Mobile Personal Trainer: Skills, Benefits & Salary

So, you want to know how to be a mobile personal trainer but you don’t know where to start? Whether you’re a qualified PT looking to start a mobile business, or you want to kick-start your career in the industry, this OriGym guide has covered everything you could possibly need to know.

Just below we have discussed the various aspects of becoming a mobile personal trainer, including what to expect from this career path, how to get qualified, and we’ve even covered the benefits of mobile personal training from a client’s perspective.

Contents:

• What is Mobile Personal Training?
• What Should I Consider Before Becoming a Mobile Personal Trainer?
• What is The Average Salary of a Mobile Personal Trainer?
• Mobile Personal Training vs. Working in a Gym
• Qualities of a Good Mobile PT
• How to Become a Mobile Personal Trainer
• Marketing Your Mobile Personal Training Business
• Benefits of Mobile Personal Training

If you aren’t already a qualified personal trainer, you can enquire about our Personal Training Diploma here. Already qualified and thinking about your next steps? Check out our Level 5 Nutrition for Sport qualification or download our free course prospectus now. 

What is Mobile Personal Training?

Before we get into how to be a mobile personal trainer, let’s start by defining what mobile personal training is.

The phrase pretty much describes itself, as mobile personal training is the same principle as classic personal training, but instead of being based in a gym and the client coming to you, you (the personal trainer) travel to them.

This can involve training clients in their homes, at their workplace, at the local park, or another location of their choice. For both the client and the trainer, mobile personal training provides a host of benefits, all of which we will discuss throughout this guide.

What Should I Consider Before Becoming a Mobile Personal Trainer?

Before becoming a mobile personal trainer, there are a number of things to consider. The first thing to acknowledge is that you are essentially launching your own business, and will therefore be self-employed.

This comes with a plethora of added responsibilities such as filing your own taxes, sorting out National Insurance contributions, and securing insurance for your business.

You need to seriously ask yourself, are you prepared to take these responsibilities on, in addition to keeping your clients happy?

Another factor to consider if you are currently employed within a gym or in another industry entirely, is whether you are prepared to risk the job security and guaranteed income that you have, in order to transition to becoming self-employed?

When first starting a mobile personal training business, it can be difficult to acquire clients - even if you already have a handful of loyal customers paying for your services at the gym. In realistic terms, your earnings are more than likely to be significantly lower to begin with - but it won’t stay that way forever! 

That said, when you’re first starting out you need to be committed, driven, and willing to put in the effort in order to build up your business to a level where you can make enough money to live comfortably.

Other points you will need to take into consideration include your overhead costs, for example the price of equipment, fuel, and personal trainer insurance. One good way to start a mobile personal trainer business without putting yourself in complete financial uncertainty, is to slowly transition from employment, taking on mobile clients whilst also working part-time in a gym.

What is The Average Salary of a Mobile Personal Trainer?

We understand that before you pursue a career as a mobile trainer, you’ll want to know what to expect in terms of salary. Unfortunately, as being a mobile personal trainer requires you to be self-employed, there’s no exact answer to this question.

That said, there are a few things that you can consider in order to get a rough idea of how much you might earn.

As with many new business ventures, your earnings will initially be unpredictable and likely lower than what you would earn in a full-time contracted job. Based on averages and depending on how many of your existing clients would be happy to move to mobile training, you could potentially earn somewhere around the €19,000 mark - but don’t let this put you off!

Once you start to build up a trustworthy reputation for your business, and as your client base starts to grow, you’ll soon have the potential to be earning in the region of €60,000. Over time, you’ll only acquire more experience and understanding of how the industry works, opening you up to an uncapped earning potential.

The reason we cannot give a definitive figure here is because it is very much based on the number of hours you put in, the number of clients you have, and how much you charge those clients.

The kind of client you train will also impact your earnings since different demographics are willing to pay varying amounts for mobile personal training services. For example, affluent clients are willing to pay a premium for experienced and well-qualified fitness professionals, whereas young parents looking to fit in a workout at home won’t have as much disposable income.

