Starting Personal Training

[crackerjackshot]

Hello all,
Before I get started I wanted to just say that I've been searching around the forums in different places trying to find information and it's been really shaky at best. Let me just get into my specific situation. I'm 29, just got out of the Coast Guard and moved to Colorado. I'm doing full time school through the GI Bill. While this is paying me some monthly for housing, it won't pay through the summer and it barely covers bills BARELY.
I'm looking to get my ACE cert done here in May and start working for a gym. I figured I would work full time through the summer and then pull back to part time during the school months. I heard that personal training is one of the most flexible jobs to have. I'm not worried during the school months because basically anything I make is spending money. During the summer though it is needed. I would need to clear 2200 a month to live for the most part to be safe and anything more would be greatly appreciated since it's hard to not spend money in Colorado (too many hobbies).
Is this pretty achievable? How stable is the income? Would any of you recommend maybe finding a different part time job FIRST, and THEN trying to just pick up part time at the gym to feel it out? I like the ideas of the job and it would be one I enjoy, it just makes me nervous that so much of this job's pay just kinda "depends".
Anyways, I'm open to critique or any thoughts or new ideas or approaches anybody has. Thank you so much for your time.

[SeanFxxx]

It will be tough if you work for a corporate gym, you are very limited in how much you can make. I won't say impossible, but tough. If money is essential I would find a full time job with higher pay during the summer and try to train part time during school.

[robb88]

Most gyms "do what they can" to start you out with a client here and there when you start up, but as a clear cut answer, no you won't make 2200 per month starting out and most likely nowhere close to that.

Alot of people look for clear cut information when it comes to being a personal trainer such as how much will I make at L.A. Fitness, Lifetime, insert your chain gym here, etc. The truth is, what you make always depends on your personality as well as how many people you know want to work with you when you start the job. If you know several clients that want to sign on with you, more power to you. That's going to give you a head start. If you don't know anyone starting out, then you're going to do (most likely) unpaid floor walking time. If you don't know what that means, it means you have to interrupt people's workouts and see if they want to buy your personal training. Or you have to catch people as they walk in the door of your gym. It takes a very good amount of time to build up a client base, absolutely more than one summer. Most successful trainers have been doing it a long time and they work of referrals of their current clients. So, unless you have a huge knack for talking to strangers and being a salesman, you likely won't make what you need in the first couple months.

Corporate fitness centers are a completely different world and this has been the world I live in for the past several years. Contrary to what the last comment says, the immediate pay is much better than a commercial gym and it's usually a guaranteed hourly or salary rate. However the ceiling of earning potential is much lower. Due to your situation, you may want to look at that route if you're in a metropolitan area that supports corporate fitness centers. They will sometimes require that you have a degree though so you just have to do your homework.

[Ronin4help]

It will be tough if you work for a corporate gym, you are very limited in how much you can make. I won't say impossible, but tough. If money is essential I would find a full time job with higher pay during the summer and try to train part time during school.

I tend to agree with this. That said, you may find it hard to find a job, for which you do not possess a relevant expertise, that pays more than you would make as a trainer. Think about it for a second... where are you going to work?