Personal Trainer Forum

PTHub are proud to have a Page 1 Google Listed Personal Trainer Forum. The Forum has many categories for Personal Trainers to Network in.

A New feature in the forum is a section for anyone interested in Fitness to Ask a Personal Trainer a Question and all qualified trainers are invited to answer these questions.

So whether you are a Personal Trainer, Training to become a Trainer or just interested in fitness, please join our forum

Personal Trainer

The Personal Trainer Hub is a site dedicated to promoting UK Independent Personal Trainers. Backed by a regulary updated Personal Trainer Marketing Blog (PTHub.com) its aim is to generate more clients and business for fitness trainers.

Whether you are a new or established Personal Trainer, PTHub aim to provide you with marketing skills to grow your business. Most of these tutorials are free and membership to PTHub is cheap compared to gym rent. Our advice to trainers is that to become a truly successful Personal Trainer with a profitable business you need to operate as a freelance trainer.

PTHub welcome all feedback from Personal Trainers and Client who use there services

Personal Trainer Marketing Plan

PTHub are pleased to offer all Personal Trainers a Free Marketing Plan.
The plan is a complete marketing guide for independent trainers and shows you how to market yourself professionally and more importantly, How to get more clients!

You should also read the Personal Trainer Marketing Blog at PTHub.com . Its updated regulary with posts such as …
How to Add £6000+ To Your Revenue in One Easy Step
and
How to Get on Page 1 of Google

Check it out today!

Personal Trainer Blog

Well its about time i revisited the Personal Trainer Blog and started regular postings. Its always been a tough decision on what to blog about. Initially i thought about producing Personal Training articles but they seem a little too heavy for light reading.

So ive put down a few ideas…

First off, as of today, i have 81 Personal Trainers on PTHub.co.uk  and growing fast, so i’ll post a random article on one of the Personal Trainers each week. I’ll pick one of the trainers at random and publish a link to there site. So make sure there is plenty of info about yourself in your profile!!! Or email some details if you want to be featured!

I’ll also invite everyone who wants to submit a guest post to do so, simply email me at chris@pthub.co.uk with a fitness article of your choice (it can be about anything related to the site). I’ll include links back to your website and a profile picture if you send one!

Every week (starting soon) Mim will post a Ladies Boot Camp article with a video clip of exercises for ladies looking to get in shape. Mim is one of Birmingham’s top female Personal Trainers. She trains clients all over the Midlands and can often be heard on Radio WM breakfast show talking about fitness and helping Midlands residents get fit.

Between us all (the PTHub Fitness Panel) we’ll also post Mens Health and Fitness Articles to help the guys get in shape

Me, Chris (pthub.co.uk owner) will make a post every week helping PTs with there marketing and promotion. I started my fitness career 15 years ago as an army PTI, i then worked at Virgin Active as a PT, progressing into Gym Management at Fitness First. I then set up and opened my own gym, i ran that for two years before selling and moving on. I moved to London where i managed a team of 30 Personal Trainers at Holmes Place where we consistently earnt over £30,000 per month for the club each month in Personal Training. After that, well here i am, i developed the PTHub to help promote Personal Trainers for FREE!

Each week i’ll keep you upto date on PTHub news and other fitness news related to our industry!

So, bookmark the PTHub Blog and keep upto date with everything to do with Personal Training

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.
Read more

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
Read more

Find a Personal Trainer

It’s always been hard to find a qualified, experienced and fun Personal Trainer. Not anymore!
PTHub.co.uk is a definitive solution that puts people who want a Personal Trainer in touch with there local Fitness expert and provide them with an initial FREE consultation at zero cost to both parties.

With nothing to lose (except body fat) it has never been easier to try the services of a Personal Trainer in your local area.

The concept of the Personal Training Hub is to provide Personal Trainers with an effective, low cost means, of marketing and provide potential Personal Training Clients with a resource to search and view local personal trainers before making contact.

All trainers are vetted before joining the Personal Training Hub. This includes checking they are sufficiently qualified, have appropiate insurance and all offer a FREE consultation. Other factors listed are their current pricing structure, where they can train you (in a gym, at home, out doors etc) and their experience as well as independent references.

Start your search for a Personal Trainer Now.

Personal Trainer Branding

What is Branding? Why should i do it, How do i ‘brand’ my business?

Well Branding is defined as ‘ to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers‘

So you want people to be able to recognise YOU from your competition. In the personal training world this is really important as there will be numerous trainers within your gym, your local area and your city.

Image Above - Fresh Lifestyle Personal Training Branded Image.

When building your website, you will also want to take your branding into consideration so that it all ties in together.

You normally identify a brand through one of the following…..a name, term, sign, symbol, colour or design

here are a few examples of branding…
Read more

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