This is just one of the ways in which who your target audience is affects your business. Fortunately, we’ll cover more about choosing a target market a little later in this article when we discuss how to market your mobile pt business. 

One way in which you can gauge a better idea of how much you will earn is by ensuring that you have a mobile personal trainer business plan in which you work out your expected outgoings, conduct a rough sales forecast and use your findings to create an appropriate pricing structure.

Whilst writing a fitness business plan is often thought of as something that is presented to potential investors, the market research and competitor analysis involved in creating one actually makes it a useful tool for self-employed personal trainers - especially those who don’t know how much they should charge in order to make a profit.

One piece of advice when it comes to setting the prices for your sessions, is to take into account your qualifications and the level of experience you possess. Your goal should be to strike a balance between a price that is competitive but still reflective of your skills. 

Bear in mind that compared to a regular PT, you will have to spend time and money travelling from client to client, and you’ll need to buy or hire your own equipment. This means that your prices should be slightly higher than average in order for you to be left with some profit!

Mobile Personal Training vs. Working in a Gym

As you may have gathered from your experience working in a gym, there are many pros and cons of working in the fitness industry, and becoming a mobile personal trainer is no exception. 

Compared to working as a PT in a gym, some of the advantages of becoming a mobile personal trainer include:

• Choose your working hours
• Unlimited creativity 
• No additional gym duties (i.e. cleaning, reception cover, etc.)
• No ground rent
• Uncapped earning potential 
• Unlimited room for progression
• Being your own boss!

That said, as with every career, there are a couple of disadvantages, such as:

• The responsibility of being self-employed 
• Travel expenses
• Having to market your own business
• The difficulty of acquiring clients

Meanwhile, some of the benefits of working in a gym rather than going mobile include clients being readily available on the gym floor, less marketing responsibilities, and the fact that many positions offer a guaranteed income.

As with being a mobile personal trainer, working in a gym has its downfalls too, such as having to follow the orders of the gym manager, having the gym take a cut of your earnings or paying ground rent, and limited creativity or control over your day-to-day responsibilities. 

Qualities of a Good Mobile Personal Trainer

Of course, there are the basic skills of a good personal trainer, such as communication and organisation, which help holistically with all kinds of training. But alongside those, there are specific skills and qualities you’ll need to develop if you want to go down the mobile personal training route.

Some of the key qualities that can help in mobile personal training include:

• Timekeeping
• Creativity
• Listening skills
• Ambition
• Confidence
• Patience
• Passion
• Knowledge empathy 
• Business mindset

If you don’t think that you quite tick all of the boxes above, don’t be disheartened! Whilst these skills are certainly beneficial to the role, there is no set criteria that makes a ‘good’ personal trainer.

There is no such thing as a typical PT or client, and so having a slightly different skill set or approach to training is by no means a bad thing!

How to Become a Mobile Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Guide

By now, you should have some kind of idea about whether you’re cut out to become a mobile personal trainer. Above all, you should know whether this is the career path that you want to pursue.

If you’re still reading at this point, we’re going to assume that you think you have what it takes to become a mobile personal trainer, and that you’re ready to take on the challenge.

With that in mind, we’re going to talk you through precisely how to become a mobile personal trainer - here goes!

Step 1: Get Qualified

Before you can pursue any personal training career path, the number 1 thing that you need to do is get qualified. If you’re already a Level 4 Personal Trainer, then you can go ahead and skip this step but if not, here’s what you need to do.

In order to work as a certified personal trainer, you must hold the following qualifications:

• Level 3 Certificate in Gym Instructing
• Level 4 Personal Training Certificate 

If you don’t already have either of these qualifications, the easiest way to get qualified is to complete a Personal Training Diploma.

One thing to know when comparing personal trainer courses is that your qualification must be regulated by an Ofqual-approved awarding body such as Focus Awards, and it helps if your qualification is also accredited by a recognised institution, for example CIMSPA.

