Choosing a niche for your Personal Training business is a great way to differentiate yourself in the large market and grow a trusted brand in a smaller market that you can dominate.
As a fitness professional you can’t simply be a Fitness Professional that does everything from teaching fitness to training athlete to massaging them to helping clients lose weight and everything in between. You can, but it’ll be hard and you’ll struggle to stand out in any one of those areas. Trying to maintain your knowledge on such a breadth of fields would be a struggle to say the least.
It’s therefore advisable that in order to attract the attention of the right people, and to develop yourself as an expert in a particular area, you should choose a niche to focus your attention.
In this article I’ll go through what a niche is, what niches are available and what considerations you should make when choosing a niche.
What is a niche?
In simple terms, it is a specific small group of people from a section of a market. So in our case, it’ll be a small selection of people within the fitness industry that care about a specific thing. It’ll make more sense as we go through the niches available.
What niches are available?
This is a really tough question to answer fully, as there could be hundreds if not thousands of niches when you think about it. Although there might be thousands, don’t pigeon hole yourself too much, in that you’ll only have a few clients that might be interested in your services.
Here is a list of possible niches with sub-niches:
Equipment or exercise based niche
Specialising with a particular type of equipment or exercise method can be a great way to specialise, as it will give you a wealth of knowledge on how to use said equipment or how to do the exercises in order to achieve the best results for your clients. The advantages of this niche is that you can buy the best equipment for that specific niche, or two niches if they’re similar or linked, and give your clients the best experience they’ll get anywhere, as well as a thorough workout in an area they are attracted to.
If your equipment is easily transported, you can take it on the road or do it in different group sizes or locations, making your business mobile.
Of course, it’s key to choose an interesting piece of equipment or exercise that will attract a good number of people. Dumbbells don’t have the same appeal as say Kettlebells, for example.
Here are some ideas:
- Kettlebells
- Functional training
- Running (treadmill or outdoors)
- Cycling (spin classes)
- Free weights
- Bootcamps
- Dance based classes
- Bodyweight training
- Movement based training
- Battle ropes
- Bars
- TRX (suspension training)
- Yoga
- Pilates
Lifestyle, aesthetics or event based
A lot of people want to work out in preparation for something, which is usually, but not always, to look better in some way. Often, these types of clients may be shorter lasting relationships, as once their event is over they might not want a PR any more. Therefore, you will have to work harder to keep them as a long term client.
The good thing about this niche, is that a lot of these niches can overlap, as the goals are similar. It’s the messaging and marketing that is the draw “get fit for summer”, “drop a dress size” etc. In terms of referrals, if you succeed in helping someone fit into their wedding dress, they’ll recommend you to a friend that might be looking to get that summer body.
- Wedding fit
- Summer body
- Get rid of Christmas weight
- Pregnancy (post, pre, during) exercise
- Training with older people (50s, 60s, 70s etc)
- Exercise for children
- New Year’s resolutions
- Lose weight
- Health and wellbeing
- Gain muscle
- Gain muscle
- Bodybuilding
- Fitness shows
Medical condition
This area can be rather lucrative, especially if you are able to establish strong partnerships with physicians or physical therapists, or better yet, a surgery or clinic. By doing this you can set yourself up for a nice incoming stream of referral clients. These clients will often come with instructions or a prescription from their doctor or therapist which you’ll need to follow.
Health related specialists are attractive because they deal with people’s health, wellbeing and concerns. If you can become a genuine expert in a field or two, and become recommended by a few doctors/physiotherapists, you’ll be in a very good place. Added to that, you’ll be helping people through a potentially tough period in their life, and they’ll be very grateful to you for it.
- Rehabilitation from surgery
- Wheelchair exercise
- High blood pressure
- Pregnancy
- Broken bones (during recovery and post recovery)
- Back pain
- Arthritis
- Diabetes
Belief system or lifestyle choice
Some belief systems or lifestyle choices require a different approach to fitness. Perhaps a different area to exercise and with someone aware of the social constructs of their belief system. For example, some Muslim women might have to wear a full hijab to exercise, and might feel more comfortable with someone that understands that.
- Religion based
- Diet based (vegan, vegetarian, paleo)
Conclusion
In essence, choosing a niche will help you build a reputation for a specific area, of course you can accept clients from any background or with any interest, but having a niche helps with your messaging, website content, advertising and word of mouth. If you can work hard at specialising in a niche and become an expert, you’ll be able to build a community around it, or intertwine yourself within a certain community to build a reputation and thus a client base. There are many niches that are not on the list, but hopefully you’ll now have a better idea of where to start.
If you’re already a Personal Trainer, and need to get further qualifications on subjects like kettlebells, pregnancy, working with children, Olympic lifting, running or more, check out our CEC courses and workshops.
If you’re not yet a Personal Trainer, but like the idea of starting a career in a job you’ll love and enjoy working at, study to become a personal trainer with us.
