GroupFitPower is excited to present guest blogger Biray Alsac.  Biray is the CEO of the FITmaxx institute and blogs at Be Fit With Biray.  Biray will be sharing her wisdom and expertise with us to keep things at GroupFitPower pumping while Krista takes some downtime to be pregnant.  We are certain you are going to get great things from her contributions.  Welcome Biray!

Biray Alsac
http://fittmaxxinstitute.com
http://befitwithbiray.com

I recently reconnected with a fitness colleague who, after the birth of her son, left teaching to focus on being a full-time mom.  She was an excellent instructor and most of the members were sad to see her ‘retire’. Last week she emailed me to see if I’d be interested in subbing a class for her. “I didn’t know you were teaching again” I said, surprised. She explained how she had missed teaching aerobics, but found that picking up classes at a club was no longer financially lucrative (i.e. childcare costs, drive time, gas prices, class flexibility, etc). So she began piloting fitness classes out of her garage, and wanted me to be the week’s guest instructor.

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Who doesn’t love free stuf?  Here, I have amassed a collection of music freebies, from streaming music, to free mp3 downloads, to other cool tools you can use.  Happy surfing!

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I have recieved numerous hits and questions regarding what an instructor actually makes for teaching classes.  Unfortunately, I do not have an answer that applies across the board, but I can shed some light on the question.

First, Group Fitness Instructors rarely earn a salary.  Most often, they are paid an hourly wage or a fixed amount  per class that they teach.  How high that wage is depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to:

• Experience.  I have worked at clubs that gave you a raise every year that you taught for them or everytime you earned another certification.
• Geography.  Depending on the cost of living or minimum wage in your area, the wage might be higher or lower.  Although, interestingly enough, I get paid more in Charleston, SC than I did at any of the clubs I taught for in NYC.  Go figure.
• Club Exclusivity.  Working for the most exclusive club in your area is certain to yield higher income than the public gym, although this is not a hard and fast rule.  There are some places that want only the best, and they pay to acquire them.
• Class Attendance.  It isn’t common, but yes, you might earn a sort of “commission” based on how many attendees you have.  How much and the cutoff are completely dependent upon the health club.

I think a fair ballpark for the average GFI is somewhere between $15 and $25 per hour-long class.  It is just a guess, of course, but it is based on my experience.  Then, if you figure that you are teaching the maximum recommended number of classes per week (no more than 12 according to AFAA to stay safe), you are pulling in $180 - $300 per week before taxes or $800 - $1300 per month.  However, I don’t know too many instructors who teach more than 6 per week.

Also,  instructors often are given perks, such as free gym membership, sometimes for spouses too, and discounts on merchandise, training, or services.  Even so, many instructors (myself included) don’t teach to make money.  By the time you purchase gear, music, shoes, and continuing education, you haven’t even broken even.  In order to profit from group fitness, you have to find creative ways to charge for your services, which I blogged about last month.  Check out How to Make $100 or More Per Class.

 I hope that helps!

To follow up my post, Make $100 or more per class, I wanted to share with you some success stories about folks who are making more than $100 per hour teaching group fitness.   These are individuals who took some great ideas and ran with them.  You can do the same!  Be inspired by these folks and know that you absolutely can do it too.

Operation Boot Camp

I learned about Operation Boot Camp from a friend of mine who lost 20 pounds through the program.  These instructors took exercise and weight loss out of the gym and out to the parks of Atlanta.  They have a great following and an excellent product which includes nutrition advice, early morning workouts, and motivational assistance (if you don’t show up, you get a call and extra pushups!).  I saw them featured on a CNN health segment.  You can see what they have going on at their website.

 Bella Vita Retreat

 Can you imagine being paid to take groups of men and women to tropical resorts and teach classes to them on the beach?  My friend is doing it with her new business and I can’t tell you green with envy I am that I didn’t think of that!  Her travel packages include hotel arrangements, spa-style meals, personal coaching, indoor and outdoor fitness classes and beauty treatments.  What a treat and what a money maker!

I read an article a couple of weeks ago by a local yoga instructor that basically said most yoga instructors would teach for free if they could - they only charge money for their classes because they have to survive.  I laughed a little bit, even though I understood where she was coming from.  It would be really nice if we could all exist happily doing whatever our hearts enjoyed and didn’t have to worry about things like mortgages, sales tax, or groceries.  However, the reality is, we aren’t a socialist state (yet) so you are going to have to earn some money to pay your bills and buy your stuff.  If you are like me at all, then you want to make the greatest amount of money in the shortest amount of time so that you can spend the other waking hours of your day enjoying the other parts of your life that make you happy too.

