Personal Trainer Salaries: Are You a Top Earner?

If you’re making the average personal trainer salary, they call you poor.

Its mean. But it’s true. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average personal trainer is working hard, long hours to make about $34,310 a year. Depending on where you live, that’s not a lot of go-out-and-have-fun money. In fact, for many big cities, that income isn’t even enough for a decent house and nightly mac-and-cheese dinners.

But there is good news

That $34,310 salary is for average personal trainers. But you’re not average, are you?

Of course you’re not. There’s no reason for you not to earn far more than what the government says most trainers take home each year. You just have to work smarter, not harder.

The real secret to making a lot of money as a personal trainer isn’t really a secret at all: You need lots of clients. And how do you get these clients? You market yourself.

I know none of us went into the fitness industry to do marketing. We became personal trainers because we wanted to make a solid income while helping people meet their health and weight-loss goals.

But you can’t do this if you don’t spend enough time each month marketing your business.

Don’t panic.

Marketing isn’t fun. But it doesn’t have be expensive, either, at least not today when our society is becoming ever more Internet-obsessed.

The key for trainers hoping to boost their salaries today is the Internet. I recommend that all trainers create their own Web sites and blogs. These sites should have a schedule of available fitness classes, praise-filled testimonials from current clients, short videos of exercise classes and information on any discounts or special offers.

Trainers need to promote their Web homes through the social-networking giants such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s relatively easy to collect friends on both of these sites. Once trainers have a large enough database of these friends, they can send then daily or weekly announcements on what’s happening at their fitness studios.

There are offline ways, too, to promote your fitness business. I always tell fitness trainers that they should be willing to share their expertise with the rest of the community. They should talk at local hospitals and YMCAs. They should hold free group exercise sessions at their local Rotary Clubs or park district facilities. Basically, they should be willing to do anything and everything to get their names out there.
They shouldn’t skimp on the traditional advertising, either. That weekly ad in the local newspaper might be a good investment. And in today’s recessionary times, newspapers are giving away ad space at far lower costs than they did during the economic boom days.

I realize that all this marketing takes time, and that you’d rather spend your working hours helping clients attain their fitness goals. But you can’t afford not to market yourself and your business. You need a constantly growing client list to make sure that your personal trainer salary continues to grow. Who wants to work the kind of hours that personal trainers log only to make a little more than $34,000 every year? To me, that just isn’t worth it.

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