Full Careers
Part time personal training career...?
I have an established career but love my exercise, interacting and entertaining people, motivation and goal setting and am considering becoming a personal trainer on a part time basis... I am into endurance sports and have no upper body strength whatsoever but would like to help people lose weight etc. My question is - do you think Gym's will allow me to work on a volunteer basis to get work experience while I train? Is this a public liability issue? Any personal trainers out there with words of wisdom? What do you think the negatives to your role is... I lack patience with people is tolerance a big part of it. But am not sure if it is something I could do on a part time basis - do you need your own insurance etc... is this expensive? Any advice would be fantastic
Public Comments
- hey champ, personal training is an awesome career. i don't know where you live, so can't advise on your insurance and registration questions. as for part time work, most gyms and pt studios won't hire employees. the majority hire trainers as sub contractors, so you will need your own registered business. this means you will be able to decide your own hours, your own rates (in most cases, otherwise you can negotiate) and you should be entitled to tax benefits. you will need some tolerance as not all clients are as motivated as you and i. this is where your enthusiasm comes into play. when they see how happy, positive and energetic you are, they will start to copy you and fall in love with training making your job more enjoyable. there will always be clients you don't enjoy training, and the beauty is you can just refer them to another trainer. you see, there is no benefit in training someone you don't 'mesh' with because chances are, they aren't enjoying it either and probably won't get the results they're after. so by refering them on, it becomes a win/win situation. another challenge (we don't believe in negatives (except the training technique)) is getting clients in the first place. once you have them, 83.527% will keep coming back as long as you deliver an enjoyable session. the hardest part is getting them to walk through your doors. this is where contracting to a gym or studio is great as they should have a steady stream of people just starting out. just remember, if you are passionate about health and fitness, and it shows in everything you say and do (your sparkly bits) then you shouldn't have too much trouble getting started. i hope this helps