Fortunately, all of OriGym’s personal trainer courses are both regulated and accredited!

Outside of these essential qualifications, there are further courses that you can complete in order to advance your knowledge of a specific area of the industry and ultimately progress in your career.

Some Level 5 courses that you might complete to complement a mobile personal training business include our Level 5 Advanced Nutrition for Sport course or an Exercise Referral qualification.

Completing specialised courses allows you to specialise in specific areas, enabling you to offer more services and different classes to your timetable (if that's something that you want to do as part of your mobile personal trainer business plan).

Specialisation, whether through CPDs or Level 5 qualifications, allows you to create a Unique Selling Point (USP) for your services that you can integrate into your marketing and pricing strategies as a way of acquiring a specific demographic of clients.

Step 2: Acquire Experience 

Whilst there's technically nothing stopping you from starting a mobile personal training business as soon as you’re qualified, we would recommend that you get some experience working in a gym first.

Getting 6-12 months experience working as a personal trainer prior to starting your own mobile PT business will allow you to get to know the role better and acquire first-hand experience of running 1-1 sessions, creating tailored programmes, and selling to clients.

As with most things in life, the best way to learn how to do something is to actually do it! Plus working in a gym means you’ll be surrounded by established fitness professionals who you can learn from.

Step 3: Create a Mobile Personal Trainer Business Plan

Whilst the benefits of writing a mobile personal training business plan is something that we’ve already touched on in reference to your income, having a good business plan can be make or break, so we couldn’t not include it as part of our ‘how to be a personal trainer’ guide.

Just some of the benefits of having a good business plan in place include: providing a clear focus for your strategy, helping you to establish a target audience, allowing you to set priorities, and holding you accountable in terms of achieving goals and meeting expectations.

Step 4: Brush Up on Legalities 

The next step in starting a mobile personal training business is to brush up on legalities. That means, deciding whether you should register your business as a sole trader or limited company, ensuring that you have the right insurance, and looking into whether you need to be first aid qualified. 

One piece of advice we stress to anybody looking to start their own PT business is to get an accountant. When it comes to filing your self-assessment tax returns, an accountant can save you a significant amount of money - more than enough to cover the cost of hiring them in the first place!

You should also ensure that you only offer services that you are qualified to do. For example, if you wish to offer meal plans that are tailored to a clients specific needs and goals, then you will need to hold a Level 5 Advanced Nutrition qualification as well as being a certified PT.

When it comes to actually training clients, you will need to create and ask new clients to complete a contract or ‘agreement’. This contract should include your terms and conditions, including your cancellation policy, and outline what is expected in terms of payments, notice for rearranging sessions, as well as what the client can expect from you.

As a mobile personal trainer, you should also create a PARQ form for clients to fill out before you start training them. This will highlight any injuries and/or medical conditions that a client has, and ensures that you are made aware of any adaptations you may need to make to accommodate their needs in your training programme.

Other legalities to put in place include getting public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance. These are an absolute must for all personal trainers, but since you’re looking at being a mobile personal trainer, you should also consider getting insurance for your equipment and personal accident insurance.

Finally, if you plan to run outdoor sessions in a public space, you may need to ensure that you have the correct permissions and licenses to do so. Sometimes you need approval from the council for outdoor sessions, although this tends to be for larger groups such as bootcamps. In any case. It’s good to check before setting up your business.

Step 5: Get Equipped

The next step in setting up your mobile personal training franchise or business is to decide what you will do in terms of equipment. Will you avoid the need to buy or rent equipment by running bodyweight classes? Will clients use their own equipment? There are multiple ways in which you can operate.

The important thing to note here is that you are not in a gym, and so clients aren’t necessarily going to be expecting you to bring a van-load of state-of-the-art equipment. You don’t need a huge amount of kit, just a few basic but multi-functional pieces, and some imagination!

