Everyone needs a side hustle. No matter what your career is, you can always benefit from an extra source of income to help you out. As a personal trainer, this could not be any truer. Personal trainers are often in search of additional ways to make money.
No matter what your career path is, you can always find side hustle ideas that cater to your unique skill set. Just because you are a certified personal trainer does not mean that you cannot utilize your skills in other ways.
In this article, we will be going over ten different side hustle ideas that personal trainers can take on besides their personal training sessions. These side hustles have differing levels of commitment, financial backing, and returns.
What is a side hustle?
First of all, what is a side hustle? A side hustle is simply a job or a means of making an income that someone takes up as a way to make money besides their primary source of income or main career path.
A side hustle can be any kind of work but usually consists of means that earn people passive income or work that takes very little effort and can be done during someone’s free time. If your day job is not making you enough money, you may need to consider a side hustle.
Who is a Personal Trainer?
A personal trainer is a professional in the fitness industry that helps people on an individual level to work on fitness and training, helps them to lose weight, works with them to develop their physical health, and monitors their progress.
Personal trainers are in the “people” industry. This is because, unlike fitness instructors or fitness trainers, personal trainers work in a very hands-on manner with their clients to develop the best regimens for their health.
The job of a personal trainer is to help clients find the best ways to maintain healthy lifestyles for themselves. This includes training clients in unique ways, working according to clients’ strengths and schedules, and providing encouragement and support to clients.
Being a personal trainer can be a gratifying job, both physically and mentally. Physically, it is rewarding because most trainers work hand in hand with their clients and work out with them. The job also enhances the mental health of both the trainer and the client.
Need a Personal Trainer Side Hustle?
If being a physical trainer is such a rewarding job, why would a physical trainer need extra money or a means to make additional income? This is because most physical trainers are likely not making enough money just by training.
The median income for a physical trainer in the United States is $40,000 a year, but in reality, most trainers make closer to $10,000-$20,000. This is not nearly enough money to sustain a person and can be even more difficult if the trainer has a family to provide for.
The average trainer will likely work at their local gym where they are only getting paid based on how many clients they can pull from that location. Even if they can attract more clients, only a few personal trainers such as celebrity personal trainers make huge sums of money annually.
This is why many trainers are looking for a fitness side hustle where they can utilize their skills while still doing what they love.
10 best side hustles for personal trainers
Personal training does not have to be your full-time job. Here are some options for a personal training side hustle for someone in the industry:
Online personal training sessions
Online personal training is one of the most popular ways that personal trainers can make money on the side. The online landscape is rich with potential clients and allows personal trainers have a wider reach for their services.
The job of an online personal trainer is exactly the same as that of a physical personal trainer. The only difference is that all their interactions take place online. This makes it more convenient to train clients on the trainer’s own schedule.
To launch a successful online personal training business, the trainer would need to create a professional website. Your website can be a means of making money in itself such as running ads on the site.
Another way to make money through your online training business is to launch a referral program. This is a system where you offer your regular clients bonuses or discounts to save money with every new person they refer to your business.
Fitness blogging
A great way to make extra income as a personal trainer or fitness instructor is to start a fitness blog. You can share all of your fitness knowledge, business tips for the fitness industry, and regimens and training.
A blog is an excellent side job for a personal trainer because blogs are easy and relatively affordable to start. You will need to secure a domain name and web hosting for your blog. Once this is done, you can start creating posts.
There are many ways to make money through a blog. You could sell sponsored posts on your blog, display ads and make money with pay-per-click, join an affiliate marketing program, and many more. Blogging is one of the most popular side hustles today.
Your blog can also be an avenue for you to share all your knowledge and connect with a fitness community worldwide. If you have an online training business, your blog can be an extension of that and let you connect with more potential clients.
Create an online course
If you are looking for a great way to make passive income as a personal trainer, creating a digital fitness course is probably your best bet. Online fitness courses are a great way to train people remotely and make money with little effort.
A trainer can even choose to work with other personal trainers to offer mega courses with different types of fitness and training. This allows them to train people in more ways than one and access more people than they would physically.
Whether you choose to create your course alone or with other trainers, it is a relatively easy side hustle for a personal trainer. To create an online course, you have to create all the content for the course. This can include workout videos, slides and images, and routines.
Once your course is live and for sale, it becomes a means of passive income for you that can make you money for years as long as people keep buying it. Keep in mind that preparing the course and marketing it may cost some money.
Start an e-commerce business.
Ecommerce is one of the biggest industries today. The e-commerce industry is constantly growing as more people tap into the industry and into the great potential to make money through it. Starting an online store is a great idea for a personal trainer.
An online store is a great way to make money as a personal trainer. You can sell all kinds of fitness-related items, such as workout gear and clothes, protein powders and shakes, water bottles, and many more.
Starting an online store is not easy, but it can be rewarding and does not need to take your full attention once it is set up. You need to find a platform to host your store. A great option is Shopify which is one of the largest online marketplaces.
You can also consider starting a dropshipping business. Dropshipping is very convenient and easy to start up because you do not have to worry about keeping inventory of the items you sell. All you need is a reliable supplier.
Dropshipping is another type of e-commerce that has become very popular due to its ease and accessibility. As a dropshipper, you only have to serve as the middleman between consumers and manufacturers or suppliers.
Either of these methods, whether starting your own online store or starting a dropshipping business, have the potential to make you large amounts of money as some people use them as full-time jobs. You may have to spend some money on purchasing items to sell or marketing and advertising your business.
Fitness influencers are some of the highest-earning online personalities today. An average fitness influencer can earn thousands of dollars monthly just by doing a few sponsored posts or videos or through partnerships with fitness brands.
