Fitness Programs / Personal Trainers - Get Your Fitness Bootcamp in Gear

Fitness Programs 

Personal Trainers - Get Your Fitness Bootcamp in Gear

Need more people to help get in shape? Want to boost your income as a personal trainer? It might be time to learn how to start a fitness bootcamp.

It's a way to bring both extra dollars and new long-term clients to your business.

Bootcamps are great group workouts based on a set number of sessions for a certain rate. Your goal is to attract as many participants as possible. Yes, you'll make more money that way. But more to the point, it gives you a chance to show potential long-term clients why they want to continue to train with you. And that is the beginning of your busy schedule.

• Decide First, is a Fitness Bootcamp a Good Strategy for My Business?

Not all personal trainers will benefit from starting their own fitness bootcamp. It could be that you prefer one-on-one training, and have less interest or skills in large groups. Or maybe you want to restrict the amount of people you train at any given time.

It might be that you don't have the space for a big bootcamp. Although, you can always do it outdoors and save a ton of cash.

On the other hand, if you do want to grow your personal-training business quickly, few options will generate as much potential for new business as will a fitness bootcamp.

• What's Your Fitness Program?

Once you evaluate the importance of fitness bootcamp then you must decide what you're bootcamp will be about. Will your fitness bootcamp run for an entire day, or will it meet in the morning? Is there a certain number of people you want to cap out at, or are you going to take as many people as come your way? Are you going to focus on a specific type of training, like cardio, strength, or flexibility, or do you want to include everything? Think about what people want and how you want to set up the program to help them in the best way.

• Is Your Fitness Bootcamp Permanent Or A One-Time Event?

Next consider how often you plan on holding your fitness bootcamp. You've got options; some personal trainers only do one bootcamp a year, but some have them continuously. You can also rotate the bootcamp focuses, so one month a bootcamp will be devoted to strength training, and the next cardiovascular fitness. Once you've rotated through different bootcamp programs you can just start again.

Doing bootcamps all year long may be a great way to boost business. However, it can be a lot of work. You'll have to decide whether the potential financial rewards outweigh the work. Personally I think leveraging your time by training multiple clients at once outweigh the work involved.

• Do You Need Help Running Your Bootcamp?

When you first start your fitness bootcamp, you may not need to hire additional staffers. After you've got good business coming into the bootcamp, though, you'll probably want a bit of support staff.

Having an office assistant to help with paperwork and payments could lessen your workload. Or if your bootcamp is smokin' busy you may want extra trainers to lead the exercises. Remember, when you hire people to help you run your fitness business that they are representing you, so take care in who you choose and how you train them.