In our experience as a personal training course provider, here’s a list of the most common pieces of equipment that we’d recommend investing in, primarily because they are versatile:

• Resistance Bands
• Yoga Mat
• Adjustable Dumbbells
• Boxing Gloves and Pads
• Kettlebells
• Medicine Ball

Note: it’s important to remember that you by no means need all of these pieces to be successful. One basic piece of equipment, such as a barbell or resistance band, can be used for enough exercises to make up a full workout!

Now that you know the necessary steps to take to become a mobile personal trainer, let us talk you through how to market yourself and attract some clients.

3 Things to Know Before You Start Marketing Your Business

Whether you like it or not, if you want to be successful in the fitness industry, either as a mobile personal trainer or a personal trainer in a gym, then you need to dedicate some time to your marketing strategy.

But before we get into how to market your business, here are our three things that you need to have in place first!

#1 Create Your Brand

Before you can start to get the word out there about your business, you need to create a clear brand image and think of a good business name.

Consistency is the key to creating a good brand image. That means choosing brand colours and creating a logo, and using it across all of your marketing communications. The purpose of this is to ensure that when a potential client sees that particular logo or combination of colours, they know it's your brand without even having to look at the name.

You should use these same colours and logo across all of your marketing communications, whether that's a business card, branded piece of equipment, or a post on social media.

You also need to ensure that you use the same business name across the board. That means ensuring that your name is the same on Instagram, Facebook, and other social platforms, using the same name for your website domain, and operating with that name in your day to day role. 

The name for your mobile personal training franchise could be as simple as [Your Name] Mobile Personal Training, or as fancy and creative as you like (the more interesting and unique your brand, the more likely it is to stick in people’s minds!). 

That said, do keep it professional, and try to think of a name that somewhat alludes to fitness or personal training. It also helps to check that your name isn’t currently trademarked, and that it is available on social media channels and as a website domain. 

The last thing you want is to get clothing or equipment branded with an awesome name only to find you're stuck with ‘123’ at the end of your Instagram business page name! 

#2 Develop Your USP

Once you have created your brand, we recommend developing a Unique Selling Point (USP). So, think about what sets you apart from all the other personal trainers out there. If there aren’t many (or any) mobile PTs in your area, your USP could simply be the fact you are a mobile personal trainer. 

Alternatively, it could be that you have a particular specialisation, such as being a qualified running coach or having an advanced qualification in Lower Back Pain Management. Think about what you have to offer in terms of qualifications and experience and use this when promoting your brand.

In order to effectively establish your USP, carrying out market research is essential. Afterall, you need to make sure that your USP is actually unique, at least in your area.

Research is an integral part of the marketing process, how are you meant to set yourself apart from the competition if you don’t know who the competition is?

Some good ways to carry out effective market research include:

• Researching competitors to look at their pricing, target audience, USP
• Distributing surveys and questionnaires to target audience 
• Carrying out mystery shops (attending other PT’s sessions) 

#3 Think About Your Target Audience

Before you start marketing your business, you also need to establish who you are trying to get your message across to. So, you’ll need to define the target audience for your business. 

This is something that goes hand in hand with defining your USP, and it's especially important to keep in mind whilst carrying out your market research. 

For example, if you are a running coach and want to use this as your USP, think of the people who would want to use this service, and how best to attract them to your business. In terms of direct marketing, you could post about your services in running specific groups on Facebook, or search for local fun runs, 5k’s or park runs, and advertise your services around those.

That said, marketing extends far beyond communicating with potential clients. So, you should also keep your target audience in mind when carrying out market research, branding your business, setting your prices, and establishing opening hours.

Why should you do this? Well, aside from allowing you to establish whether there is enough of an audience in your local area to justify a demand for your business, researching your target audience has a range of benefits.

For example, whilst it might be ideal for you to only work 9-5 monday to friday, if your target audience also works those hours, then you won’t get much business. Good market research will show you when the ideal training times are for your clients, and allow you to adjust your hours accordingly.

