PTHub now FREE for Personal Trainers

PTHub Personal Trainer Directory is NOW FREE to all UK Independent PTs.

With over £15,000 of new business referred to new PTs last month alone (thats 42 new clients introduced free of charge during March 2009) a Free account on PTHub is becoming an extremely popular way for PTs to promote themselves online

PTHub is becoming a strong site in Search Engines appearing on Page 1 or 2 for search terms like Personal Trainer, Find a Personal Trainer, Find a Gym, Personal Trainer Forum, Personal Trainer Birmingham and many many more listings.

All PTs get a full free webpage to promote themselves on, backed by a FREE 9 - 5 Monday to Friday support line for new clients to call.

PTs can register a FREE account by clicking here - Personal Trainer Directory Register

How to Set up as a Self Employed Personal Trainer

It’s easy and quick to set up and start trading as a self employed Personal Trainer. Fortunately there isnt alot of paperwork to do. There are also no registration fees to pay.

This is a straight forward, short guide covering all the legal aspects you will need to follow to set up and start trading legally in the UK.

Any UK citizen can set up as a Sole Trader. If you will be training your clients at a Health Club or Gym or there own home you wont need to worry about business rates. However if you are converting a room at home to trade from you will need to seek advice from the business rates department at your local council.

OK, lets get started…

Choose your business name
This can be your own name (e.g. John Doe) or a trading name. e.g.  JD Personal Training
However, if you decide to use a trading name, your business website and stationery should display your real name. e.g. John Doe trading as JD Personal Training.
Also remember not to use a name too similar to someone already trading or a name that implies you are a Government organisation or a name that infringes some elses trademark.

Tax - As a Sole Trader you will have to pay income tax on all your profits. This means you will have to fill in a yearly Self Assessment form.

Register as self-employed with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as soon as you start your business.
If you fail to do this within the first three full months of becoming self employed, you may have to pay a penalty of £100. Download the form to register as self-employed from the HMRC website (PDF).

National Insurance - You will also need to pay national insurance. You can pay a flat rate, currently set at £2.30 (2008 - 2009) per week. You can pay this by direct debit for ease. Get the info by clicking here.

Class 4 National Insurance - If your profits are over a certain amount, currently £5435 (2008 - 2009) you will have to pay extra national insurance called class 4. You will pay this with your income tax.

VAT - You will only need to charge VAT if your business turns over more than £67,000 per year (correct at time of publishing)

Financial Records - Keep all your financial records and business receipts. You will need these to fill in your self assessment form.  You do not need to pay an account if you are happy with filling in forms for yourself as a Sole Trader. If you are not very good at these things, then seek advice from a local accountant.
I will add a basic record keeping form under the FREE Business Tools section on this site.

Employed and Self Employed at the same time - If you work for a company as a Fitness Instructor for an example and get paid a wage, that company / employer is responsible for your tax and national insurance for that job. If you then also work as a Personal Trainer privately, then YOU are responsible as a self employed business owner for that part of your earnings and must register as self employed and pay your taxes and other deductions from that line of work.

So to sum up,…

• register as self-employed with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
• contact your local authority to find out whether you need to pay business rates if you plan on working from home (this doesnt include doing admin on your computer only)
• contact HMRC to register for VAT if you expect to have turnover of more than £67,000 a year
• set up a financial record-keeping system
• put your name on all your business stationery, including letters, invoices, receipts and cheques

Good Luck in your new business!

 

Personal Trainers and VAT

So you’re doing really well and making loads of money! Great! but do you need to pay VAT and are there any benefits in you actually being VAT registered?

The simple answer is that if your business turnover is over £67,000 (correct as at time of publishing) a year then you will need to be VAT registered and pay VAT.

You will have to be an extremely busy Personal Trainer to reach this level of income, but it is achieveable. Lets have a quick look at an example. Lets take the £67,000 VAT threshold divide that by 52 weeks in a year = £1289 worth of business weekly, Say you charge £35 per session, you’d need to be doing 37 sessions per week to need to consider becoming VAT registered. So for most personal trainers, you wont ever need to consider VAT.
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Personal Trainer - Sole Trader or Limited Company

As a self employed Personal Trainer you will have to decide as whether to trade as a Sole Trader or as a Limited Company. The choice is yours and isnt determined by your income.
There are pro’s and con’s to each, however if you believe you can trade profitably for 3 consecutive years (dont underestimate this feat), then you should definitely consider trading as a limited company as the future benefits of having 3 years profitable accounts on a limited company will leave you in a very good position should you wish to grow and expand your business interests.

So, lets look at both means of trading and lets see what the difference is….

Sole Trader - A sole trader is basically a business that is a business but isnt a limited company (whereby a limited company is a ‘Company’) (dont worry, its not really confusing)

You can start trading straight away as long as you notify the Inland Revenue within the first 3 months of you starting trading and you will be required to fill in an annual Self Assessment form. The Inland revenue can be reached by calling 08459 15 45 15
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Time Management

When i first started Personal Training i set out to please everyone (except myself)
I wanted to be available no matter what time my clients wanted to train.

It didnt take me long to realise i was missing out on my quality of life and whilst i was looking after my clients, i wasnt spending enough time looking after ME.

You need to be flexible, sure, you know that, but you can be flexible and organised. Here’s just one example of how to set up your working week. It can be done in many different formats but this is just one example….
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