Evolution Fitness

Real-World Lessons for Fitness Professionals

By Craig Mills

Volume 2: How Many Clients Do I Need as a Personal Trainer?

This is a good question to tackle straight after Volume 1, where I looked at pricing.

If you haven’t read that article, I’d recommend starting there. But if you just want to know how many clients you actually need as a Personal Trainer, there’s one point from Volume 1 that’s worth repeating:

You need to know your costs.

Without understanding what it costs to operate your business, you don’t know your break-even point.

And if you don’t know your break-even point, asking how many clients you need is almost impossible to answer.

One Piece of Advice I Never Forgot

When I was preparing to leave Shell and move into self-employment, I received careers support to help with the transition.

One adviser specialised in people considering self-employment, whether that meant remaining in their existing profession as a contractor, starting their own firm, or moving into a completely different industry, as I was doing.

He gave me one piece of advice that has stayed with me ever since:

“Don’t incur costs until you have paying customers.”

He explained that he’d seen people start businesses by immediately spending money on business cards, uniforms, branding and all the other things that make a new business feel real.

The problem?

They hadn’t made a sale yet.

They were starting their business already in the red.

That advice won’t apply perfectly to every industry. Some businesses require significant investment before they can trade.

But for a relatively straightforward Personal Training business?

I think it’s excellent advice.

How I Started My PT Business

This also links to another question I was asked recently:

“What was the hardest part about getting your first few clients?”

For me, getting the first clients wasn’t actually the difficult part.

I’d spotted the potential of social media marketing very early.

And more importantly, it was free.

As soon as I’d committed to becoming a Personal Trainer, I started documenting the journey on Facebook and Instagram.

Nothing sophisticated.

I announced that I was studying to become a PT and planned to start my own business.

The start - Along came the Gym Selfies

After that came gym selfies, training videos, photos of my manuals, updates about what I was learning and even pictures of me sitting in my car studying down at the Esplanade on a summer evening.

One caption might have been something like:

“May as well learn about the endocrine system while enjoying the view.”

And regularly, I’d finish with a simple message:

“If you’d like to train with me once I’m qualified, send me a message and I’ll let you know when I’m ready to start.”

Building the interest - Posting learning materials.

Before I’d even qualified, I had a waiting list of around 12 potential clients.

Nowadays you’ll hear entrepreneurs talk about building demand before launching a product or creating a waiting list before opening the doors.

At the time, I didn’t know there was terminology or a business strategy behind it.

It just seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Leads Aren’t Customers

While I was still studying, I was also doing the less glamorous work.

Competitor research.

Gym rental costs.

Insurance.

Accountancy.

Basic forecasting.

I knew roughly what it would cost me to operate before I’d taken a penny.

And following the advice I’d been given, I held off spending money on things I didn’t yet need.

No unnecessary stockpile of business cards.

No elaborate uniform order.

No expensive software package before I had clients to use it with.

Once I was qualified and ready to trade, I contacted those 12 people who’d previously expressed an interest.

This became one of my first proper business lessons.

In my head, I’d already started doing the maths:

Twelve clients paying X.

Costs of Y.

Enough left to reinvest.

Enough income to live on.

Simple.

Except twelve leads did not become twelve customers.

Six signed up.

The rest gave me variations of:

“My circumstances have changed.”

“I’m not quite ready yet.”

“Maybe next month.”

“Let me speak to the Mrs.”

And a few simply disappeared.

That taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since:

Don’t treat expected income as income.

A lead isn’t a customer.

A verbal commitment isn’t revenue.

A booking isn’t even necessarily revenue.

I’m very careful about counting money only when the business has actually earned it.

Six Clients Was Still a Great Start

The interesting thing is that six clients wasn’t a disaster.

Far from it.

If someone had told me at the beginning of the project that I’d qualify and immediately start with six paying clients, I’d have jumped at it.

I’d deliberately kept the business lean.

At the prices and costs I had at the time, I only needed around two clients to cover the core costs of operating.

So six clients meant the business itself was covered, I could begin taking drawings towards household costs and, alongside my new Fitness Advisor role at Inverclyde Leisure, I had created a full-time income within the fitness industry.

Within a matter of weeks I reached my original target of around 12 clients.

And over approximately eight years of trading, I’ve generally maintained somewhere around 8–12 active Personal Training clients each month.

But that’s my model.

It doesn’t mean you need eight.

It doesn’t mean you need twelve.

And it certainly doesn’t mean that everyone’s break-even point will be two clients.

Your numbers may look completely different.

So, How Many Clients Do You Actually Need?

Start with three questions.

What does it cost you to operate each month?

How much revenue does the average client generate?

How much personal income do you need the business to provide?

Imagine your total monthly business costs were £600 and the average client generated £200 per month.

Three clients would cover the business costs.

But that doesn’t mean three clients gives you a viable career.

It simply means the business has reached break-even.

After that you still need to consider your own income, tax, savings, holidays, pension, sick leave, future investment and the inevitable quieter months.

This is why I don’t think there’s a useful universal answer to:

“How many clients does a PT need?”

The real answer is:

Enough clients to cover your costs, provide the income you need and leave enough margin to build a sustainable business.

Your Personal Situation Matters Too

Not every Personal Trainer needs the business to provide the same income.

Some PTs have another full-time job.

Some work part-time.

Some teach classes.

Some have employed fitness roles alongside their PT business.

Others want Personal Training to provide their entire household income.

Those people can all run perfectly legitimate PT businesses while needing completely different numbers of clients.

So rather than comparing yourself with another trainer and thinking:

“They’ve got 20 clients, therefore I need 20 clients,”

look at your own numbers.

If your business works with eight clients, why chase 25 simply because somebody else has them?

Likewise, if your costs mean you need 20 clients just to survive, you need to understand that before signing a rental agreement or setting your prices.

The Industry Has Changed

The traditional model of one trainer, one client and one hourly session is no longer the only option.

Today we have:

Small-group Personal Training.

Independent PT studios.

Boutique gyms.

Group fitness.

Sports-specific coaching.

Rehabilitation and specialist exercise services.

Online and hybrid coaching.

Each model changes the maths.

A trainer working with four people simultaneously doesn’t need the same number of hours available as someone delivering only one-to-one sessions.

A studio owner with significant premises costs may require far more monthly revenue than a PT renting space within an established gym.

An online coach may have very different capacity and overheads again. Personally, I also think AI will increasingly challenge the lower-value end of online coaching, particularly services built mainly around generic programmes and information. The human elements of accountability, judgement, individualisation and relationships will therefore become even more important.

Whatever model you choose, though, the basic principle doesn’t change.

Know your costs.

Know your break-even point.

Know the income you need.

Then work backwards.

Don’t decide that you need 20 clients because another PT has 20.

And don’t build your lifestyle around 12 people who told you they’d definitely sign up next month.

One of my earliest lessons in business was that I didn’t actually have 12 customers.

I had 12 leads.

Then I had six customers.

And because I’d kept my costs under control, six was more than enough to get started.

Sometimes building a sustainable business isn’t about having as many clients as possible.

It’s about knowing exactly how many you need.