A common approach to pricing personal training services is basing the price on the number of hands-on hours involved. If you determine your hourly rate to be $60 and you spend an hour each week working with or on your clients, you would charge your clients anywhere from $240-$300 per month. 

But what about online personal training? The amount of time spent with clients varies dramatically; some trainers include weekly 15-minute check-ins or hour-long coaching calls with completely customized programs, whereas others don’t include any one-to-one contact and offer programs adapted from a pre-designed template.

Neither option is better than the other. Each is suited to a particular type of client. So, if two separate clients are capable of getting comparable results from each trainer, why should one pay a substantially lower amount just because their trainer has figured out an effective way to streamline his or her business?

This is the problem with pricing based upon the number of hands-on hours. Because in reality, some clients will take up more of your time. It doesn’t matter if they’re in-person or online, or whether or not boundaries have been established. It can take time to communicate and enforce those boundaries!

At the end of the day, most clients don’t care how much time you spend with them. They care that you are capable of delivering the results they’re seeking. So rather than trying to justify pricing strategies based on the number of hours involved, create them based on what works for you.

What Should You Base Your Pricing On?

Many experts recommend to price your services based on the results you’re delivering. However, when you’re facilitating the transformation of somebody’s life, the results are priceless! But since you need a price, take the following into consideration:

1. Final Product Offered to a Client

Do clients have your guidance and coaching along their journeys, or simply a workout plan? Are you delivering their programs in an easy-to-use format, like Trainerize, or are you sending spreadsheets and YouTube links?

2. Extras Included in the Program

Do you offer discounts on your favourite products and/or services? Meal plans or recipe guides? More intricate options for their training plans?

3. Money Your Clients Save by Training Online

By offering online training, can clients get rid of a gym membership they’re no longer using with at-home programs from you? Will they spend less money on gas? On junk food?

4. Energy You Put into the Program

Are you incredibly strong in-person, delivering 110% energy in every session? Are you able to deliver just as effective results online with less energy drain on your part?

The answers to each of these questions will be individual – there are no right or wrongs!

How I Determined My Prices

I’m an introvert by nature, and while I love working with clients in person, I also find myself incredibly exhausted after giving my clients my all throughout the day. When I coach clients online, I’m not actually delivering them my energy during a session. I put a lot of thought into the programs I create; however, I don’t find it nearly as tiring working with a roster of online clients as I do in-person clients. Therefore, my in-person rates are at a premium, whereas I price my online coaching lower. In each case, my clients still get great results.

The key is that you find a pricing strategy that you are confident in. When you are able to confidently communicate the price of your services and you believe in your reasoning for them, your clients and potential clients will trust that you are capable of delivering the results they’re seeking.

Elevate Your Fitness Business: A Complete Pricing Guide for Personal Trainers and Online Coaches