How to Price Personal Training Sessions

Kellie G., January 6, 2022

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One of the most important parts of running a business is making a profit while keeping that business floating. As a personal trainer, you might find yourself wondering how much you should charge for personal training sessions. You’re probably wondering how to price personal training sessions right? Well, let’s get to it!

You want to keep your prices realistic in an affordable way for your clients; however, you also want to keep your prices realistic in a profitable way for you.

When it comes to pricing your sessions, there are certain factors that you should take into consideration. Such as how much money do you need to make in a year?. You can read our full article about how much do personal trainers make?. How about a month? Calculate all of your personal monthly expenses and then add in everyday expenses including savings. you can read our full article about standard expenses for personal trainers. That said, don’t neglect to learn what is a self employment ledger and how to use it when running your business.

Once you figure out how much you personally need to take home each month, calculate how much money your business needs to keep running. This includes things like equipment costs, gym fees, insurance for personal trainers, property fees, gas if you must travel to your clients, etc.  

How to Price Personal Training Sessions
How to Price Personal Training Sessions

You also need to take into account how much experience you have and the experience of your clients. Would you want to charge your new clients the same price as your more experienced clients? How about the clients who remain unsure if your service is right for them?

If your prices are too high for new and uncertain clients, the chances of them sticking around are very slim. You might even be tempted to match your prices with your local competitions. It’s better to stay clear from that. With different personal trainers, there are different training styles and, as said before, different levels of experience. One big callout you should be aware of is that your price point would also affect your ability to get personal training clients.

With that being said, let’s dive into some of the factors you should keep in mind while pricing your sessions as a personal trainer.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Pricing Personal Training Sessions

Before you get into pricing your sessions, there’s information you must have. We’ve actually written an entire article about questions personal trainers should ask clients but in short, you should always ask yourself these questions to get started.  

  • Are you traveling?
  • Are you asking others to travel to you?
  • What kind of equipment do you have access to that your clients don’t have?
  • Are you using an online platform for your sessions that costs you money for access/use?
  • What specializations and education do you have?
  • How much experience do you have?

How to price personal training sessions? First determining your costs

As mentioned previously, figure out how much money you need to make monthly to cover your personal financial aspects and your business financial aspects. Keep in mind the small business expenses such as online advertisements.

Some other expenses include:

  • Internet connection
  • Website development and maintenance
  • Online coaching / video platform fees
  • Additional marketing and advertising expenses
  • Office equipment (computer, printer, software, etc.)
  • Office supplies (paper, pen, staples, etc.)

The best way to go about this is to create a list of all the expenses you have in a typical year and divide them by 12. This tells you how much you need to earn per month to keep your business running.

Keeping your Clients Interested

Along with your personal and business expenses, don’t forget to make your prices worth it for your clients as well. If they are new clients, or if you want to bring in new clients, it might be difficult to convince them to join your practice with just a brochure of services. These clients will be uncertain if it’s the right fit for them and they won’t want to waste the money on something that they aren’t going to see through till the end. It would be a waste of their time and an even bigger waste of your time.

Pricing personal training sessions

Something you could consider is to offer flexible and accessible personal training packages. Offer them a 3, 6, and/or 12-month commitment for your services. That way if they decide that it’s not a good fit for them by the end of the trial period, they won’t have to proceed any further.

Offering free sessions is another way to bring in and attract new clients. Allow for your clients to donate what they can and/or allow for them to pay what they want for the sessions.

Prove to your clients that you are worth every cent

When it comes down to it, no matter what you decide on how much to charge for personal training from your clients, it won’t matter unless you can prove that you are worth that price. The more value you offer to your clients, the more they will be willing to pay. The most common way of proving your worth to your clients and potential clients is to promote yourself.

Some ways to promote yourself include:

  • Offer testimonials from current and past clients. If you’ve provided results as a personal trainer, allow for clients to share some of their success stories. Prospects will hear about how wonderful your practice is. There is no better advertisement than word of mouth.
  • Show before and after photos from current and past clients. With before and after photos, prospects can see for themselves the transformation brought by your training skills and expertise. Photos will inspire others to want to join your practice and allow for you to transform them as well.
  • Offer a money-back guarantee for your workout plans. There’s pros and cons to this tactic. A con being that you could get taken advantage of and end up giving away free classes along with decreasing your review rates. However, the pure act of saying that you’ll give your clients their money back if they aren’t completely satisfied with your services, showcases just how confident you are in your abilities. This will also give your clients the peace of mind knowing that they can join your practice risk free.  

How to Price Sessions as a Personal Trainer

There are many ways that you can price your sessions as a personal trainer, however, I’m going to focus on these three at hand.

price personal training sessions
  1. Brochure-based pricing
  2. Open pricing
  3. One price
  1. Brochure-Based Pricing

Brochure-based pricing is a pre-made pricing system with a list of provided services put together in an easy-to-read brochure. This brochure should also describe the economy of scale pricing models, or the savings clients get when they purchase multiple sessions at once. One of the many benefits of brochure-based pricing is that clients will have a sense of confidence when booking a session or choosing a package, for they will know that they are getting a consistent price.

  1. Open Pricing

Open pricing is a verbal pricing system based on the trainer’s abilities to set a custom pricing structure based on the client’s goals and timelines. This type of pricing system is more undetermined until discussed with the client. This would also include factors such as travel time, gym fees, and equipment costs.

  1. One Price

The one-price system is a fixed rate at which you’d charge your clients the same amount regardless of the travel time, gym fees, and equipment costs. Most personal trainers would typically factor in those costs within their fixed rate. This system is typically recommended if you have optimal confidence, and your schedule is already full. Maybe you don’t have the time to calculate all the expenses to figure out a proper cost for sessions so you give them a price that will cover all expenses.

 Conclusion

We hope you now know how to price personal training sessions. To recap, consider these factors: travel time, gym fees, and equipment costs. While calculating the costs, keep in mind that you need to make enough to not only create a take-home profit but also need to make enough to keep your business running. Figure out how much money you need to take home each month to pay personal bills and other expenses including savings; figure out how much money you need to make for your business to run properly along with taxes and wages for your staff.

If you need further help with running your business, Persona is the app for you. Once the Persona app is downloaded from either the Google Play or the Apple store, you’ll be connected with a Persona team member ready to assist you and your business financial needs.

Persona is essentially an operating system for businesses in the wellness space. It was designed to help business owners, like yourself, with the behind-the-scenes work that keeps your business running so that you can focus on your clients. Persona will help with scheduling appointments, collecting payments as a personal trainer, saving some incoming revenue for tax season, and providing business analytics so you can see your business growth, strength, and weaknesses.

With Persona, there are no hidden fees, and everything is done completely online; it has the same security and protection as your standard everyday bank, except with the benefits of being completely digital and the addition of an entire range of tools to help you manage your business the right way.  

Persona is the #1 management platform for independent business owners. it's 100% free, download it now.

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Persona is the #1 management platform for independent business owners. Download it now, it's 100% free.

GET STARTED >>
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