Here are seven mistakes that are made by personal trainers that could affect their ability to capture the clients they need to be successful. Review the list to help ensure you don’t slip into these mistakes.

1. Not marketing your services

Many personal trainers and fitness professionals rely on the sales people at their gym to market their services. While this can be a great way to acquire new clients, you also need to market your services to ensure enough people are coming your way. Easy and inexpensive marketing methods include giving out business cards, creating a Facebook page, publishing  a blog and sending emails.

You can also employ a public relations campaign to establish yourself as a credible fitness expert for the local news outlets. Then, you can pitch stories and offer yourself as a source for future fitness related stories.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Ask your current clients to give your business cards to their friends. If they are happy about your services, their friends are likely to check you out.

2. Falling out of touch with past clients

Just because a client has ended your working relationship doesn’t mean that you should cut all ties. Keep them in your email communications and reach out to them personally a couple of times a year. It’s likely they will be interested in your services again in the future. Also, it enables you to continue asking them to refer their friends to you.

3. Making cookie cutter programs

No one is made alike. Even has their own individual wants and needs, and this is true when it comes to fitness and weight loss. As a personal trainer, it’s your job to help your clients meet these needs and goals, and you certainly can’t accomplish that by plugging them into a premade fitness program.

Before you make the first charge to your client’s credit card, you should sit down with them and get to know them. Ask about their professional and personal lives. Find out what physical demands they have and how it’s been affecting their body. Learn what motivates them, what makes them tick. Ask what they have tried in the past and if it worked.

Your clients won’t see this initial meeting as a waste of time. Instead, they will be impressed that you took the time to get to know them and their physical needs. You’ll also find that this helps you create a more successful program and will help you retain clients for a longer period of time.

4. Focusing on a specific exercising niche

It can be tempting to focus on a specific niche, like pilates, yoga or power lifting. But unless you are working at a specialized gym, you could be losing out on a lot of clientele.

Also, you want to ensure your clients get a well-rounded workout. Even if you do have a specialty, you may want to expand your knowledge so you can incorporate exercised from other fitness fields so your clients can have a total body workout.

5. Not continuing your education

Your clients are looking to you to be their fitness expert. In order to fulfill this role, you’ll want to ensure that you are continuing to educate yourself. Keep abreast in trends and research by enrolling in courses at your local community college, reading books and journals and following trusted blogs. This is easy to do and you’ll find it will help you keep your advice and workouts fresh.

6. Failing to focus on nutrition

Your clients need proper food to fuel their workouts and life. The best way you can ensure they are getting the nutritional needs to get the most out of your workouts is to help educate them about nutrition. This way, they will be able to gain more results from your sessions and see your full value.

7. Being unprofessional

As a personal trainer, you are a fitness professional, and it’s important to act like one. You may think that being casual, using slang and cracking jokes is a good way to connect with your clients, but they’re paying you good money because they’re looking for a professional. If you’re too casual, they may put their credit cards away and look for training from another professional.

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What is the average cost for personal training insurance?

Rates vary from state to state. However, you can find general rates by visiting your states insurance department. Simply go to Google and type “liability insurance rates your state.” Remember that cost is not the only thing you should look for when buying insurance. Check out different policies and see which ones protect you the most.

Where can I find liability insurance for personal trainers?
The Internet is a great place to start. Many web-based companies offer some basic form of coverage. IDEA, a trusted fitness industry group, offers personal training insurance for most trainers. Start by calling five different organizations and compare the coverage and price.

What happens if I get sued?
If you are not covered by personal trainer liability insurance you better be prepared to defend yourself in court. However, if you do have coverage, the company will usually defend you in court.

What if I have waivers, do I still need insurance for personal trainers?
The sad truth is that waivers don’t really protect you from litigation. Often times, waivers are written by amateurs that don’t have the correct legal terminology in place. Waivers also vary from state to state and leave many loopholes open for a trainer to get sued. While, a waiver is a good document to have in place, I still recommend a solid liability protection plan in place for maximum coverage.

So there you have it, a basic run down of things you must know when buying personal trainer insurance. Make sure to do your homework and compare different companies before you commit to buying a plan. Once you’re covered, you’ll be able to focus more on your business and less on legal issues.

