Live Virtual Personal Training Classes: Tips For Success

In recent years, we have started to enter a new era of “digital everything”. More and more people are ordering their groceries online, shopping on Amazon, and taking advantage of new digital technologies that weren’t available just a couple of years ago. Now, the personal training industry is starting to feel the impact of this new “digital everything” era. Trainers are turning to the online space to get clients, namely because it’s easier to scale and earn more money. An emerging trend recently has been the rise of live virtual personal training classes.

1. Find a Good Software to Use.

If you’re a trainer looking to get into the live virtual personal training space, the first step is to find good software. While there are many out there, you want to assess the software for things like:

• Can you set a price for admission?
• What are the costs for larger classes?
• How easy is it to get clients set up on the software? Will it be free for your clients if you have a subscription?

Let’s take a look at popular software used for video conferencing to see if they have what it takes.

Zoom

Zoom, with the different zoom plans available, has recently been put on the map due to do a rising demand for video conferencing software. In just a couple of months, they have more than tripled their user base. They are also a tool, if used right, can be used for live virtual personal training classes.

Can you set a price for admission in zoom?

The short answer here is yes, you can. However, in order to figure out how to do it, I had to search on good and follow this lengthy article on how to configure the settings correctly.

Here’s a briefing:

• You must have a PayPal account prior to setting up paid-for-access Zoom sessions (PayPal is the only payment method accepted).
  • You need the “Zoom webinar add-on”. Starting at $40/month on top of your current subscription price.
  • Go to account management in your Zoom account. Then click on Webinar Settings.
  • Then click to edit on the “Registration settings”.
  • Then click the check box to “allow the option to charge registration fee”.
  • Next, you have to click “connect PayPal” and then log in to your PayPal account.
  • Once you have this setup, you then have to schedule a webinar.
  • In scheduling the webinar, you have to edit the invitation settings to set a price for admission.

Boy, that sounds like a pain in the butt. It’s a lot of steps and only accepts PayPal as a form of payment. Not to mention it’s expensive.

What are the costs for larger classes?

The first subscription tier for webinars in Zoom is an additional $40/month on top of your subscription plan. This plan covers 100 participants.

See below our dissection of what Zoom offers for webinars:

• Tier one – $40/month for up to 100 participants.
• Tier two – $140/month for up to 500 participants.
• Tier three – $340/month for up to 1,000 participants.
• Tier four – $990/month for up to 3,000 participants.

The thing I find really strange about the way they structure their pricing is, once you need to go over 100 participants, they don’t give an option for a plan lower than 500 participants.

If you have 101 participants, forget about it, you’re now paying 3.5x the initial price.

How easy is it to get clients set up on Zoom?

Here is where Zoom is rather simple (shocking). When you create a meeting or webinar – paid or free – all you have to do is send a meeting invite that it generates for you and that’s it. However, if you were wanting to store data on your clients in your Zoom account, that’s not an option.

They are a dedicated video conferencing tool.

Skype

Skype is one of the “OG” video conferencing software products on the market. While they don’t really have options dedicated to Webinars, their Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan includes meetings for up to 250 people and live online events for up to 10,000 people.

In doing research, it wasn’t really clear if you could set a price for admission with their product. However, even if they don’t have a feature that supports it, you could put together a “hacky” solution.

How to do paid classes with Skype.

Your best bet here is to go ahead and schedule the meeting/class via Skype. Then set up a landing page through a service like Mailchimp with a for or section where people can purchase access to your class.

Then you set up an email automation series that sends whoever bought access the link to the meeting/class.

However, there are some security issues with this. Once the link is sent out, theoretically, someone could just send that link out to everyone who wants to join the class for free. Or they could be profiting off of your class if they decide to sell the link once they have gotten it – not the best.

While it’s rare this will happen, it’s still a valid concern.

FitSW for Live Virtual Personal Training Classes

If you are unfamiliar with FitSW, we are a software dedicated to providing a suite of tools to personal trainers to help them scale and run their businesses. We recently just launched a feature that supports live virtual personal training classes.

Can you set a price for admission with FitSW?

Yes. You can create free or paid classes. Additionally, you can set the class to “public”. This will list your class on our sister site – www.findtraingain.com – to get more exposure to your business and the classes that you are offering.

What does the feature cost? Does it support larger classes?

The feature is a default feature available to all trainers on a premium subscription plan with FitSW. Our subscription prices are among the most competitive in the market, starting at just $8.33 / month for 15 clients and all access to the platform.

How easy is it to get clients set up on FitSW?

Well, our software is set up to do exactly this.

To do so, you simply go to your client list, select “Add new client” and then create an account for them where you can create and assign workouts, set goals, track nutrition and fitness progress, and much more. Clients can also access their accounts with the login credentials you have created for them.

Additional Features

With each FitSW live virtual personal training class, there are a variety of other features in place to help trainers manage their classes:

• Live chat with all participants.
• You can switch between video feeds for those participating to better critique their form.
• The ability to mute and boot participants if needed.

2. Get your planning ironed out.

With this one, it seems obvious but there are a couple of things you want to do before each class. Prior to each class, try sending out an email to all participants detailing what the class will go over and what your expectations are for the class.

In doing this, you can create a smoother experience for those involved because people know what to expect when going into the class. Additionally, get all of your equipment set up prior to the class. This way you are ready to get after it right after the class starts. In the email you send out to participants, instruct them to do the same, this way everyone is on the same beat.

However, in preparing for your class, realize that no matter how hard you try, not everyone will be on time for your class. Sometimes life just happens. At the start of the class, give a 5-minute buffer to make sure everyone is ready before getting started.

3. Set up music prior to the class.

Depending on where you are hosting the class, you need to be careful with the music you stream. Facebook and a variety of other social media platforms have been known to take down videos with popular music in them.

The reason for this is they could be held liable for letting people stream music in commercial settings that they don’t have the correct licensing.

One thing you can try to get around this is to set up a public Spotify playlist. This way everyone is using the same music from the same platform. This way, no one can argue you were using music without the right licensing.

Have Feedback on this article?

Let us know by reaching out to support@fitsw.com or reaching out to us on our social media channels.