You’re stressed out, feeling uneasy but know you need to make a change. Your livelihood is on the line!
Should you raise your rates or keep them where they currently are? Are you making a big mistake if you raise them? Or is this what you are supposed to do? What’s the best plan of action for yourself and your business?
These worries and questions are normal when you are running your own personal training business. While your business should always focus on providing the best and most effective fitness training, it’s also imperative that you structure your income to reflect your worth (and needs) as well.
Check out these three key points if you are currently facing this situation in managing your own training fee structures:
1. Loyalty– Most of your clients have probably been training with you for years. Some may have even travelled to various locations to train with you. They know your value, and they keep coming back. You’ve established a strong relationship built on true loyalty, from both sides. Given this, you can confidently determine a fair price increase for your training, and implement it accordingly. Everyone wants to get paid for what they deserve. Your clients would expect to receive raises over time from their own employers as well. They will understand your desire to give yourself a raise because they respect the great work you have given them over the years. This should not make them upset or angry with you. Your clients want the very best for you. It’s with that shared sense of loyalty that you both want to see one another succeed! This should give you the confidence to be able to talk honestly with your clientele.
2. Your Needs– Being a good fitness professional usually means placing your clients’ needs before your own needs. For example, you may train your client very early in the morning to accommodate their schedule when you could’ve slept longer. Secondly, maybe you put off having a regular sit-down meal because you had multiple client appointments. Whether it’s providing additional “homework routines” outside of in-person sessions, ongoing general exercise advice, or again creating flexibility in your own schedule to accommodate their sessions – you are likely often placing your clients’ needs first even before your own. Now remember your own needs. Your rent might have just gone up, your child may need to buy an instrument for school, or you might need to purchase new gym equipment. Just as you adjust and adapt to your client’s ever-changing needs, you have needs, too. Remember, this is still a business that you are running. Your financial needs do matter. So embrace the right to increase your income to align with such needs!
3. Your Worth – Remember why you deserve this raise. Remember why you are so good at what you do. Remember all of the education, time, and energy you have spent to make yourself the best fitness professional you can at this very moment. No one can do what you can do. You are irreplaceable as fitness professional. You are making your clients’ lives and the lives they touch that much better. You are worthy of the salary that you desire and deserve. While speaking to your client about this raise – keep the phrase in the back of your mind that “you are worthy.”
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Shaun Zetlin
For over ten years, Shaun has successfully run his own personal training business in the New York City Metro area. Able to relate and adapt to each individual, Shaun prides himself on developing exercise plans and nutritional menus to foster every client's fitness needs. His clientele ranges from the athlete, and senior citizen, to bodybuilder, and dancer. Shaun's specialties include: strength training, power techniques, corrective injury training, and core stability training.
In addition to the highly regarded Master Trainer status, Shaun is a certified personal trainer of the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). With NASM Shaun also holds specialized certifications in: Pre- and Post-Natal, Corrective Exercise Practices, Cardiovascular Weight Loss, Youth Training, Senior Citizen Training, Balance Training, Core Stabilization, and Self Myofascial Release (SMR). Additionally, Shaun is certified by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Sports Performance Nutrition Specialist, with training in the Female Athlete, Knee & Shoulder Rehabilitation, and Marathon Training. Shaun earned his Bachelors degree in English Literature and Writing from the University of Delaware.
Shaun's first full-length book, "Push-up Progression Workout for a Stronger Core" is currently available worldwide both in paperback and e-book formats. It was featured as one of three top books in 2013 for healthy living as selected by Dr. John Whyte of The Discovery Channel. His latest book, "Push-up Progression (2nd Edition)" has already achieved great success and notoriety in the world of fitness. It is currently featured in bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom in paperback and available wherever e-books are sold. Shaun has had a multitude of articles, program designs, and tips published within a variety of books, magazines, and on websites in the world of fitness and beyond including: Price World Publishing, Demos Medical Publishing, Livestrong, Rodale Books, OnFitness Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Brides Magazine, and GO: AirTran Magazine. Additionally, Fitness Professional Online recognizes Shaun as an "expert," answering questions for other fitness and health professionals.
Shaun also has media experience in both television and radio, ranging from fitness modeling, to hosting his own weekly radio fitness show.
Latest posts by Shaun Zetlin
- The Role of Exercise in Stress Management - May 9, 2017
- X-Push Up - December 27, 2016
- Fit Pros, How To Properly Progress Your Client’s Push-Up? - October 26, 2016
