How to Set up A Personal Training Business in Canada

If you love fitness and have a passion for helping others reach their fitness goals, then becoming a personal trainer is definitely the career choice for you. And the best part? Personal training means that you get to create your own schedule and make your own hours, which is perfect for those who don’t love the 9-5, corporate setting.

Starting a business is rewarding, but it can also be challenging when first starting out. Ensure you have the right guidance and follow specific steps to kickstart your business!  

So, to better understand how to set up a personal training business in Canada, keep reading. We’re going to break down the seven easy steps for building a personal training business and how you can find a full-service PT center you can use for your clients at Fitness World!

7 Key Steps for Setting Up a Personal Training Business

To make the process easy, we’ve broken down how to set up a personal training business in Canada in seven simple steps! Follow these steps, in order, if you’re just starting out or use these steps as helpful tips if you already are a personal trainer looking to boost your PT business.

Step 1: Personal Certifications, Education, and Continued Training Courses

The first step in becoming a personal trainer or setting up your personal training business is education. While it’s not a requirement to have a degree, many personal trainers find it useful to have a post-high school education with a focus on either exercise science or kinesiology.

A certification, however, is a requirement. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology provides the Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) certification, known as CSEP-CPT. The primary goal of this certification is to establish a baseline standard for the field of personal fitness training in Canada.

With this certification, you gain the ability to create tailored exercise plans for individuals who are seemingly in good health.

Step 2: Liability Insurance & Setting Up a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

Next, you’ll want to use your certification to create your very own business by setting up a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).

Fortunately, in Canada, there aren’t super strict regulations for setting up an LLP and they’re pretty flexible. According to Canada Company Formation, to create your own business, here are a few conditions to consider:

1. The limited liability partnership must consist of at least two members, who can be either individuals or companies.

2. Among the members, there must be at least one general partner who assumes limited liability for the partnership’s financial obligations.

3. The other member or members enjoy complete limited liability for the partnership’s financial commitments.

4. The minimum authorized share capital for initiating a limited liability partnership is $1,000.

Step 3: Creating an Online Presence & Brand

First, create a business website. This can be done easily via a subscription to an online website builder. Post about you, PT tips & tricks, hours availability, and before and after photos of previous client success stories.

To create an online presence and brand, focus on what your benefits are compared to other PT businesses. Maybe you specialize in post-natal personal training? Or, you have extensive experience working with weightlifters before competition. The first step is to identify who you want to train and from there build your brand and target this specific audience of people.

Whatever your specialization, you’ll want to find your niche and promote it!

Step 4: Finding New Clients by Marketing Your Personal Training Business

The next few steps for starting a personal training business involve marketing. Since the world has the internet in the palm of their hands, you have to find a way to put your business out into the world via social media in order to gain traction.

Set up social media accounts that are only for your PT business. Setting up your brand personality via your social media accounts and website is very important when marketing your business.

You can also create flyers, partner with gyms, give free PT training sessions and more. Get your name out there and drum up some new clients!

Step 5: Scheduling Systems for PT Businesses

The next step is scheduling – once you’ve found clients, you’ll need a system in place to help you organize sessions.

For this, we recommend setting up a collaborative platform like Google Calendar or a paid scheduling platform. This will help you not only with scheduling, but for writing specific exercises and client details (such as limitations, preferences, and strengths) to keep track of your sessions.

Step 6: Finding a Place to Bring Personal Training Clients

As you are starting out, you want to look for a place to train your newfound clients. There are actually a lot of training location options for personal trainers that might be simpler than you think.

A very underutilized location during late spring, summer, and early fall is the great outdoors – think parks, unused parking lots, school fields, running tracks, etc.

If the outside isn’t your vibe or you simply want a place with all the equipment already available, look into rental studios like TRAIN by FW. TRAIN by FW is a studio space that provides flexible training options and amenities, including a lifting platform, squat racks, hand-picked strength machines, cardio machines, and more!

This is a great option for new personal trainers who want all the amenities and equipment available without the hassle of purchasing your own studio space.

Step 7: Taking Payments, Managing Finances, and Taxes

The final step in setting up your personal training business is finances. While this might not be everyone’s favourite step, it is one of the most important.

There are a variety of payment options for personal trainers that can be as casual as cash, cheque, or a money transfer app to a more professional payment option like direct debit payments, credit card machines, or online bank transfers.

As an independent personal trainer, you’ll also need to manage your finances for tax time, so it’s important to visit an accountant and learn about the tax rate for businesses, what to save in each paycheque, and what to invest in when it comes to furthering your business.

Build Your Personal Training Business at TRAIN by FW

Ready to put your personal training skills to good use and help clients fall in love with fitness again? Our TRAIN by FW studio is the perfect, full-service space that delivers everything personal trainers need to properly train their clients.

From our functional fitness space to our state-of-the-art equipment, our TRAIN by FW studios are the perfect options for independent trainers!

Visit our Train by FW location today to get started!