First off, let’s ask, is it really possible to make $100 per class that I teach?  Actually, yes, it is.  Just ask Billy Blanks.  He’ll laugh at you because he makes thousands per class.  Do you have to be Billy Blanks to command that kind of money?  No. Do you have to put some effort and thinking into doing it?  Yes, but it can be done, so let’s roll up our sleeves and come up with a game plan.

The first question you need to ask yourself is, “Who will pay me $100 for an hour of my time?”  There may be a gym out there willing to pay you that kind of hourly rate, but you have to be the lifeblood of their organization.  If your classes are busting at the seams and new people are coming in droves to join the club because of you then, yes.  See your boss for a raise because you deserve one.  The highest I’ve seen a club pay one single instructor, though, was $50 for one class, so if you have your sights set on bigger numbers, you’ll need to think bigger.  Note:  There are pros to remaining an emloyee of the gym, e.g. someone else does your accounting, you don’t need your own liability insurance, and it is easier to get a sub if you need to leave town or have an emergency.

Who else will pay me $100 an hour? Try thinking like a personal trainer.  If you are highly skilled and have excellent tutoring skills, you could offer private lessons in whatever you do best.  With privates, you charge whatever you want and keep the entire amount.  However, if you are using the club’s fitness room or their equipment for this endeavor, you may be charged rent or required to abide by their payment rules for personal trainers.  Still, if you market yourself right, you can command high dollars for your valuable time.  If not $100, still more than the $18 you are charging now.

 Let’s extend the idea of one-on-one instruction to the increasingly-popular, small-group “exclusive” classes.  Similar to private lessons, you market yourselves to individuals who pay to take your “class”.   These exclusives focus on a topic that isn’t readily addressed in general fitness classes.  By charging a group of five people $20 each to be in your class, you earn $100 for the hour — genius!  But what would make a person want to pay $20 for a fitness class?  Again, think a little bit like a personal trainer.  They want advice specific to a need or a want they have.  You could provide a 6 week running clinic for new runners in the early spring.  You could offer functional training workouts to prepare members for ski season.  You could hold a “Bikini Boot Camp” in the pre-summer months.  If you are an expert in a field, you could offer highly-advanced classes for the members who like what you offer and want to get better than the general levels can offer.  Or, you could offer a series of classes geared toward individuals with any special need or goal.  Have I got your mind churning yet? 

So now that you have the idea that you are potentially worth more than $20 per class, I want you also to think bigger than that.  Are you worth $200 an hour?  $2,000 an hour?  You are only limited by your beliefs about your self worth.  Steve Pavlina, who I quote a lot in this blog, had a great post a while back about this: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/11/how-to-earn-10000-in-one-hour/

 The possibilities don’t end there, but this post will.  Get out your brainstorming pen and your notebook and go to town.  I know that you have enormous potential and I am excited to hear what ideas you come up with!!!

We are now into our second post in a series about making money in group fitness. In the first post, Better Bottom Line, we discussed some basic economic considerations to be made when deciding where to work and how to maximize your paycheck with basic mathematic principles. In order to increase your overall paycheck, you could (A) Teach more classes (B) Get paid more for each class you teach or (C) A combination of both. We’re going to focus now on (B), specifically how to leverage yourself to confidently ask for a raise.

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It is only fair that I follow up my post about making money from the internet with a post about making more money doing what you love.  After all, it is why you are here! We all recognize that Group Fitness isn’t a high-paying profession, but there are ways you can turn the tables in your favor and generate more money for yourself, your family, and your employer.   This is going to be the first in a series of posts that are dedicated to helping you literally make the most out of teaching.  We’re going to discuss some very basic approaches here that really come down to how to find the best gyms for your bottom line.  Then, we’ll look at some “out-of-the-box” ways to command more money for your time.

Economics 101

First, let’s start with basic economics.  You currently earn $X per hour teach 2 classes per week at ABC Fitness Club.  The easiest thing to do would be to take on more classes and sub as frequently as you can, thus increasing your salary proportionately.  The limits to how much you can make in this structure are your time constraints, and the number of classes you can teach in a week (AFAA recommends no more than 12).

The next economic lesson is to go where the money is at.  Check into every gym and studio in your area, find the one where you will bring home the highest dollar amount per class and start teaching there.  Be careful with this one.  If you live further away from a particular gym, it may not be worth the gas money.  Here is an equation to help you determine your costs for comparison.

First, determine your net rate for ABC Fitness with the following:

Distance (in miles) round-trip to ABC DIVIDED BY the gas mileage of your car (miles per gallon) MULTIPLIED BY the cost of gas ($ per gallon).  Subtract your result from the rate ABC Fitness pays you.

