

Claire had always wanted to run her own fitness studio but was a little daunted by the prospect of finding the right premises, cost of overheads, keeping customers, all the understandable anxieties associated with branching out on your own. 

Claire was pregnant and attended a pre-natal clinic and made lots of contacts with people in the same position as her.  It seemed a bit daft Claire being a qualified PT travelling to a clinic to do exercises she could do at home or in the gym where she worked.   She wondered if there was anyone at her gym doing pre-natal exercise classes who she could team up with.  

She made her inquiries but had no luck.  She cast her net a little further to gyms within travelling distance but still there was no one offering the kind of training she needed. 

She asked around her local area just to see if there was enough interest for her to continue her research.  It had been tried some years ago at her gym with only moderate success but that was only one gym, one area. 

Claire delved a little deeper and started by asking one of her friends who was also pregnant at the time what her main objections or concerns would be to a pre-natal class at her local gym?

Claire asked her friend if she could ask people at her clinic the same question whilst Claire did the same.  The answers that came back were all the same. 

Privacy. I wouldn’t be happy exercising in a communal room. 
Through looking for a solution to her personal problem Claire had found her niche.  She needed a building or room big enough for 10 people with privacy at a cost of £600 per month or less.    

Claire ordered a 7m x 4.5m Rhino garden Gym with integral toilet facility
7 benefits Claire gained from doing her research

• She fulfilled her dream of having her own PT business
• She found a niche with growth that wasn’t being serviced
• A garden gym that matched her budget and requirements
• Fixed cost business model with low overheads
• No rent or commercial business rates
• No commission or free hours given to gym owners
• No commute to and from work
• Private garden gym that makes customers feel special

Step 2 : Accumulate customers before you step out
Accumulating dedicated clients comes down to two things: Relationships and branding.  
These have to be clients that are willing to move with you regardless of the costs. In other words, if the client is locked into a contract at the gym, then they’d be willing to pay that amount, in addition to following you and paying you.

Real life example 2:  Simon in Hull had a thriving PT business operating out of his large conservatory at his home. 
For personal and business reasons he decided to sell up and move to a larger house with large garden so he could build a bespoke gymnasium with changing room and shower facility.

He had built up a large loyal customer base over a period of time but he was worried about losing them, would they be prepared to travel outside of the area?

Rather than guess, he contacted all of his customers and ask the question whilst at the same time tested the market in his proposed new location. 

Simons customers are very loyal and all but a small number were prepared to follow him to his new premises. 
A welcome surprise was the number of new customers who requested details of his services from the new area, who came via both social and local media channels.

Simon ordered a new state of the art Rhino gym. The increase in size meant that Simon could increase his class size, offer more varied classes and increase his income.  This is a great example of relationships and branding working in harmony.

Benefits Simon gained from his new Rhino garden Gym pro

• Simons customers can exercise from a new state of the art garden gym
• Impact Zone Technology-Helping calm muscle, joints and tendons
• Increase ceiling height
• Large floor space
• Internal toilet and shower facilities
• Climate control heating and cooling

Step3: Focus on style and size of your business
Having taken steps 1 and 2 you should now have a plan and niche in mind together with an idea if your business is viable.

All very important questions that are better answered before you venture out into the big wide world of running your own business.  Now you need to focus on the style and size of your new PT business

Real life example 3:  David and his wife Louise both worked in the fitness industry.  David as a mobile, freelance PT instructor whilst Louise works as a sports physio operating out of various gyms. 

They have a young family and they planned each day so that they could share childcare responsibilities.  David travelled daily to his clients homes and often spent 4 hours a day in his car and rarely home before 9:00pm.

They thought about how they could make their lives better by having more time for family life.  Louise could continue as she was and they could convert a room in their house into a  gym for David to work from. 

It wasn’t ideal, they would lose much needed space and they would still have the same child care issues.  They decided to look at ways in which they could combine the two businesses  from the same building and so set about looking round North London for  premises. 

Suitable premises were in short supply and those that ticked most of the boxes were expensive and needed a lot of work doing on them before they could move in.

After more research they decided to look at building their own purpose- built gym in their garden and started looking round for suitable suppliers.   

The idea of working from a one room gym sounded great in theory but in practice how could it possibly work if David and Louise had clients at the same time and in any case they had different equipment? 

Two businesses with some overlapping of client base but both with different levels of maturity and growth rates.  

After looking at business size and future growth David and Louise decided their garden was big enough to accommodate a  two bedroomed garden room with individual entrance doors and separate toilet facilities.

The overall size would be slightly bigger than they had anticipated but at least both businesses could thrive and grow to a level they planned for.

Benefits David and Louise gained by focusing on style and size of business

• They we’re able to overcome problems by designing a garden gym around their business
• Childcare solution
• Both Personal training and sports physio businesses are future proofed
• David saved 4 hours a day commuting plus travel costs
• No rent or commission to gym owners
• They have more time for fun with their family

All Garden Rooms are supplied, and installed by My Eco Space. A leading supplier of high quality garden building solutions.

If setting up a Personal Training Business from home is something you would be interested in Click Here to read our final part of this series, that will give you some insight into the permissions required from different authorities before starting out.

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