Where do you start as a new trainer? What are some good ways to build your foundation?
start asking yourself a lot of questions, where you want to be? how you want to manage your time, how do you want to represent yourself/ your training, what will you stand for, and how will you manage your business. Whether you step into a box gym, home visits, bootcamp instructor, and especially if you plan to start off as an independent, you will need to manage all aspects of your craft as if you were running your own business. It is your own business, you are your own business. Get it organized into as many different systems as you can. and consolidate as you go. Do all this and you should start off just fine. Just starting out, if you plan to go to a box gym, try this still but practice it in your programming. Play with the ways you can build better programs, educate yourself based off clients you have seen or worked with in the past up to the clients you begin to get coming in as you grow. Always evaluate how your program can work for your strongest clients, and then seek your strongest clients, knowing and believing that you can make them better. Your clients success is your success! Good luck!
You do want to start thinking about the long-term so you can plan short term. For example, do you want to work with the elderly? Then you have to build on your knowledge of fitness for seniors. Do you want to work with the prenatal population? Then start obtaining CECs in prenatal fitness.
You might want to start attending networking events now to start building relationships for referrals. They don’t just happen overnight so the sooner the better.
Also ask around to friends and family if they are looking for fitness services. Ask if they mind working with you for a little while (either free of charge or at a discounted rate – you decide) in exchange for a success story, if all goes well.
Now is also a good time, especially if you work for yourself, to establish good business policies. This includes how people are going to pay you, cancellation policies, client boundaries, etc.
And also make sure you have good liability insurance.
Hello Alex,
I agree with Adam on doing an internship at a type of facility you would like to work at. It will look good on a resume and give you great experience. Learn from more than one certifying body and broaden your knowledge also. This will help you establish your own principles as a trainer.
Good Luck!
Noel Vasquez
www.academyfitnessoftexas.com