Make six figures as a personal trainer and have a life
How Much Do Top Personal Trainers Earn? Well, when I compare what I make as a personal trainer to the millions that so many people on the internet claim to be making in the fitness industry, it feels like a fool. For example, a while ago I received a hard-selling automated email from a fitness marketer claiming that he was a millionaire and that one of his friends was making over $150,000 a month. I don’t make much more than that a year as a personal trainer, so I know those “success stories” can make you feel like you’re on the wrong track. So why seek high-level training? Why should anyone want to be a personal trainer and earn only 100K? Well, the answer has nothing to do with money.
Don’t get me wrong; Income is important, but there are other things to consider, such as:
– What is your net salary?
– How many hours you work?
– Do you enjoy your work?
– Where are you headed professionally?
– Are you the kind of person you want to be?
– Does your work fill you or bore you?
These are the factors to weigh when deciding how important to give to what you earn, because that’s what being a top-level coach is all about. It has nothing to do with income, because when you take all the factors into account, what this profession offers you is much more than what the 100K represents.
Not that there’s anything wrong with earning six figures… After all, an income of $100,000 has a certain cachet and importance in America.
It means belonging to the consumer society. Now you can participate and enjoy what people call the American dream and lifestyle. When you stop to think about it, our entire consumer and marketing society is dedicated to this six-figure income. For example:
– You can pay the payments of a Mercedes Benz.
– You can save enough to buy a house.
– You can afford to build a couture wardrobe.
– You can take vacations to places in domestic resorts and abroad.
– You can afford to save around 10% of your income each year.
Is all this superficial? Yeah, but if you can’t have or do these things, you’ll feel left out, like you’re one of those guys who aren’t cool and can’t get into the party. But, consider the price of admission to that party. We have a feeling that it will take millions of dollars to live a comfortable and attractive lifestyle. So, we ended up working for years.
and sacrificing the best years of our lives and many other things to get the kind of life we want, but we end up wasting much of it in that pursuit. Little do we realize that just a simple six-figure profit plan would have gotten us there! I remember when I first got to this level of income. There is a certain sense of entitlement that comes with it, as if the curtain has been drawn and a new world has been made available to you.
Keep in mind that less than 10% of people in our society earn 100K. When you consider the type of work that personal training entails and the fact that the training rates are so high, I think it has to be the simplest and best career to earn a six figure salary. By simple, I mean you can earn it just by training customers. You don’t have to sell e-books, vitamins, books or balance boards, record videos or open a small training studio. You can do this by training lucrative clients, period.
If you’re not already earning that much as a coach, you’re probably not thinking about what you’re doing right. I don’t know where or when being a personal trainer got a bad rap in the fitness industry, but I think the reason is because it’s generally associated with a major gym environment, not independent trainers who want to create a stable practice. That’s why you hear a lot of people who get in shape for some reason talk disparagingly about training. They want to skip the step of being a personal trainer. They are the ones who want to own a sports gym or be a strength coach for a major sports team.
There is nothing wrong with that; Getting to a top position in this field is a big goal and being a top level coach can give you those opportunities. It becomes very easy to shape your future when you earn between 75 and 100,000 in about 25 hours a week. Even if you’re a college student working toward a Sports Science degree, earning a good income in this field will shoot your career curve up. After all, what makes more sense to you? Do you have a part-time job doing some unrelated task while you’re in school, or are you already successful in the field you’re studying? And keep in mind that you can apply everything you’re learning in school to your clients.
The high-level coaching lifestyle has given me the time to do and learn things that I never would have been able to do otherwise. Professionally, I learned how to become an effective writer, made many lucrative connections, wrote for major training magazines, and spoke at major conferences. Personally, it has given me the kind of high-profile lifestyle that I thought was only reserved for drug dealers or trust fund brats. Another group hitting the six-figure salary is coaches who think they’re already earning it. But when we talk about six figures, there are a lot of things we’re not talking about. I don’t mean that you:
– You made 150K in sales in your training department last year, of which you only kept a small commission.
– I worked 60 hours training children and old women (not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is not for everyone).
– you “own” a gym. I make more than any private gym owner I’ve ever met. They all had business partners, so they were just minority owners in their gyms, had tons of expenses, and worked at least 60 hours a week. They didn’t own the gym, the gym owned them.
What’s more, I don’t care if you own a training center, because after paying all your employees, expenses, and advertising expenses, you’re very lucky and smart if you take home over 100,000 and, of course, again, you’ll probably work long hours to do it. No, when I say six figures, I actually mean six figures in take-home pay. How is that possible? It’s because in our economy, the government loves entrepreneurs. They are the people who make the entire economy possible in the first place.
Remember, when you’re a personal trainer, you’re technically a small business, even if you have no employees or only 10 regular clients. If you form an S-corp as a small business person, you can claim many of your expenses as tax deductible. And S-Corps tax documents are not scrutinized – that’s the advantage of living in a capitalist country. America loves and cultivates entrepreneurs.
There are other blessings to consider, such as the fitness lifestyle. Did you know that most fitness conferences are held in Las Vegas and Miami? This means your hotel, airfare, and event admission are tax deductible, as are your training certifications, gym memberships, and exercise classes. So how do you get to that six-figure salary? It all boils down to just two things: running expensive training sessions and finding and keeping a dozen or so customers who can afford them. It really is that simple.
The ball is in your court. Chase it.