1.    Shorter sessions
Longer hours at work combined with a busy home life will leave your clients feeling like they have even less time for the gym. Accommodate for these needs by providing shorter express sessions for your clients.  Offer 30 minute sessions instead of your traditional 60 minute sessions. You’re clients will see the shorter sessions as an easier way to get a workout in during their lunch beak or on their way home from work.

2.    Small group sessions
Small group sessions will be a great way to provide value packages to customers. While the U.S. economy tries to rebound from recession, group sessions will encourage clients to share the cost of training. Group sessions will also keep clients motivated longer by having friends and peers join in on the fun.

3.    Web-based training
Web-based personal training will continue to grow. Now more than ever, people are starting to adopt the Internet as an everyday necessity. Offer your clients web based training services that they can complete from their home, on the road, or anywhere else they find an Internet connection. Many online companies already offer software for you to tailor for your customers. Simply do a Google search for “online personal training” and you’ll come across a wide variety of programs you can use.

4.    Corporate wellness programs
As the costs of health care continue to increase, corporations will continue to invest in preventative health measures to save on medical costs. Use this as an opportunity to introduce corporate wellness packages to surrounding businesses. Offer a volume discount and watch your profits soar.

5.    Virtual terminals
The days of cash are over. Get with it and start accepting plastic for your training sessions. Allow your customers the option to pay online. Ensure that customers pay on-time by enrolling them in an automated payment plan. Virtual terminals are easy to install simply visit services like PayPal and sign up from a free account.

Know your customer well…very well

The single most important part of any business, and personal training is a business, is to understand who your customers are. By knowing who your customers are, you are able to market your business specifically to them and dramatically improve your response rates.

The key to knowing your customer is to get data from your clients. Once you begin to analyze the characteristics of your clients you will begin to see trends which will help you create a customer profile. A customer profile will be a typical representation of who your client is and is not. Once you have a client profile, you will be able to tailor all of your marketing efforts: business cards, flyers, websites specifically to this customer. The result will be a dramatically improved response rate and an increase in your business.

So how do you get this data and find out who your customer is? The answer is simple, ask them. By asking them I mean give them a short survey with about 3-5 questions on it.  Ask them to fill it out and begin to analyze.

I have provided 5 questions you can include in your survey:

1. Tell me a little about yourself?

2. What’s your favorite part about personal training?

3. What’s your least favorite part about personal training?

4. What do you need the most help with in your training?

5. What do you struggle with the most?

Final thoughts

The key is to ask broad questions so that they can provide good responses. Yes and No questions will not work well here. Ask your clients these questions and get ready for an eye opeining experience.

Since personal trainers often work part-time, at home or on the go as independent contractors, your personal trainer tax situation is different. Therefore personal trainers should know what tax deductions are available for you. You should discuss them with a tax professional. This article does offer tax advice for any particular personal or situation.

No matter what your situation, Personal Training Business Coach offers the top 5 write offs for personal trainers.

1. Promotional and Marketing Expenses

Promotional activities are essential for gaining exposure for your personal training business. Whether you’re advertising on the internet or off line, these expenses are deductible. Promotional and marketing expenses include everything from graphic design costs for logos, brochures, and websites. They also include the costs for placing ads offline such as newspapers and online such as pay per click campaigns.  Evaluate your current situation and identify what types of advertising expenses you’ve incurred throughout the year. They may be tax deductable.

2. Home Office Expenses

Home office expenses can also be deducted from your taxes. These expenses include desks, computers, rent, printers, stationary and other costs related to your home office.  Deductions vary by state and must be verified by a certified tax advisor.

3. Travel and Entertainment Expenses

Travel and entertainment expenses qualify for deductions as long as they are used for business purposes only. These include auto expenses such as gasoline and lodging expenses such as hotels. If you’re entertaining a guest and taking them out to dinner, as certain portion of that can also be deducted.  Travel to and from conventions also qualify as tax deductions. Make sure to keep adequate records of business only expenses. This will help you identify which expenses are related to travel and entertainment.

4. Educational Expenses

Educational expenses including personal training certification programs may also be deducted. On-going education from industry associations, magazines, and books can be deducted. In order to qualify for deduction, these materials must be strictly for education relating to your personal training business. Educational deductions vary from state to state so make sure you confirm with a professional before deducting.

5. Retirement Plans

According to IdeaFit.com, retirement plans including IRA’s, SEP, and 401(K) in certain situations are tax deductible.  One question personal trainers should ask before choosing a retirement plan is which one offers the most tax incentives without costing more money to manage.