In the same way, if you approach your business with a high pricing strategy without doing any research into the affluence of your target audience, you could be charging too much than your clients can afford. On the other hand, you could end up seriously underselling yourself!

Whichever way it works, carrying out sufficient research and adjusting your marketing strategy accordingly will save you time, resources, and help you to get as many clients as possible.

How to Market Your Mobile Personal Training Business

Now that you’ve done your research, created your brand image, and decided on a target audience, you’re ready to start marketing!

Read below for 4 of the best ways to get the word out there about your mobile personal training business.

#1 Social Media Marketing 

When you first thought about how to market your mobile personal training business, social media was probably the first thing you thought of - and for good reason! Social media marketing is mostly free and allows you to reach a huge audience, so you’d be silly not to set up business pages on the likes of Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

As we mentioned above, ensuring that your brand name, logo, and colours are consistent across all social media channels is vital, but what and where should you be posting?

Obviously you’ll want to use this platform to promote your business and any offers that you run. Whilst you can directly sell to clients by posting the details of your latest introductory offer, it's good to balance out obvious adverts with more subtle sales posts, such as client transformations and testimonials. 

We also suggest spending some time thinking about what kind of content would provide value to your audience, whether that’s training advice or a list of ways to keep motivated, brainstorm some ideas outside of directly trying to sell your services.

One of the best ways to increase your reach on social media and acquire some client data, is to run a competition, for example, you could ask your followers to like, comment on, and share your post in exchange for the chance to win a free PT package.

Tools such as Canva are a great way to create professional-looking graphics without having to pay for a graphic designer.

#2 Google My Business

One marketing strategy that is consistently overlooked by fitness professionals is setting up a Google My Business account.

Having a Google My Business account means that when a user searches ‘mobile personal trainers near me’, all local mobile PT’s with an account come up just below paid Google Ads, but above the organic results.

The results show users your business name, location, and contact number, and direct them to your Google reviews. 

Here’s an example:

The good news is that setting up an account on Google My Business is free and really easy to do, so there’s really no reason not to do it! Plus, as you can see in the example above, there aren’t currently any PTs advertising marketing utilising this tool in Liverpool - we can bet that many other cities are the same.

#3 Referral Schemes

Once you have a few clients, starting a referral scheme is a brilliant way to expand your client base. If you can incentivise that referral scheme, for example by offering money off or free services, referral schemes can be a really powerful way of marketing your business. 

All you need to do is ask your clients if they have any friends or family that would be interested in training with you and offer them a reward if that friend or family member goes on to become a client.

#4 Offline Marketing

Although most marketing communications are predominantly carried out online nowadays, it is still vital to market yourself offline as well. While social media advertising is great, you could also think about creating leaflets, flyers, and personal trainer business cards, and distributing these in areas of high significance.

After all, the best way to market yourself is to get out there! Talk to people and let them know what you offer and how they can get involved. Be proactive in the industry by attending networking and social events to increase your list of contacts.

These are just a few tips to help you get started – why not check out our industry guide on personal trainer marketing strategies for more in depth advice, including how to run paid Facebook and Google Ads!

What Are The Benefits of Mobile Personal Training?

Now, onto the good stuff. If you’re still with us at this point, it's safe to assume that you’re fairly serious about starting a mobile personal training business. So, what are the perks of pursuing this career path?

We touched on a few of the pros and cons when we compared mobile personal training to personal training in a gym environment, but here are a few more benefits for you to think about:

#1 You Can Manage Your Own Schedule 

Being a mobile personal trainer means you don’t have to wait for a gym to open or go home when it closes. Instead, you can work whenever you want, for as many or few hours as you wish. This allows you to schedule your clients around your own personal commitments such as events and birthdays. You can also take holiday time whenever you like since you don’t need to seek your boss’ approval.

#2 Free Time to Pursue Other Interests 

In the role of a personal trainer, peak hours are generally 5-9am and 5-9pm. Running your own business means that you can choose to work in these peak hours and then go about your daily life with the rest of your day - no more hanging around a gym because you’re on the rota whilst it's quiet!

