Are you becoming a personal trainer for a career, or just looking for some part-time income? Knowing how much money you need and how many hours you are able to train will effectively dictate your client load. Your schedule will also be influenced by how many clients have purchased training sessions. The exception to all of this will be those employed by a health club or gym. As an employee, you may have little say about the hours you work.

Setting Your Hours

You are your business, and need to treat yourself as such. All businesses have hours of operation, and it is important to establish these hours and stick by them. Make it clear to your clients that while you can be somewhat flexible, you are also not at their beck and call. Most likely they have jobs, and must be present during certain hours. In the same way, they need to respect your hours of operation.

The great thing about personal training is that you can make it work around your lifestyle. If you need to be home to see your kids off to school, you can start training at 9 A.M. If you do not like working weekends, you can work Monday — Friday. This flexibility is a blessing, but can become a curse. If you do not hold to your predetermined working hours, sooner or later there will be no cohesiveness to your work schedule. You may find yourself working odd hours, or working day and night with no time left for family or recreation.

Your clients' priority is fitting in his workout, as it should be. It is up to you to be concerned with your own schedule. Clients will ask all kinds of things of you. They may want to workout at 5 A.M., 10 P.M., or on Sunday. This may be fine with you, or it may be a burden. Setting your hours and giving them to your clients in writing will make it easier to say no when you need to.

Making Appointments

Having standard operating procedures for setting and completing your first appointments will simplify your life and decrease mistakes. By asking the same questions and following the same procedures with all of your clients, you will form good habits and your practices will become routine.

Before you set an appointment with a new client, obtain some background information to make sure you can handle what she needs. Ask about her age, health, fitness level, exercise history, and what she wants to accomplish by working with you. You do not need to get into too much detail. Just get a general idea of where she is coming from and where she wishes to go. If you feel you can help her, set the appointment and give or mail her a new client packet. This packet should contain:

• A bio of you and your company

• Informed consent form

• Liability waiver

• Health questionnaire

• Lifestyle information form

• Frequently asked questions

• Payment and cancellation policies

• Billing information

• Medical release form

Request that before she meets with you, she completes the health and lifestyle questionnaires so you do not have to spend valuable time completing paperwork. Make it clear that your first appointment will consist mainly of exchanging information and evaluating her fitness level. Instruct the client to wear loose-fitting comfortable clothes and sneakers, and to bring a water bottle.

Planning for Your Financial Needs

Finances will play a major role in the number of hours you choose to work. Everyone has a certain standard of living to which they are accustomed or to which they aspire. What is yours? Figure out how much money you need to live and divide it by what you charge per hour. That will provide you with an idea of how many appointments you will need every month. Give yourself a cushion for the times when you are slow, have cancellations, or cannot work for some reason. You may also want to leave a few hours open each week so you can reschedule or move clients around if necessary. This will limit lost revenue due to cancellations.