For potential clients to recognise your abilities, you need to stand out from the crowd. With thousands of fitness professionals in the UK, how can you let people know that you will provide them with the best possible experience?
An easy way to do this is to become a CIMSPA member. As the chartered professional body for the sport and physical activity sector workforce, we offer credibility to our members. When you display your CIMSPA member badge, potential clients can easily see that this means that you are qualified, supported in your professional development and most importantly committed to excellence in your work.
Soon we will also be providing CIMSPA members with professional status. As part of our strategy to ensure sector professionals gain the recognition they deserve, we will be delivering this new celebration of your skillset to make it even easier for clients to understand your expertise, specialisms and experience. Watch this space!
The next step in starting to work for yourself is registering your business with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). This is informing the government that you are self-employed, which is important for ensuring that you are paying the correct taxes and confirming your legal responsibilities as a business owner.
The most common options are registering as a sole trader (officially classed as self-employed) or a limited company (you are the director of a business), but there are other options too if a different structure would suit you better.
You can start working straight away but must register as a sole trader if you earn more than £1,000 in a tax year through your self-employed work.
Find out more about your options and how to register on the gov.uk website.
Once you’re recognised and registered, you will need to do some more planning around how you will run your business. Here are some key elements to decide on:
For support tailored to sport and physical activity businesses, CIMSPA members can access our guidance notes via your portal. These cover a wide range of topics from equipment to risk assessment, offering you sector-specific information and best practice to help you run your business.
Insuring yourself is a crucial part of being self-employed, as it protects you against legal action and any subsequent costs if, for example, someone is injured or property is damaged. There are two types of insurance that are important for sport and physical activity professionals:
It’s important to check what you need for the services you plan to offer so that you receive an appropriate level of protection in case of an issue. There are many providers available, including some aimed specifically at insuring sport and physical activity professionals, so research a few to get an idea of what might suit your needs best.
CIMSPA members are able to access specialist sport and physical activity insurance for both of these areas through UK Coaching. The offer also includes a range of additional protection as well as access to further support.
A business plan is a written document that describes your business. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts.
If you are looking to borrow money to support you in starting off your self-employment journey, you will need to create a business plan to show investors what they can expect from you and your business. Even if you are not looking for investment, it can be a good way to set clear boundaries, goals and emergency plans for your work.
If you’re not sure where to start, there are lots of websites offering advice on what to include as well as templates to help you get going.
Read the King’s Trust business plan guidance
If you are a CIMSPA member, you can also view our sector-specific business planning guidance notes via your portal.
Now you’ve got yourself set up, you’re ready to get some clients! This can be tricky, as everyone has different motivations for seeking out a sport and physical activity professional. Even so, there are some fundamental marketing tips and tricks that can help you to reach your audience and make sure they understand what you can offer them.
Our Digital Marketing Hub is a great place to explore things you can do to engage customers. The hub offers pre-recorded webinars on a range of topics from social media to strategy as well as guidance documents to support you with budgeting, content creation and more.
The most important thing in gaining clients is to be authentically you. Nobody wants to sign up for one service and find out they’re getting something completely different, so make sure you remain honest, open and friendly. By showing and sharing your real knowledge and expertise, you’ll be busy in no time!
When you get up and running with your self-employed work, you might find that as you get busier, becomes difficult to keep track of your time and finances. To make sure you keep your work-life balance stable and are running your business as efficiently as possible as possible, there are a few things you can do to make your work easier:
When you work for yourself, it can be very tempting to just use your existing tools for business purposes. While possible, this can make it difficult for you to keep track of your work communication, appointments and expenses – try searching your bank statement for your facility rent payment when it’s full of your weekly shop and that holiday you booked!
As we mentioned before, it’s best to use a business account for your finances. As well as this, it’s a good idea to use a separate email account and you may want to consider a separate phone number (either a work phone or a second SIM card) for organising work.
There are now an incredible number of useful and often free tools to help self-employed people keep on top of their business admin. From calendars to finance trackers and social media managers, you can use the power of technology to allow you to focus on what you do best.
There are even specific tools aimed at self-employed sport and physical activity professionals, so you can organise your clients’ fitness information and optimise your session delivery, too.
As the CEO of yourself, it can sometimes feel like you always have to be on call. In fact, it’s extremely important to set boundaries and give yourself time to switch off so that you can remain on top form. While it can be difficult to set specific working hours as a personal trainer, for example, it’s worth deciding hours that you will (and won’t) respond to messages.
Many self-employed professionals also struggle to give themselves full days off and particularly extended holidays, but these are essential for recuperating your energy – you probably tell your clients to take rest days, so you know that you need them too! Taking time to recover will also reduce the likelihood of you needing to take sick days, as a rested professional is a healthier one.
Communication – it’s an essential part of your work as a sport and physical activity professional, and even more important when you’re self-employed. From attracting clients to managing your classes, you’ll need to keep in touch with your target audience on a regular basis.
The first thing to do is to learn about communication strategies, tips and tricks. You know you need to be qualified to deliver sport and physical activity, but what about the other parts of your new business? Our digital marketing hub has a range of CPD available to help you become just as skilled in communicating as you are in circuit training.
If you are a CIMSPA member, you can also pick up useful knowledge on dealing with difficult customers as well as care, feedback and many more aspects of communicating at work using our sector guidance notes. These can be found through your member portal.