5 Steps to Setting Your Online Personal Training Prices

When you’re in business for yourself, one of the biggest decisions you can make is how much you will charge for your services. And this is one area where many struggle, online personal trainers included.

You want to charge enough to make a decent living as a personal fitness trainer, yet not so much that no one will hire you. Plus, raising your rates at regular intervals is part of creating a successful personal training business. Yet, it can be uncomfortable to have this conversation with your clients.

Some clients may even push back, making you feel as if you have to justify the increased cost of your personal training session. It may even cause you to question whether your rates are appropriate. If you want to feel confident that you are charging the right amount for your online workout sessions, follow these five steps.

Step 1: Determine Your Online Personal Training Costs

At a minimum, you need to earn enough as an online personal trainer to cover your costs. If you don’t, you won’t be providing fitness services very long.

Make a list of all the expenses you have to cover. If it’s a new fitness training business, consider startup costs such as purchasing the necessary software or setting up your website. Think also about the items you’ll need to purchase to conduct an online training session. This could include a video device, microphone, lighting equipment, and decorations to make the room look like a professional fitness studio. If you’ve been providing training for some time, some of these expenses may not apply.

Next, add all your regular, reoccurring expenses. This might include:

• Monthly online platform fees

• Monthly internet costs

• Regular advertising fees (such as paid social media)

Once your list of expenses is complete, this tells you the absolute minimum you have to make. Of course, you want to make above this amount, but this is a good starting point.

Step 2: Decide the Services You Will Provide as a Fitness Trainer

The second step to setting your online personal training prices is to decide the services you’ll provide. For instance, are you training groups or offering private training sessions? Maybe you’re going to provide both.

This is also where you need to think about how you’ll provide your services. Some online trainers offer live workouts while others pre-record a workout, then release it for clients to download and do whenever they’d like.

The services you provide and how you plan to provide them will help determine the prices you set. The more personalized your service, the higher your rates. Your rates will also be higher for services that take more of your time, such as regularly scheduled live training sessions versus sessions you record once then offer on demand.

Step 3: Create Your Personal Training Packages

If you plan to offer only one service, such as providing one-on-one online strength training sessions, this step may not seem necessary. However, creating your online training packages is more than bundling a group of fitness services. It’s also about bundling sessions.

For instance, you may charge one rate for clients who want to pay per session and another rate for those who are willing to purchase multiple sessions at once. Charging less per session for those who purchase more sessions upfront is also a good way to get clients to commit longer-term.

Consider how you want to bundle your sessions. Do you even want to offer a single session option? Or are you more interested in offering session bundles, enabling clients to purchase 3, 6, 12, or 24 sessions at once?

Depending on how you intend to set up your online personal training business, it may make more sense to bundle your services by time. In other words, instead of charging per session, maybe you charge per week or month. Again, you can bundle larger chunks of time to offer clients increased savings the longer they sign up to work with you.

Step 4: Research Other Online Fitness Instructors

Now that you have a clear picture of your expenses, the services you’ll provide, and how you plan to bundle them, it’s time to do a bit of research. Look at what other online personal training professionals are charging for these same things. This gives you an idea of what kind of pricing you’ll need to be competitive.

When researching trainers, consider any extras that they may provide, their level of education and experience, and their package offerings. It may help to create a spreadsheet that contains all this information. This gives you a big-picture overview of the current online personal training rates.

If you know any online trainers personally, reach out to them and ask for a bit of guidance. Inquire as to how they set their prices and the factors they consider. They might have a bit of advice, such as a personal trainer cost that they didn’t think about but ended up being a major expense. The value of this is that you get to learn from their mistakes without having to make them yourself.

If you’re already established as a trainer and have in-person clients, ask them what they’d pay for online training. This will give you an idea of what your ideal audience expects in terms of online rates. It also provides the ability to dig a little deeper if you’d like. For instance, you could ask what factors they’d consider when deciding whether an online trainer is worth the expense. Or the extras that would motivate them to sign up.

Step 5: Set Your Pricing Structure

At this point, you have all the information you need to set your pricing structure. If you’re new to personal training, you may set your prices lower in the range until you get some experience and build your confidence. If you’ve been a certified personal trainer for years and are just transitioning some or all of your business online, you may want to start a bit higher in the range.

Remember that setting your prices isn’t a one-and-done task. Plan to revisit your pricing structure at least once a year to make sure your rates are where they should be and make any adjustments necessary. Go through all five steps each time to ensure that you’re priced competitively with other online trainers and that you are charging the appropriate amount based on your knowledge, skills, experience, and ability to get your clients results.

How to Command Higher Online Personal Training Prices

If you’re new to fitness coaching, setting your prices may be a difficult task. You want to charge enough to make a good living but not so much that you price your way out of work. The good news is that you can do a few things to command higher online personal training prices. Here are a few options to consider.

• Show proof of your ability to help people reach their fitness goals. Anyone can say that they have an amazing workout program. But if you can show potential clients the results that you’re able to provide, they’re more likely to pay higher prices to get those results themselves. Before and after photos work great for this purpose. (Get permission before using these photos so you don’t violate a current client’s right to privacy.)

• Find a way to stand out. Do you specialize in a certain area of personal fitness? Do you offer private training to clients who want a one-on-one experience? Promote the services you provide that other online trainers don’t. This will help you stand out from your competitors while also justifying your higher pricing structure.

• Offer additional services or products. Another way to set your prices a bit higher is to offer more than a personal training service. If you work primarily with clients who want to lose weight, for instance, you could also offer a structured meal plan created by a certified nutritionist to go along with your workout. Or you could provide a free body fat caliper when they sign up to work with you so they can track their changes in body composition. The more value you provide, the more you can charge.

• Earn your certification as an online personal trainer. Virtual training is very different than training clients in person. You have to know how to do assessments and teach proper form without ever being in the same room. Earning your online fitness certification teaches these skills. Clients are willing to pay more if they know the trainer has the knowledge needed to help them meet their fitness goals. It can also boost your income potential, with more than three in four professionals reporting a salary increase or promotion after completing an online certification course.

ISSA offers Online Coach certification. This course teaches you how to set up an online fitness coaching business. In it, you learn the best personal training software and platforms, how to create a strong social media following, and more. This certification can help you build and grow a virtual personal training business that is well worth the price, whatever that price is.