How to start as an online personal trainer, step by step

Working out how to become an online personal trainer, in the part that depends on how you organise yourself, means thinking of a service rather than a one-off routine: what it includes, how a client joins, what happens each week, how it is paid for and when you review it. If you decide this before your first client, the second and the tenth are looked after in the same way. Here we do not cover courses, qualifications or paperwork, but setting up the service step by step.

Step 1: decide exactly what you sell

An online client does not see you in the gym: what they buy is what you promise them in writing. Before you advertise, define:

• The format. Online only, or mixed: some in-person sessions and the rest remote.
• What it includes. The plan, how often you review it, the weekly check-in, the chat and your reply hours.
• What it does not include. Saying so avoids arguments later: for example, replies at any hour or plan changes whenever the client asks.
• How long the commitment lasts and how it ends, by either party.
• The price and how it is paid, with the payment date.

Write it in a short document that the client reads before starting. If you ever doubt whether something is part of the service, the answer will be there and not in your memory.

Step 2: prepare once what you will repeat

What makes an online service sustainable is not starting from scratch with every client. Before you have the first one, have ready:

1. Your plan templates. The structures you will use most, to adapt for each person instead of writing them from scratch. For example, a “Routine A” for beginners and a “Routine B” for those who already train on their own.
2. The messages you will repeat: the welcome, the check-in reminder, the pending fee and the notice of a plan change.
3. The terms document: what the service includes, how it is paid for, how it is cancelled and how you communicate.
4. The questions for the first assessment: what they want to achieve, when they can train, what experience they have and what equipment they have. Ask only for what you will use.

One afternoon spent on this saves you repeating the same work with every new client.

Step 3: a new client's journey

Map out the path from someone first writing to you until they train with your plan, and make it the same every time:

1. A first conversation or assessment, to see whether you are a good fit.
2. The written agreement: you send your terms and they accept them.
3. Registration: you open their record, give them access to their app and explain how you will handle their data.
4. Their first plan, assigned before their first week is over.
5. A welcome message with what they already have and the day you expect their first check-in.

The first week, day by day and with its checklist, is in registering a new client.

Step 4: what happens each week

An online service rests on a cycle that repeats: the client trains and logs what they do, sends you their check-in, you review it in a fixed slot in your diary and reply with what you have seen and what changes. If the cycle breaks at any of those points, the client stops feeling supported.

Two decisions are worth taking from the start:

• Which day the check-in arrives and when you reply. If they all arrive on the same day, you review them in one go.
• What you do if someone gives no sign of life. A timely message, short and without reproach, does more than a long conversation once they have already disengaged.

Which data to follow and how to review it without living glued to your phone is covered in real follow-up of online clients.

Step 5: payment, sorted from the first month

An online client is not in the room with you to pay you, so payment has to be settled before you start: amount, frequency, date and payment method, in writing. Record each payment in the same place, however it arrives, and check every week who has not paid. What you let slide for a month turns into an awkward conversation by the third.

Step 6: review the service, not just the clients

After a few weeks, look at the service from the outside:

• What is taking up more of your time than you expected? You may need to change what it includes or what it costs.
• What do they ask you again and again? That goes into the terms document or a message template.
• Where do clients get stuck: at access, at logging what they do, at the check-in?
• How many people can you look after properly with what your service includes?

Adjusting the service with what you have seen is what turns it into something you can repeat with more people.

How Entrenify handles it

In Entrenify (in Spanish), every step of the service has its place:

• Templates and programmes. Routines carry sets, repetitions, weight, rest and a target RPE for each exercise. A routine can be assigned to several clients at once and each client gets their own copy, and templates keep versions with a note. Programmes are built on a grid of weeks by days and transferred to the client's calendar; that builder is used on a computer.
• The client's app. They log in, see the day's routine and log sets, repetitions, weight and RPE, and when logging they see how much weight they used for each exercise last time. It is installed as a web app from the phone's browser: it is not on the App Store or Google Play.
• The plan as a PDF, which is stored in the client's documents.
• Weekly check-in. From their app, the client sends you their weight, how much of the plan they followed, their mood, their energy, their hours of sleep and their notes, and you reply. If it does not arrive, you can ask for it from the chat.
• Chat with attachments, voice notes and message templates.
• Fees and payments. You record the fee and each payment by hand, with its payment method, and see who owes you. Entrenify is not a payment gateway and does not issue tax invoices.
• One notification a day, at your chosen time, with the clients who are not paying, have not trained for days, have no plan or have a new check-in. You set the thresholds.
• A public booking page, so people can ask you for the first assessment without exchanging messages back and forth.

What it does not do: it has no video calling of its own, catalogue exercises have an image and not a video, and it does not send notifications by WhatsApp or SMS. What the client sees in their app and how to get them to open it every week is covered in your clients' app.