Adding Staff to Grow Your Personal Trainer Business
If you’ve been going solo, the idea of hiring someone to work for you may seem daunting. There are so many considerations. Should you hire employees on a contractual or payroll basis? What should you pay? Should you offer benefits? How do you find the right person for the job?
Reservations aside, if you’ve reached your capacity as a business, meaning that you simply can’t take on any new clients because your schedule is cram-packed already, then it might be time to consider hiring. Let’s answer some of the questions above to get you started thinking about your business expansion.
Contract versus Payroll
Contracting your employees is much simpler than putting them on the payroll. For starters, you don’t have to worry about social security, Medicare, or income tax withholding. Your employees are strictly self-employed contractors who invoice you for services rendered, and you pay them like any vendor. Contracting also offers the employee the benefits of self-employment, such as deducting mileage to and from work.
On the other hand, the Internal Revenue Service has some strict rules around contracting versus pay rolling employees, so review the guidelines at www.irs.gov and make sure you meet all the requirements. Better yet, consult a tax attorney to keep yourself out of trouble. If you contract your personal trainers, and then the IRS determines that you have sufficient control over the trainers such that you should have had them on your payroll, your personal trainer business may end up owing back taxes. You can fight decisions like this with a competent tax attorney, but it’s always easier to hire the attorney up front and avoid the issues from the get-go.
If you choose to contract your employees, make sure you enlist the help of an attorney to draft the contract. You want to make sure that your interests are considered before you sign.
Determining Appropriate Compensation
Compensation is tricky business. Wages and salaries are highly dependent upon geographic area, so you’ll need to do some research in your area. Try performing a Google search on “personal trainer compensation,” and include your local area in the search. Also consider what compensation you would expect from personal trainer jobs offered by other employers. You’re in the business, so what’s your minimum? You have to balance that with your desired profits for your business, because obviously you want to pay your employees less than the client is willing to pay you.
Remember that you’re providing marketing, a business reputation, and organization, and filling up this trainer’s schedule, where he or she would otherwise not have employment. Lucrative personal trainer jobs are hard to come by, and this business relationship is supposed to benefit both you and the employee.
Benefits are nice, and if you can afford them, you have the ability to recruit better employees. On the other hand, benefits are expensive. You might at least consider ways to offer paid vacation, such as incorporating “closed” weeks in your client’s schedules.
Finding the Right Personal Trainer for the Job
We’ll talk more about recruiting, evaluating resumes, interviewing, and hiring in upcoming posts. But you have to start with a candidate pool. Like using effective fitness marketing techniques to advertise your services, you have to advertise your open position. Since you’re passionate about fitness yourself, think of where you would look for a job if you weren’t self-employed. Maximize your advertising dollars by investing in only the most effective places.
Have ideas? Tell me what you think!
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