Stop Trading Time For Money

“If I buy you a cup of coffee would you work for me for an hour?”

If your answer is ‘hell no’, then read on…..

I was speaking to someone this evening, and we were talking about money and, in particular, wages. You see this person has a job in the fitness industry, and he was ‘debating with me about putting up his prices’. So we sat and started to work out their ‘actual hourly rate’.

This PT charged the standard £25.00 per hour, or so he thought.

What he actually did was charge his clients ‘£25.00 per hour session’ but he didn’t charge £25 per hour. We made a list of everything that he had to do for the £25.00 per hour. First, we looked at direct costs – That’s costs that are directly linked to that particular time session:

✔️20 minutes of session planning.

✔️10 minutes of preparing an update of the clients ‘diet advice guide’.

✔️10 minutes setting up before getting everything ready.

✔️Running the hour session.

✔️5 minutes to clean down and finish off the session.

But it doesn’t stop there….. We then looked at the ‘Overhead Costs’ – cost that HAVE to be paid regardless of whether a session runs or not:

✔️Driving to the gym each day

✔️Fuel to get to the gym each day

✔️Gym rental

✔️Insurance

✔️Uniform and cleaning cost (it’s a sweaty job, so almost daily cleaning).

Then we need to add in the fact that if he doesn’t work he doesn’t get paid. (he’s not employed, so he has no right to holiday pay, etc.). Average holiday time of each year, time off if he’s sick?) So to maintain his current income he would need to save some money aside.

Then what about all the sales and marketing?

If you worked for a company, would you get paid for this? It’s all part of the overheads.

What about the time each day spent replying to inquiries?

We took all these figures, and worked out the net profit and divided it by his average daily hours worked over the year…..

So, after all that, my friend, at 15 hours plus days, 6 days a week, he earns a whopping £4.66 per hour!  Which, even with this low hourly wage, still attracts Tax and national insurance.

This guy has a degree in Sports Science, is a level 3 Personal Trainer, a Nutritionist, and he helps change peoples' lives, I mean really changes them.

Luckily, we have managed to create a new strategy to help him move his business forward… But….. This is all too common in the fitness industry. It's no wonder most personal trainers ‘quit’ within 12 months.

I honestly think this all comes down to understanding one’s value and portraying this to your clientele. Something a lot of people don’t do, especially in the fitness industry.

So I go back to my first question…..

“If I buy you a cup of coffee would you work for me for an hour?”

This trainer does. Every day, he gives up his time and his years of experience to help others improve the way they look, feel and live for a little over the price of a large coffee at Starbucks!

But it’s not just my PT friend, most people in most industries do this too. Every hour you use to make money is an hour of your life you have given away in exchange for that money. So if you earn £10 per hour, then that coffee and cake from Costa costs you an hour of your life. If you earn £20 per hour, that meal cost you an hour of time. That’s an hour less to do the things you enjoy, an hour less time to relax, an hour less time with your family.

When you spend money you are spending time.

When you spend money you are spending time, it's a very life-changing way to look at money and can change how you use it.

I always try to make sure how I spend that money is worth the time I invested in doing it. Having the right mindset, accepting how valuable your skills, knowledge and time are to other people and having the right strategies in your life and business can change EVERYTHING.

So the next time you are thinking about what to charge or when you’re going for your pay rise. Don’t be afraid to make how valuable you are abundantly clear to the world.

To find out more about how much you should charge, my friend Dan Salcumbe at mypersonaltrainerwebsite.com has a great online calculator you can use to work out your true costs.

Or if you need some help with moving your business online please get in touch.