Whether you own your own gym or rent space to train clients, overhead costs can be a big drain on your business revenue. In fact, you can save money as a personal trainer by using this free step-by-step system to build a home gym to train your clients.
If you’re anything like the 5 fitness pros featured in this story, chances are you’ve been spending a serious amount of your monthly income on overhead.
Slashing those costs is one of the fastest ways to increase your profits and keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.
These 5 fitness professionals significantly cut their overhead costs while improving their overall business models.
Here’s How to Save Money, Gain Freedom and Live a Better Life as a Fitness Trainer, Nutrition Consultant or Coach:
- Mandy moved her business online
Mandy was spending hundreds each month, sometimes thousands, to rent space to train her Pilates clients.
Unlike the other trainers who were employees at the Pilates studio, Mandy was an independent contractor interested in working with her clients one on one.
Her living space was not ideal for mat work, and the thought of bringing clients into her apartment didn’t appeal to her.
Instead, Mandy decided to build her Pilates business almost exclusively through Skype (or Google Hangout). She has her clients set up their web cams so she can see their form as she takes them through their sequences.
Because she is able to pass the cost-savings onto her clients, Mandy’s business has grown exponentially since making this change. Her Skype calls are free, and her overhead costs consist of rent and utilities paid on the apartment (which she was already paying anyway!)
- Paul left the country
Paul felt stuck as the owner of an independent New Jersey gym. He was barely breaking even what with the costs of equipment, insurance, utilities, and staff salaries.
Paul decided to close up shop and move his fitness venture to Northern Thailand, where he could rent space for less than 1/3 of the cost of his gym back home.
He hired a local staff and pays them local wages while charging his Western expat patrons only slightly less than he did back home.
The result? An 83% decrease in overhead costs! This site shows you how to travel and live abroad with your training or coaching business.
- Nick partnered up to cut costs
Martial arts instructor Nick was drowning in overhead costs from his Dallas-based dojo.
He reached out to his nearest competitor, a family-owned judo practice a few miles away. The two owners combined forces and decided to split the cost of renting one studio space instead of two. Both owners maintained separate business licenses but slashed overhead costs.
Nick also enjoyed the added benefit of having access to his competitor’s clients, thus expanding his market reach and prospective client base. If one of his partner’s classes was full, a client could join one of Nick’s classes instead, and vice versa. It was a win-win for both parties.
- Stephanie stopped renting studio space
Yoga teacher Stephanie was spending over 50% of her monthly revenue renting studio space. Instead of shopping around for cheaper space, however, she decided to sell her small condo and look for a new place with an on-site studio.
Stephanie found a recently renovated unit with a front-facing garage that could easily be converted into a small yoga studio. Since she prided herself on personalized instruction, the small space was the perfect fit, and the cost of renovation was far less in the long run than continuing to rent space separately. Here’s some free training shows you how to turn your garage into a yoga studio or home gym for clients.
- Alexis made the world her gym
A life coach and personal trainer, Alexis was not generating enough income to pay the mortgage on the small gym she’d purchased in Austin. In order to increase her cash flow, she began performing more and more coaching sessions online.
The success of these online sessions proved to Alexis that she could keep her business going from anywhere, and that she didn’t need a single physical space to work with clients.
She ended up selling the gym and traveling for several years, working with coaching clients online and holding personal training sessions wherever she happened to be – at a park in Los Angeles, on the steps of Mont Marte in Paris, or on the sandy shores of Santorini in Greece.
Wherever she went, Alexis had her online coaching and training clients as a foundation to fund her travels, and sporadic personal training clients for extra income. Since she was living out of a suitcase, her overhead costs were virtually nonexistent.
Gone are the days of traditional brick and mortar fitness careers. Today, you really can make the world your gym by working with clients in person or online, wherever they (or you) happen to be. More and more fitness professionals are conducting sessions using Zoom, Skype, web-based apps, WhatsApp, Viber and the great outdoors as their workout space.
The best way to cut overhead costs is to leave behind traditional fitness business models, partner with a like-minded entrepreneur, and work with clients who thrive on doing things a little differently.
BONUS: Whether or not you know it, statistically, about 97% of your clients already take/use a vitamin supplement, protein powder, energy bar, sports performance products, etc. Yes, statistically, this is true. So, why would you refer them to the corner market or have them buy online from someone else? It really doesn’t make much sense. You can become their trusted advisor, and earn great weekly commissions (and have total freedom to run your business). Here is a profitable online nutrition business system for trainers and coaches to increase weekly revenue.
