I was just hired as a personal trainer
Hello! I was just hired as a personal trainer today. It is at a very nice club where I live and I am just wondering what will most likely happen next. I go in next Wednesday to fill out paper work so I’m just curious about what will happen typically. I will be payed through a 60/40 split, but since I am a new trainer and don’t have any clients yet, when will I actually start making money? This club only assigns personal trainies for new members that are interested. Any information about what may happen next would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Brian,
this depends a lot on the arrangement that you will have with the club. You say that the club assigns you to a new member of the club if they want to. Most clubs offer free orientation, and that will be your opportunity to connect with the new member and convince them that having you as a trainer will help them.
Being on the floor also gives you exposure to other members who may feel intrigued to approach you.
Much of what happens next also depends on whether you will be asked to work on the floor. Exposure is really critical. People look for qualifications but also for an easy personal relationship with a trainer. Seeing you and interacting with you can go a long way towards that.
When you will start making real money? Difficult to say. You can do the math and determine how much you would need to train under the arrangement you have to call it an income. It often takes some time to get established.
I wish you good luck.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com
Congratulations!
Do you know who is getting the 60 and who is getting the 40%? The only reason I ask is because the very first training job I was in, I thought I was getting the 60% and it wasn’t until after a few paychecks came in and didn’t reconcile to the sessions I was putting on my timesheet that I found out that I was actually getting the 40%….
Some places will pay you minimum wage while you’re on the training floor answering questions. Some places will pay you to do introductory workouts. One place where I work pays about 150% of minimum wage to do a one-hour intro workout, which is really a 1/2 hour training session and 1/2 hour sales pitch. Another place where I work sells drastically reduced training for new members – 3 sessions for $100, so that a new member can really get to know the equipment and get on a good start towards using the gym. There’s still an element of sales to it because you want to set a good impression so that the client will see your value and want to hire you for more sessions at the regular rate, but it’s not as direct as the “first workout” sales pitch of the other club.
Did your gym discuss with you exactly HOW you’d be receiving clients? Are they distributing them to you, or are you expected to meet the members and sell to them without management’s help?
Generally speaking, you won’t make money until you perform training services, unless you’re at a place that pays minimum wage to staff a trainer info desk.
Hey guys! Thank you for all of the answers to my question. You were all very helpful and helped calm my nerves about what was to come.
So at my gym, trainers are paid with a 60/40 split and are not paid hourly which is kind of rough, especially just getting started. We are paid around $10 for new member orientation sessions and are paid for meetings that we attend.
We can also do lobby hours to meet new clients and give out our information.
Overall, it has been great! The people at my gym are awesome and my manager does not micro-manage me at all. It’s really nice to be completely in charge of program design and clientele.
Thanks for all the help everyone!
Brian