This leaves time for you to keep on top of your accounts, research the latest fitness trends, and market your business. Or, you could take some me-time, try a new hobby, do your food shopping, or even take on another part-time job

#3 You Have Creative Freedom 

As a mobile personal trainer, you won’t have access to all of the typical equipment that is available in a gym, but you will have chairs, tables, stairs etc. meaning you have to get creative with what you’ve got! One of the benefits of being a mobile PT is that you get to work in different environments with access to different equipment - making for a versatile role!

#4 Flexibility 

Above anything else, mobile personal training offers you a great deal of flexibility in terms of your working hours and the programmes you design for your clients.

You may find that, after just a couple of months of mobile personal training, you begin to use some of your improvised workout techniques in a gym environment. In other words, becoming a mobile personal trainer helps you develop into a better fitness professional as a whole!

#5 Breaking Down Barriers

Perhaps one of the best advantages of becoming a mobile personal trainer is the fact that you can break down a lot of the barriers that people tend to have that prevent them from exercising.

The mobile aspect of your work allows you to reach people that personal trainers who work inside gyms cannot, giving you a wider pool of potential clients to work with. For example, people who use a lack of time, transport, or disposable income as a reason for not training with a PT in the gym. 

As a mobile personal trainer, it is your job to reach such people with your marketing campaigns and branding, and convince them to invest in you in order to improve their fitness. 

You should maybe think about addressing the typical barriers to exercise within your marketing materials, for example your social media posts, as it directly addresses the fears and apprehensions of many of your future clients. 

Examples of these barriers, and how you would help overcome them as a mobile PT, include:

• Lack of time: many clients will use a lack of free time as a reason for not working out, however, since mobile personal training removes the need for the client to spend time getting to and from the gym, it frees up some time for clients.
• Low income: Traveling to the gym is not only a barrier in terms of time, but also cost. Rather than your client paying to travel to the gym, for a gym membership, and then a PT session, you can lessen the cost by just having them pay for your sessions.
• No childcare: another common barrier for some clients, particularly new parents, is being unable to arrange childcare whilst they’re at the gym. But with mobile personal training, clients don’t have to leave their homes, allowing them to keep an eye on their little ones.
• Lack of motivation: We’ve all been there, not wanting to leave the comfort of our house to go to the gym - especially when it's cold and dark outside after a long day at work. Imagine how much easier it would be if the gym could come to you - that’s where the benefits of mobile personal training come in!
• Confidence issues and intimidation: it's quite common for people to feel intimidated in the gym environment, and this can also relate to a lack of confidence or privacy concerns. But, by training clients in the comfort of their own home, you can remove any worries that they may have about feeling that everyone is watching them.

What The Experts Have to Say…

Just before we go, we thought you might like to hear the advice of a seasoned mobile PT. We spoke to Birmingham based Personal Trainer Simon King, and he shared his top 3 pieces of advice for anybody starting in the industry:

The most important quality of a mobile personal trainer

Clients tell me that timekeeping is so important. Word does spread and your reputation can become damaged. 

When it comes to mobile training vs PT in the gym...

I think new trainers should be encouraged to work together. An option is to rent out a room together in a commercial building and take it from there. It has the potential to be highly successful, and there’s none of the disadvantages involved that come with commercial gyms. 

Get qualified

When looking to further expand your knowledge and expertise with Level 5 qualifications or CPD courses, I would advise trainers to be very careful when looking for a training provider. They may look amazing, but underneath they may not be what they seem. Do your research and ensure that the courses are fully accredited/certified by an awarding body, for example Focus Awards.

And That’s That!

So there you have it, our ultimate guide to mobile personal training. We hope that after reading this article, you have a better idea of whether working as a mobile PT is right for you!

If you are interested in becoming a mobile personal trainer, go ahead and download our FREE prospectus here, or enquire about our Level 4 Personal Training qualification to kick-start your exciting new career!