Are you a solopreneur or independent personal trainer? Whether you do strictly online or in-person personal training, you can still only do so much as a one-person team. After all, there are so many hours in the day!

It’s natural for every business owner to ask themselves a few questions before expanding their team. Can I afford to pay someone? Will it actually bring me more business or be a waste of money? Who should I hire? How should I add to my team?

All of these questions are legitimate, but shouldn’t stop you from building your team. If you’ve reached a point where you have a successful fitness business on your own, think how much more you could accomplish if you had a team to support you and hustle at your side!

I personally went through this same round of questions and concerns and after take the leap and extremely happy that I built my team—or what I like to call my squad.

After adding some extra man/woman power to my team, my business became much more successful, and I was given more time to work on the business (growth, strategy, brand, etc.) instead of spending all of my time working in the business. Trading valuable hours for money is financially beneficial if you are a busy personal trainer; however, this is very difficult to keep up in long-term. What if you go on vacation or need to take time off work? If you are not working, you are not getting paid. This is where building systems and a solid team for your fitness business will come in handy!

3 Ways You Can Grow Your Personal Training Business Team

1. Hire Coaches to Work Underneath You

With a team of professionals by your side, you could be making money from home spending time with your family, or in your office building your business further. The key to this is hiring the right coaches that will fit in with the values of your business and who you can trust with your clients. This might take time, but when you find the right people, this will bring value to your business and maintain your sanity as an entrepreneur!

Teams of coaches can benefit both your online and in-person fitness business. If you have grown your online fitness business to be very busy and successful, imagine how many more clients you could help if you have one or two coaches helping you with the online training programs? The best part about having coaches working for you is that your business will now become independent and able to run without you! For example, coaches can cover for you if you have to take time off work.

My advice: be patient and wait until you find someone who is the right fit. Speaking from my personal experience, not everyone will be right for your business. Even if the coach has all the credentials, personality and dedication to your business are the most important!

Have a solid screening and on-boarding process to ensure you have chosen the right coaches.  And once you have them, pay them well so they feel appreciated and never leave you!

2. Partner With Local Professionals For Quality Referrals

Having a team of like-minded individuals outside of your immediate staff is always great for business development, support, and growth. If you have a brick and mortar business or operate strictly online, networking with other entrepreneurs is an absolute must. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, you can feel like you are building your empire alone. However, after talking to other entrepreneurs, you’ll find them all in the same position (or have been in a similar one).

These partnerships can be great for sending each other clients as well as support in building each other’s businesses. Find a small group of people in your position in the health and fitness field such as physiotherapists, nutritionists, wellness coaches, naturopaths etc. Help each other out by referring clients to each other as well as supporting each other through holding events, meetings, and workshops that you can all gain from.

3. Hire Admin Staff or an Assistant

Business owners don’t get to spend all of their time actually training clients. We spend quite a lot of our time doing work behind the scenes: answering emails, writing our newsletters, building funnels, creating content, updating our websites, invoicing, blogging, posting and answering comments on social media—the list goes on and on.

What if you could have help getting all of this done so you actually could spend more time training clients and networking, or focusing on high-level strategy for your business? This could be a life changer for you, but, again, be sure you find someone who is a right fit for your business. If they are going to be doing any customer service or emailing for you, you want to make sure they are on board with exactly how you run your business and what your brand represents.

As entrepreneurs, once we learn how to delegate and trust the people we hire, our world is changed! Depending on your budget you can hire a virtual assistant through websites like upwork or fiverr, or you could hire someone local if you prefer the in-person communication. Hiring locally might cost you a bit more, but will provide you with more security and ability to meet with your assistant on a regular basis face-to-face.

My advice would be to start by making a list of all the things you do on a weekly basis to keep your business afloat as well as the things you want to do, but might not have time for. Once you have this list, create a second list of all of those tasks you could delegate to someone else. Once you have this delegation list, start thinking about how you can build your squad to help you. What roles would your business benefit from adding? Remember, any money you spend paying someone to work for you is an investment in your business and yourself. If you have more time to build your business, you will make that money back, no problem!