Setting up my own business, advice needed please!

Cliffy94

Hi guys abit of advice needed please if possible! I wasnt sure which board to post this on, so i have done a couple, i hope the mods dont mind!

Im considering setting up my own business here in the UK., in health and fitness. I have a degree in Nutrition, and i'm soon to be a qualified personal trainer. I was just wondering how much people would be willing to pay for personalised tailored nutrition and fitness plans? is this something people have had done? If so what have you paid? Just so i can get an idea of demand and what to charge clients!

That would be one aspect of my business, the other would be to do talks and workshops in schools to children on healthy eating/healthy lifestyles, as im also a qualified Youth Worker. The children would obtain a nationally recognised qualification from doing the course too. If people work in schools is this something that teachers/schools would go for?

Im in the process of trying to lose my beer gut which i have gained from a couple of bad injuries playing ice hockey, so that i can look the part to play the part as i hate how i look right now!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!
Regards, Scott

SairahRose

Some plans are £60+ and that's just for the plan itself. Other training regimes can be monthly.. but a lot of it depends on what you're offering to different people. Again, a gym membership often comes with a fitness trainer, and you're talking £25 a month just for the cheapest one.

Sadly most of my information would come from a Google search, which you've no doubt done all that research yourself.

I do know that my son's school has a sport's club where they get a certificate for doing a sport course (so many hours of the after-school club), so I'd say they'd definitely be open to looking into that as well. Maybe other schools would too?

jaz050465

I used to use a state registered dietician. I live in the sticks so what was good was that we worked by phone and email. She added up the time and charged £70 an hour. This included her emailing me every week for my weigh in.

This is her website. She's in Scotland so you won't be in competition so I'm sure she wouldn't mind me doing this.

I liked the one to one attention. I've been to numerous slimming clubs but firstly they talked boll**ks half the time and secondly, I felt just a number.

Good luck with it.

jaz050465

Not sure about the school thing. It's all about money. Think schools just use PE and science teachers for this. I wouldn't bank on that.

chicco57

I think you need to reserch the area you want to work in as you will find that prices vary everywhere...the only other advice I can give you regarding working with the children, which is a great idea, but you would need to work with their parents as well as they are the ones that need to buy the healthy food for the children.

beccarockslife

Schools would go for it if you did it in the right way but don't expect them to have much of a budget and bare in mind it will be a lot of work, you will need to differentiate the activities to suit all abilities within a class, allow for disabilities including learning disabilities, EAL, you will have to have a full plan of your day with learning outcomes and targets planned out for a head to even consider speaking to you. You will need to show how you are working with the different levels in the class as well as in school.

Teachers have to do this for every lesson so you'll be expected to as well.

Aside from schools my PT does sessions with nutrition advice at £25 per hour for me.

beccarockslife

And obviously they would expect you to be CRB checked. Factor that in to your costs and they take around 6/8 weeks

PurpleTina

The 'MEND' programme already offers healthy lifestyle advice to families who are in need (think you have to have a child under 13 to qualify), and is fully funded. Maybe worth a look at their website to see whether you might become part of what they do as an add-on to your trainer stuff? Dependant upon area you might find there is funding for stuff with kids too, we live in an area which is classed as 'deprived' and there is government money to fund stuff that improves the quality of people's health.

orangesmartie

The woman who teaches my boxing classes does her 1:1 training sessions at £15 per month. She does a personalised diet and exercise plan as part of the regime. She also offers personalised diet and exercise plans for people who don't live nearby/want the training sessions. Her info is here: http://www.fightingfitdevon.co.uk/information.php?t=Personal-Training-and-'The-Essence'&s=Personal-Training&id=2

Your costs are going to depend on where in the country you are.

You are very unlikely to be able to get into schools, particularly if you want to be paid. Budgets are already overstretched, and those things are 'supposed' to be taught in science, home economics and PE. also bear in mind that they would struggle to fit additional sessions into an already overcrowded curriculum.

I would suggest maybe looking into setting up classes as a way to spread the word. Can you devise some circuit training or boxing classes? Venues can be relatively inexpensive if you shop around - village halls and the like, or outdoor classes. See if you can get a group of people to do classes in the park - people walking by will also see you and may take an interest.

Somewhere else to target is GP surgeries and your local NHS lifestyle team. Many areas run a 'GP referral' scheme to gyms and exercise clubs, so might be worth spreading the word that way.

the other thing to take into account when considering your target market and geographical areas is do people have that kind of money to spend right now? I'd love some PT sessions, but I can't justify the expense - or I'd have to give up my 4 classes a week to afford that one session.

Try working on putting together a solid business plan and do your market research and that will tell you whether or not this is a viable business in your location.

smiffy645

Selling to public sector is difficult as their buying is well regulated through bodies like the OGC. If it were me I would pick a softer target, Running & cycling clubs. Local sports teams etc.

Jessie169

Selling to public sector is difficult as their buying is well regulated through bodies like the OGC. If it were me I would pick a softer target, Running & cycling clubs. Local sports teams etc.

This. In terms of offering your service to schools/health and social care, authorities have a very strict procurement of services process, so it would be very wise to do some very thorough research on it before you consider trying approach them.

However, there are many community projects that have roles such as 'health trainers' who educate individuals usually who have low incomes/are in need so perhaps you could consider a part time employed role like that, and also do self employed work alongside it. That way you would have a regular income alongside your self employed stuff.

fatty_to_fitty

Depends on who you target.

You'd make more with a generalized plan so people could pick from categories ( diet chef's ordered food works like this) it means you spend less time preparing and could have transparent fees.

Athletes or anyone training for a specific goal would benefit from a personalized plan but many of them have a coach that does this for them. Or just can't afford it anyway.

This is highly competitive and every sports coach and personal trainer would already look to offer this service because nutrition is key to training. My PT charged £40 a session with food review and gave a list of items to stick to it changed every 8 weeks.