Why becoming a nutritional advisor could help personal trainers
With over 13,000 personal trainers in the UK, it’s becoming tougher for fitness professionals to establish a niche for themselves. It therefore becomes more of a challenge to compete for that dwindling market share.
And with Britain still in the midst of an obesity crisis (one in four adults in the UK is obese), there could scarcely be a better time to branch out into the world of nutritional advice.
Many PTs will draw up diet plans for their clients. Some will do excellent jobs at suggesting balanced diets that can help their clients towards their goals – others may barely stray from the “it’s high in protein; it must be good” thought process.
To really make it as a nutritional advisor, not to mention to also adhere to many insurance policies, getting qualified to give this advice is well worth doing.
Course providers such as Future Fit, Train Fitness and Diet Specialist all offer courses that are recognised by the Association for Nutrition.
By taking a course officially affiliated you take your first steps to being able to call yourself a Nutritional Advisor.
Yes, the personal training market is crowded, but why go down the nutrition route?
The answer to this is simple. Food (done properly) sells. Certain celebrity personal trainers such as Joe Wicks do this well. By providing visual stimulants with easy-to-follow instructions, his Instagram and Facebook videos with nutritional advice do extremely well.
It’s not just fitness professionals that are seeing the food market flourish. Facebook revealed last year that there are over 590 million users connected with food-related pages.
Accounts such as Tasty offer quick, visually engaging videos that throw out the dated way of sharing written recipes online. Just watch the video and copy and you too can enjoy the delicious dishes they promise.
Now, anyone can share a video of themselves cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It is the way in which you deliver it and market yourself that could hold the key. Consider spending a bit of money on Facebook Advertising to get your video and information in front of a new audience – it could be a sure fire way to attract new clients looking for more than simply a personal trainer.
The need for personal trainers in the UK is still massive, there’s no denying that. However, to stand out more, expanding your expertise to go one step above the competition can only be a good thing.
Good nutrition goes hand in hand with healthy living, so offers up the obvious expansion for your business. The audience is there, the simple way in is there. Why not become a Nutritional Advisor to give your personal training income that added boost?
3 steps to becoming an awesome nutritional advisor
1. Get qualified – not just for added influence, but for insurance purposes. Some policies won’t cover you for the advice you give unless you have the certification in place. There are a number of course providers available, just make sure they are affiliated with Association for Nutrition before signing up.
2. Get insured – once qualified you are in a good position to give nutritional advice. But do bear in mind that things can go wrong, and people do make mistakes. With Personal Trainer Insurance in place that covers the giving of nutritional advice, you are protected were someone to get ill based on suggestions you have given, blame you and ultimately sue you.
3. Get your name out there – from informing your current clients to your new-found expertise to using social media to get your name and services in front of people, there are a whole host of ways to attract new clients. Do this correctly and it might just put you one step ahead of your rivals.