Starting up a Youtube channel or creating a fitness social media account is the first step to becoming a fitness influencer. Whatever platform you choose, there is no denying the fact that online personalities make tens of thousands in annual income.
A fitness Youtube channel is a good option if you want to create and upload longer videos that show different types of training routines, offer tips and advice for different demographics or gym goers, or so much more.
With a fitness social media account, your content will likely be more along the lines of shorter and more instantaneous content. This can include short videos that display fitness tips, pictures, or other forms of social media-friendly content.
As an online personality, whether through Youtube or social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter, the primary way you will make money is through sponsorships and partnerships. Working with brands and businesses in the fitness industry expands your audience and earns you a lot of income.
Teach group fitness classes.
Teaching group fitness classes is a great way to expand your personal training business. As a personal trainer, you may be more comfortable doing one-on-one sessions, but group sessions are a great way to make more per hour and train more people.
Group fitness classes are usually less intense than personal sessions and will likely require less physical labor from you and more of a managerial role. This is because you have to monitor everyone in your class and assist them with their training.
Many people opt for group fitness because of the community feeling of it. Training exercises carried out in group sessions are less intensive and are usually easier to accomplish. Group sessions are a good idea if you are teaching beginners or people who do not have a lot of experience with fitness.
Group sessions make you earn more per hour due to the number of people you are teaching per time. You can offer group sessions at your local gym or offer them under your own business and brand through advertising and marketing.
Tap into nutrition
The nutrition aspect of personal training is another avenue of the industry where people can make money as a side job. Nutrition includes the eating and dietary systems that your clients follow throughout their fitness journey.
Creating meal plans, diets and other food-related plans for your clients is a good way to provide additional services to your clients for an extra charge. Many people require the help of nutritionists for their fitness journey.
If you already have knowledge in exercise science, you can also do some research in food science and nutrition to expand your range of services to your clients. This way, your clients will not have to go to a separate professional for their nutrition needs.
If you have your training business, you can offer training programs with different tiers with an additional fee for meal plans, diets, eating tips, and more. You can also launch a business in meal planning and diet monitoring.
Food delivery
Working as a food delivery person is a great side hustle for many people, not just personal trainers. We have included it on this list because it is a side hustle that brings in an additional income but can be very flexible if that is what you need.
You can work for restaurants or eateries in your area or sign up for food delivery websites that are looking for people to make their deliveries. Delivering within a local area means that you don’t need to worry too much about transportation costs.
In fact, many local food delivery jobs can be done using a bicycle. If you have a car or motorcycle those are also great options, though most establishments and platforms have branded vehicles for their delivery people.
You can work part-time delivering food so that you can make time for your personal training work. This is a flexible means of making money on the side that is easy to do and also does not require any qualifications so you don’t have to worry about that.
Dog walking or pet sitting
This is another option for a side hustle that is not specific to personal trainers. However, it is also an easy and accessible side hustle option that a personal trainer can take up to make extra money on the side of their training business.
There are many dedicated pet sitting websites and apps that you can sign up for to get connected to pet owners locally. You get to set your own schedule, take on as many or as few clients as you want, and only work when you want.
Dog walking is a more common side hustle as all you have to do is pick up the dogs and walk them around for a specific amount of time. While you can make use of an app for this, you can also just advertise yourself in your neighborhood.
Pet sitting involves going to people’s homes and watching their pets while they are out of the house. Pet sitting usually pays more than dog walking does because you can spend hours watching the pet and it also includes feeding pets, playing with them, and cleaning up after them.
Other Ways to make extra money as a Personal Trainer
Now that we have mostly gone over jobs that are specific to your strengths as a personal trainer, here are some other options that you can do that don’t require your expertise as a personal trainer.
Sometimes you may want to do a simple job that doesn’t have anything to do with the fitness industry. If that is what you want and you are in search of a side hustle, here are a few options that you can consider or try out.
Be a driver for Uber
Being a driver for taxi services like Uber or Lyft is a great job for anyone with a car who is looking for a side hustle. Being an Uber driver is easy and accessible and does not cost you anything. You get paid a commission for every trip you complete.
Before you can get registered as a driver for any taxi service, you need to register your car to the service your car also has to be in a good and safe state for driving. The service is also likely to run a background check on you to verify that you can work for them.
Being a driver for a taxi service pays well and is a great part-time job. You can work as a driver on days when you are less busy from personal training or if you have free time like afternoons or evenings when you don’t have any clients.
Freelancing
Working as a freelancer is another side hustle that many people engage in to make extra money. Freelancers make money through their talents and hobbies and work on their own schedules. As a freelancer, you can choose how much work you want and when you want to do it.
There are many different freelance services that you can offer, such as writing, photography, web design, coding, and many more. If you have a skill or craft that you are good at, you can monetize it by offering your services freelance.
There are many online platforms for freelancers to connect with the people that need their services. Some of these platforms are dedicated to certain crafts, such as writing or photography, but many are general sites where all kinds of freelance services can be offered.
Taking online surveys
Many people don’t know that they can make money online simply by taking surveys or answering questionnaires. There are many “get paid to” sites that let people make money by carrying out different tasks.
Some of these tasks include playing games, taking surveys, writing reviews of apps, filling in questionnaires, and more. While many fraudulent sites claim to offer payouts for tasks like these, many legitimate sites offer money for these services.
Conclusion
As a personal trainer, there is no shortage of options for a side hustle you can take on. Whether you want a side hustle related to the fitness industry or you want to do something completely different, we hope the items on this list have given you some options.
