5 Tips For Maintaining Your Personal Training Business During Covid-19

The coronavirus may have closed doors to gyms and studios worldwide, but you shouldn’t let it close the doors of letting your business thrive in other ways!

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has left many gyms closed and personal trainers without their clients. So, what’s next? Luckily, we’ve compiled five amazing ways to keep your business open and alive, all while keeping members connected and maintaining a regular inflow of revenue.

Keep Your Business Moving Forward

With the current quarantine still put into place, let’s learn about how both personal trainers, as well as clients, can still continue training while sheltering in place.

1. Offer Live Streaming Services
   For the most part, you can do just about anything at home the same way you would in a gym. If you are a personal trainer, consider offering group training or one-on-one sessions via Zoom or Facetime. You can offer live workout classes while maintaining your member base. During the COVID-19 quarantine, this effort will help to keep both you and your clients active and exercising regularly. For quick tips on live streaming, click here for more information.
   
   
2. Use Social Media To Your Advantage
   You can easily connect with your clients and customers by utilizing social media. Be it Instagram, Facebook, or other platforms; you can showcase exactly what you’re up to and keep your customers engaged. Here are a few simple ways you can do this:
   
   
   • Instagram: Upload videos, share recipes, and even host live workouts that your followers can join in on or rewatch later. Utilize Instagram stories regularly to keep your community active and motivated.
     
     
   • Facebook: Create a “members only” Facebook group. Make the group private and selectively add members from around your community. Like Instagram, you can offer live workouts (exclusive business content), pre-record videos, share healthy recipes, create motivational content to keep clients connected and engaged.

Social media is an invaluable business tool for personal trainers. Offer your social presence and training advice as a ‘perk’ of remaining a member of your business in order to maintain autopay.

3. Offer A Discount On Training Packages
   It’s no question that reducing your fees is never ideal especially during a pandemic. However, discounts should definitely be considered if you want to keep clients in the long-run. The coronavirus restrictions have been challenging, and it’s surely affecting your clients just as much as it is your business.
   
   In order to keep the cash flowing while gyms are closed, you’ll need to get creative and introduce enticing Covid-19 discounts. Because of the uncertainty around the timing of reopening, you may wish to offer these discounts with lengthier expiration dates on your training packages so that clients are able to buy now and redeem later in the future when they are once again comfortable training in person. Many personal trainers have begun advertising these types of packages so it might be wise to follow suit!
   
   
4. Boost Your Retail
   While considering membership discounts, you should also consider boosting the retail component of your fitness business. If you don’t have a website – use this downtime to create one! By doing this, your devoted clients will be inclined to visit and purchase swag and supplements (during COVID-19, many more people have been supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs). Create branded workout gear such as headbands, hoodies, hats and other fitness equipment. Any opportunity to boost the revenue for your business is a good idea and should be carefully considered.
   
   
5. Take The Time To Create A Smartphone App
   Building an app can be difficult if you’re not super tech-savvy, but you can follow tutorials on YouTube or simply hire someone to build it for you. Ultimately, the goal of a fitness app is to track weight loss, manage a diet, and provide custom workouts. This is where you come in! Pre-record videos and add them to the app – advertise your studio or gym’s app on social media, and either make the app free (with in-app purchases) or charge a small fee to download the app. This is a great way to keep a side-hustle that produces a bit of extra income. Additionally, a custom app can help to keep loyal customers connected and give you a productive project to complete during the shutdown.

Don’t Lose Steam While Stuck At Home

Just because your gym or private studio has closed down, you still have the ability to reach out to clients and enjoy your career from a safe distance. There are many opportunities to adjust the way you run your business and the tips listed above can help get you on the right path towards a quarantine-friendly personal training business.

When your gym opens back up, you’ll have extra tools in hand in case your business were to ever close again – take this time to learn and prepare for the worst!

Do you have other ideas to keep your fitness business pushing forward? Be sure to share your strategies with us in the comments below!