The personal training market in the U.S. is worth around 32 billion dollars, making it a lucrative industry to start a business. However, unlike other industries, fitness involves dealing with people’s health.
That’s why the customers are more concerned about who they choose to train them. Moreover, the customer base is diverse, meaning every customer has a different need, and they want trainers to offer personalized services.
As a result, the fitness industry has several niches where trainers can offer personalized services. But picking a niche is a different story. Besides the trainer’s expertise, the nice is also dependent on the requirements of the people. So before you pick a niche, there are a few things you need to know first. Besides that, if you’re looking for organizations that offer fitness specializations, check out W.I.T.S. Education.
What Is A Niche In The Fitness World?
In simple terms, a niche is a segment of the target market you’re interested in. The niche is characterized by specific characteristics, needs, and client requirements. In the fitness world, a niche is a subcategory or a part of a subcategory. For example, senior fitness training is a niche in the personal training category, but medical senior fitness training is a niche of senior fitness training.
In the fitness industry, niches can be as broad and specific as possible. They mostly depend on the region and customer demand. But the main reason why niches are so popular is that mainstream fitness categories often leave them behind.
Moreover, niches can be based on a specialty or the customer’s needs. If you’re a yoga instructor for women, that’s a niche based on specialty. But if you’re a yoga instructor for pregnant women or women with arthritis, that’s a niche based on specific customer needs.
How To Pick One For Yourself?
Identify Your Interests
Personal trainers are pretty involved in their work, and therefore they need to enjoy it to offer good services. So before you settle on a niche, you need to figure out what you like. Your likes can be based on your services or the people you want to work with. For example, you might like to train children so you can become a youth instructor. Or you might like training outdoors so you can be an outdoor fitness coach.
But the important thing is to define your expertise in the area and sketch a general outline before you start working in the niche. That way, you won’t end up diverting from your original interests and can create a loyal customer following.
Pick Markets That Are Less Saturated
While following your interests and passion is important, you can’t overlook the market growth opportunities. If a market is saturated with talented trainers, you won’t be able to curate a dedicated customer base. Additionally, even if you manage to get a few loyal customers, there won’t be many growth opportunities because bigger businesses will offer better services for a lesser price tag.
You should choose from niches that have plenty of growth potential. However, if you’re skilled in a specific service such as medical fitness, you can grow your business by creating new specialized niches.
Offer A Unique Service
There are always new problems arising in the fitness industry that might need a personalized approach, and clients are willing to pay a premium price if you can tackle those issues. These niches have higher growth potential, but you might struggle to find clients at first.
Once you have a few testimonials under your belt, it’ll be easier for you to find and take on new clients. With these types of niches, social media is the best marketing tool because of its personalized ads.
Interact With People To Learn More
If you’re new in the fitness industry and don’t know much about the industry trends, it’s better to interact with people and learn than to blindly follow trends. The people in question should be industry experts who have been in the fitness industry long enough to predict trends. Moreover, you can also interact with other fitness business owners who can tell you about a niche’s growth potential.
In addition to that, if you’re working for a gym or fitness center, you can interact with the customers to get an idea of what kind of services they’d like. If enough customers are saying yes to a need, then there’s definitely some growth potential. You can seek further information from experts or look up data trends to validate your research.
Determine The Investments And Future Growth Potential
Some niches are easier to enter but have a slower growth rate, other might need huge initial investments but give faster results. Both of these niches have good business potential, but the choice depends on what you have to offer. If higher investments aren’t a problem, then going for a lucrative niche is a good option. However, if you don’t have enough resources, you need to stick with niches easier to enter.
For example, online fitness training doesn’t require a lot of investments, but you need to be patient to grow an organic following because you’ll be competing against similar businesses. On the other hand, starting a specialized medical fitness studio may require substantial investments, but you’ll get clients faster.
But keep in mind the growth potential depends on the nature and quality of your services and not solely on the niche. If you have a good and expensive setup, but clients aren’t happy, they won’t come back, and if your online presence is small, but clients are happy with your services, they’re more likely to recommend it to others.
Have you picked a niche and want to earn a specialization? Take a look at W.I.T.S. Education’s fitness training courses. W.I.T.S. offers courses for group exercise instructors, medical fitness trainers, and senior fitness trainers. Our courses follow a hybrid teaching model with online lectures and in-person hands-on labs.
Moreover, our courses are accredited by the N.C.C.A. and the American Council of Education, making it easier for college students to earn college credits. Our network of colleges and universities is the largest in the country, and we’re committed to offering quality fitness training to aspiring students in the country. So hurry up, check out our course catalog and join us!