Become a Personal Trainer
Track Three Numbers From Your First Month, And A New Personal Training Business Tells You What To Do Next
From the FASTER syllabus: this article is taught in full in The honest route from scratch to qualified →
In short: Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the numbers a personal trainer tracks to see whether the business is moving towards its goals. The Level 3 personal training course teaches three places to start: how many new clients arrive each month, how much revenue the training brings in, and what share of clients carry on training after a set period. When a number misses its target, the trainer looks at marketing or pricing and changes one of them. A new trainer who tracks these three from the first month always knows what to do next.
The bit nobody mentions when you decide to train
Say you have made up your mind to become a personal trainer. You can picture the sessions. What sits in the back of your head is the month after you qualify, when the certificate is on the wall and you want to know whether this is going to pay.
It is a fair thing to want to know, and the Level 3 course gives it a proper answer. One of the things you learn on our CIMSPA-recognised personal training course is how to use KPIs, which is short for key performance indicators.
What a KPI is, in plain words
A KPI is a number you keep an eye on because it shows whether the business is heading where you want it to. The course text describes them as metrics that track your business's performance and measure progress towards your goals.
That is all it is. A KPI is a count you already have, written down on the same day each month.
The three the course starts with
The lesson gives three examples, and they suit a brand new trainer well.
- New clients each month. How many people started training with you.
- Revenue. What your personal training brought in.
- Clients who carry on. The percentage still training with you after a set period.
Three numbers, all in your own diary and bank statement. The third one is the one the industry talks about least, and it is the quiet one that decides whether next year looks like this year.
What you do when a number misses
The course gives a worked example. If the number of new clients is under your target, you look into why and change your marketing or your pricing to lift it. You change one thing, then read the same number next month.
A new trainer with no numbers has to guess. One with three numbers has a short list of things to try and a way to tell whether each one helped.
Why this is taught with the course, and not left for later
Most people who train to be a PT expect the exercise science and the client work. The business unit, F/617/8598, sits in the same qualification on purpose, so you qualify able to run the thing as well as deliver it.
It is taught the FASTER way: visual, interactive and in whatever mix suits you. You can read it, listen to it, write your answers or dictate them.
PT Manager, which opens when you sign up with FASTER, keeps the client list and the bookings these numbers come from. Adding real clients unlocks the day you pass a course, and PT Manager is free. Nobody takes a cut of your sessions.
Where to go next
If you are weighing up the route from where you are now to a first paying client, the honest route from scratch to qualified sets it out step by step, and the Level 3 Personal Trainer course shows where the business unit lives.
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You just read one answer. The course is all of them.
The honest route from scratch to qualified — taught by the people who wrote it, with free return access for life. The price is on the page, payment plans at checkout, no sales calls.
Also worth a look: Level 3 Personal Trainer, where the business unit lives.
See what the course covers →Frequently asked
What is a KPI for a personal trainer?
A key performance indicator is a number the trainer tracks to see whether the business is moving towards its goals. The Level 3 course gives three examples: new clients per month, revenue from training, and the percentage of clients who keep training after a set period.
Do I need to be good with numbers to become a personal trainer?
No. The three numbers in the course are counts and percentages from your own diary and bank, and PT Manager keeps the client list and bookings they come from.
Is this part of the qualification?
Yes. It sits in the Level 3 unit on business acumen and the use of IT, where learners describe the purpose of KPIs for individual and organisational goals.
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