Three Tips to Assist Personal Trainers with Advancing their Practices through Education

As a fitness business owner, your selections around the best use of your valuable time and money on continuing education should be as strategic a decision as any you make as an entrepreneur. Just because you want to learn better kettlebell technique, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best choice for improving the value of your product offering for your ideal client and target audience.

According to Entrepreneur magazine, you should spend at least 3% of your annual gross salary on professional development. I honestly believe that as a small business owner, that figure should be closer to at least 5%. So, when making your decision around your advanced fitness education for 2020, use the three tips below to guarantee that you receive the maximum return on your investment.

1. Client Priorities vs Current Skillset

Being as specific as possible, make an exact list of your ideal client’s priorities and pain points for hiring a fitness professional. For each of their leading goals, consider the following:

a) For the highest priority needs, in which areas do you have the lowest experience and skill level? These may be areas where your current clients are not reaching their goals (i.e. weight loss, pain reduction, etc). If these are areas which you would enjoy learning, these may be ideal subjects to consider for your continuing education.

b) Are your competitors more skilled in handling any of your clients’ highest priority pain points? I recommend doing some deeper research in these areas in order to discover areas where you need to focus more attention in order to remain your competitive edge in your market.

c) Based on the most important needs for your ideal client, are there any missed opportunities in your market where NO ONE is meeting these vital needs? Maybe there is some type of manual therapy or meditation work which could catapult you and your practice to the leading option for your clients. Thoroughly assess your competitive market in order to capitalize.

2. Referring Out

Are you frequently referring clients out for assistance which you could possibly offer as an upgraded part of your coaching? Maybe nutritional assistance or manual therapy? You definitely do not want to try and be everything to every client. However, if there are skillsets which you need in order to offer a more complete product and you would enjoy incorporating these skills into your practice, I recommend continuing education in these areas in order to further grow your product offering and keep clients under your umbrella for additional services.

3. Study Your Leaders

Pay attention to the leaders in your industry and the new educational directions they are heading towards for possible insight. I am definitely not recommending that you hop on the latest trends, but you should constantly be monitoring the leaders of our industry in order to research and locate coursework and new advances which will catapult your practice to the lead of your market.