frequently asked questions

1. What is an ‘exclusive' area’?

   We will offer potential clients a choice of male and female trainer in each area. Your exclusive area will consist of any searches made for personal trainers in your chosen area, e.g. ‘East Sussex, Brighton’. Potential clients can also view you by browsing ‘All Trainers’ and also select trainers by gender, e.g. ‘male’ or ‘female’.

2. How long does my license last?

   It is valid for 6 or 12 months, and at the end of that period you’ll have the opportunity to renew it.

3. Why can’t I sign up for less than 6 months?

   As well as getting a commitment from you, we also need to commit to your territory. We have committed to marketing, public relations, and advertising  budgets which are all locked in for 6 months. When you sign up we add your territory to our growing list to focus on for the next 6 months. We're here for the long haul and we would like you to be also.

4. What insurance cover do I need to have?

   Public liability and Professional Indemnity insurance, with cover up to £2,000,000.

5. Can I keep my existing PT business and brand?

   Yes, its natural that most trainers want to keep their existing business including their company name, website and branding. You can use Not In The Gym as a source of potential extra client leads and also to provide your existing clients with the additional benefits we offer, such as the Client Diary to set goals and keep them motivated.

6. Can I join Not In The Gym if I work for a gym?

   Yes, you can transfer existing clients to our trainer manager tool, with all its benefits, and use the profile page as a means to attract potential private clients to train outside of the gym environment. During Spring, Summer and even Autumn you may find more and more clients wanting to train outside of the gym environment. Even in the winter clients will want you to train them in the privacy of their own home. You can keep your foot in both camps and get the best from both worlds.

7. I have recently qualified as a personal trainer can I join Not In The Gym?

   Yes. It is always a difficult choice to make when you finish your training – whether to go it alone as a mobile personal trainer, or whether to sign up with an established gym. Both routes offer pros and cons. We are offering you a third route. You don’t need to spend a small fortune on branding yourself, getting a website set up and paying for marketing in local newspapers and magazines. Likewise you don’t have to pay upwards of £500 - £1,000 a month in gym rental, or give away over half of your earnings to the gym. For a fraction of the cost we are offering another option. The opportunity to be part of a national brand, offering the most competitive price in the industry.

8. I am currently training to become a PT can I join?

   As soon as you have passed your level 3 qualification and have purchased full Public liability and Professional Indemnity insurance up to £2,000,000 we would be delighted to have you on board.

9. Can I work part-time as a personal trainer with Not In The Gym?

   Yes. You can work as much or as little as you want. A number of our trainers have other jobs, or are mums with children to look after too. You can fit any clients you receive through Not In The Gym around your own schedule.

10. Do I have to be a member of Reps (Register of Exercise Professionals)?

    No.

11. How do I get new clients leads and how do you market trainers to potential clients?

    Most new clients now come through the internet. All new potential client leads come through our website where we do all the online marketing for you. Potential clients can search for personal trainer in a specific area, by gender, or browse through all listed personal trainers. They can then book a free initial consultation with you.

    We’ll be using a combination of marketing techniques including optimising our website to ensure your profile page is featured high in the organic search engines for personal trainer searches for your territory. This takes time so we’ll also be paying for advertising with companies such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Facebook to feature in the top paid adverts for potential clients searching for personal trainers in your territory.

    We’ve also got numerous other PR and marketing opportunities through more traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio, tv, etc...) that we’ll be keeping you informed about if you join our team!

12. How many client leads can I expect to receive?

    As an example, our top 3 trainers received 6, 5 and 4 new clients respectively for the month of April. Potentially 12, 10 and 8 extra sessions a week or 48, 40, or 32 sessions a month. Whatever your prices that's a lot of extra income in your pocket.

    We believe that you can expect your Not In The Gym profile page to receive a minimum of approximately 40 views per month. This is comparable to personal trainers working for gyms such as LA Fitness and DW  Fitness who are paying 10 times more than our monthly license fee! We also have software to track the accuracy of this every month.

    How many clients book a consultation with you obviously depends on many factors including how appealing your profile page is. Are you confident of turning your free consultations into paying clients? Remember you don't have to approach them 'cold' like you do in a gym. Working on a conservative estimate of only 5% of these potential clients booking a consultation with you would result in an extra 2 clients per month. If these clients both each took out a block booking with you of 10-12 sessions at approximately £35 per session then your annual license fee would be more than paid for after only one month. Can YOU afford NOT to be with Not In The Gym?

13. Will I share leads with other trainers?

    No! The leads we provide you with are 100% exclusive to you.

14. How do clients contact me?

    Potential clients browsing the www.NotInThe Gym.com website for personal trainers will first need to select the personal trainer in the area nearest to them. They will then need to book an initial consultation with you. To do this they will fill in a short contact form which includes their phone number, email address, name and location. As soon as they complete this form it will be emailed directly to the email address YOU have provided us with. It is then up to you to get in touch with the client and arrange the consultation.

15. Do you already have clients in my area looking for personal trainers?

    We are constantly getting enquiries from potential clients who can’t find a trainer in their area. However, we don’t actively advertise for clients in a particular area until a trainer signs up for that area. Once a trainer signs up for an area we then start marketing their services to potential clients in that area.

16. What can I charge for my personal training services and other fitness sessions?

    Whatever you want! There is a huge disparity in the prices trainers can charge in and out of London so it is very much up to you what you charge.

    However we are in the midst of a recession and with everyone cutting back on their expenditure it’s good to offer competitive prices. Getting clients to buy a block booking for a number of sessions, thus reducing the price of each individual session is very popular. You can also offer half-price OFF PEAK sessions when you don't have many clients, e.g. during the day. Simply list your different prices under the 'SESSIONS' tab on your profile page - you can even add a picture!

17. Do I need to supply my own equipment?

    Yes. You supply all the equipment, although some clients may have pieces of equipment that they want you to factor into the training session. It’s therefore very much up to you what equipment you use, and this will be dependent upon the individual client, the program you have given them and the training location. You are therefore only limited by your imagination.

18. Will I need a license from my local authority to train clients in my local parks?

    You will need to check with your individual local authority. A recent survey in January 2012 found that one third of local councils currently charge fitness professionals to use their facilities for fitness classes. Charges vary according from council to council. Please check.

19. Do I have to use your branded documents and marketing material?

    No, you are free to use whatever documents and marketing material you want. However, we have produced our own ‘Health and Lifestyle Questionnaire / PAR-Q’, ‘Terms & Conditions’ and a welcome letter from Not In The Gym. You can download these documents and email them to your clients, or print them off and take them to your initial consultations with you. The choice is yours.

20. How can I join?

    You can either fill in the ‘Be a Trainer’ form online where it says 'select an area and start to register with us', or contact us if you would prefer to speak to us in person. You will first need to decide on an area that hasn’t already been taken by another trainer. See the ‘Be a Trainer’ Tab to access the list of available territories. You would then need to provide us with copies of your Level 3 personal trainer qualification and public liability and professional Indemnity insurance with up to £2,000,000 in cover. You can scan or photograph these and either email or post them back to us. Once we have verified these we will send you a copy of the Agreement to sign. 

    Once you have read, signed and sent / emailed the agreement back to us we will confirm you as a Not In The Gym personal trainer. We will send you a username and password to access the website so that you can finish your personal trainer profile. We will then be able to start marketing your services to potential clients.

21. What if I have other questions that are not featured here?

    If your particular question is not answered here then please do not hesitate to contact us with your enquiry. Our customer service team would be happy to help you. Please click here to contact us.