The PT Roadmap

The weekly newsletter from an 11-year PT vet on how to build and run a great Personal Training business.

Hey!

As I write this, I am sipping a coffee, trying my best to caffeine-away the tiredness. I stayed up far too late watching last night's 4th of July fireworks. It was the first time doing it with our 4-year-old. He loved it. So much so he woke me up at 6am making fireworks noises. The parents reading will get this, but how come he went to bed 3 hours late but woke up just as early? All those Instagram pages that suggest a later bedtime as a solution to early risers don’t know what they are talking about.

Let's get into it!

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How to Start Transitioning From 1-1 to Small-Group PT

Imagine this…

You’re looking at your diary for the next couple of weeks.

You’re averaging 30+ sessions a week.

“Not bad,” you think.

“A few months back, I struggled to make ends meet, and now I’m sitting relatively comfortably"

But the increased busyness has brought on a new issue.

You’ve got very few spots left.

The only times available in your diary are between 10 and 4.

The most challenging time slots to fill.

The other issue is just how tired you feel doing all those sessions.

30 sessions a week plus travel, programming, admin, last-minute shuffling and content means you’re more or less doing a 50-hour week.

This is where a service like Small-Group PT comes in.

It means you can cater to more clients without adding on more hours, while earning more per session.

So, you decide you will open up 4 small-group slots each week.

Mon & Wed at 630am.

Tues & Thurs at 630pm.

You’ve spoken to your 1-1 clients who currently vacate those slots, and they are happy to be part of your beta-testing group (a group of people who are helping you trial small-group at a cheaper rate.)

You do some marketing, run a Facebook ad and sell out the rest of the slots.

A few months after starting, your model has changed from 30 1-1s to 15 1-1s and 8 small-group sessions.

Your small group session rate now stands at £90 (6x£15), so you’re earning more.

And yet, you’re doing far fewer in-person hours per week.

“This feels manageable, and I can see how I can continue to scale it”, you think.

Why Small Group?

The benefits of an SG service are clear from this story.

You can:

• service more clients per session

• increase your per-session income

• take on more overall clients

• offer more sessions to clients at a more affordable rate

• build a stronger community

But the big question is, how do you make this transition?

Option 1: The Deep-End Approach

I interviewed a personal trainer based in Forres, Scotland, a few years back, who changed her business model from 1-1 to small group.

Pretty much in one swoop.

Katie has 3 kids, and her husband works full-time, so she juggles childcare and her at-home PT business.

She was struggling to manage the two.

So, she transitioned from offering one-on-one sessions to only small group sessions.

This is one way to transition: give your clients no other option.

Tell all your clients you’re changing from offering individual sessions to groups of 3-6 and manage the backlash as best you can.

Every single one of Katie’s clients happily moved over.

But her experience isn’t the norm. Making a business decision like this will likely lead to unhappy and lost clients.

This might not be an issue if you can fill those slots quickly.

But a softer, more gradual approach is usually what I recommend…

Option 2: The Shallow-End Approach

Rather than diving straight in and stopping all of your 1-1s, the shallow-end approach has you doing it more like our PT did in the intro story.

1. You open some up SG slots in your week at popular times

2. Move some current clients into those slots by framing them as a trial, and highlighting the benefits (cheaper, better training environment, can attend more sessions)

3. Deliver an excellent service

4. Once those slots are full, open up more

5. Repeat until you’re at a level you’re happy with

This approach lends itself well to keeping current clients happy.

It also means you can gradually transition from being a mostly 1-1 PT to offering a mix of the two services.

There is obviously much more to starting small-group than just simply switching. You’ve gotta decide when you’ll do it, pricing, who it serves etc

But these two approaches give you a start point for why and how you might start transitioning.

One Instagram Post Worth Your Time

Nice cable pressing variation here from David Otey that I’ve never seen before. If you’re anything like me, it’ll take your eyes a second to make sense of the fact this client is pressing the cable and not pulling.

I tried it yesterday, and man, was the pump nice! It's well worth using with clients who love training their shoulders. I could also see it working well with clients who have clunky shoulders — kinda like a light, high-rep leg extensions for knee pain.

Thanks so much for reading.

— Stuart.

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