Then, perform the same calculation for the second gym and compare the two numbers to decide which is more profitable.  Here is an example:

I work at East Shore Health and Racquet which is literally across the street from my development.  Their highest pay rate is $22/class.  I drive a gas-guzzling SUV that gets 18 mpg (shame on me, I know, but we can’t afford a new car right now)  and gas in Charleston, SC today is $2.67/gallon.  Meanwhile, EcoFitness in Mt. Pleasant is 14 miles from my house, so 28 miles round trip and they pay $25/class.  My math looks like this:

22 - (.25/18*2.67) = 21.96 net rate at ESHR

25 - (28/18*2.67) = 20.84 net rate at EcoFitness

You can see that on paper, ESHR is the place for me to work, especially if gas prices continue to climb the way they have.  However, for roughly a dollar difference, I benefit simply from having the flexibility of teaching more classes in more places.  Do the comparison for yourself to make sure it is worth the commute.

Improve your Hourly

The next best way to increase your salary is to get paid the highest amount per hour that you can.  Many gyms offer incentives for their instructors to seek out continuing education.  The gym benefits from having more qualified and knowledgeable instructors and you get a raise for each workshop or certification you earn.  At two of the gyms where I teach, instructors receive a raise of $1 per current cert above your base group fitness cert and CPR and $.25 - $.50 for workshop attendance.  If your gym does not currently offer such a program, bring it up to your director and see if you can arrange to have it implemented.

Another way to increase your hourly rate is simply to ask for a raise.  Be prepared to show your director or the owner exactly why you deserve more money.  If you are certain that you add value to their club then go for it.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you take this step:

• Have I been a loyal team member and employee of this club for long enough to establish that I am committed?
• Do I regularly teach my own classes, arrange for subs in advance, frequently sub for others, and take all necessary steps to get coverage in emergency situations?
• Do I go above and beyond the call of duty in matters of customer service?  Do I assist my students in ways that extend my role as a fitness instructor?  Do I perform tasks that help out the club or the members, even if they are not listed in my job duties?
• Do I consistently have high attendance in my classes?  Do I have a strong reputation as an excellent instructor?  Do students beg for more of me?
• Are there any examples of exceptional work on my part that warrant an increase in pay?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you have a case for asking for a raise.  As a Group Fitness Director, I would not hesitate to arrange for an increase for you if you regularly exceeded my expectations and were a proven asset to my program. If you cannot answer yes to these items, do not despair.  We’ll have another post in this series detailing how you can.  Then, take a few months to improve your performance in any or all of these areas and approach management with your request.  Just make sure you are prepared to keep up the good work!!

Perky perks

Sometimes, it isn’t just the pay rate alone that makes it beneficial to teach at a club.  You might consider taking a cut in hourly rate to teach at a club that offers excellent perks to its instructors or staff.  I worked at a club that only paid $15 per class to teach, which sounded like peanuts at first!  However, they hosted continuing education and certification workshops regularly at the club that I was able to attend for more than 50% off in many cases.  This often amounted to the equivalent of $100-$200 bonus in my pocket everytime I went out for a workshop.  I would have to teach 20 classes at a higher-paying gym to cover the additional cost to me.  No thanks!  Here are some other perks to keep an eye out for:

• Complimentary membership for you and your family.  It makes sense that you get a membership and that your kids can stay in child care when you teach, but some gyms have a “minimum classes per week” policy before you are allowed to work out there.  Also, check into whether or not your spouse can have a membership and whether or not you get free childcare when you are there to work out as well as teach.  This can easily add up to the equivalent of $100 per month depending on the gym.
• Discounts on merchandise.  If your gym has a boutique of items you can get at a discount or cost, you could end up with a significant savings on items you need for teaching anyway.  Find out what you are entitled to at a gym when you apply there.
• Discounted or free services.  Similar to the boutique, find out if you can access other services at the gym for a reduced rate.  My favorite perk was the complimentary 30 minute massage I received every 6 months at one health club where I once taught.  Now I can have free unlimited tanning, free smoothies after teaching, half-price personal training, and access to a pool, sauna and hot tub.  Unfortunately for me, I don’t actually use any of these services, but if I did, they would be like free money since I’d no longer pay full price for these things.
• Health care.  You might have to go to one of the bigger chain clubs to have access to health care, and you might have to work a minimum number of hours per week to qualify, but in today’s world, you can’t afford not to look for a club where this is an option.

These are the most basic lessons in our quest to improve our salaries as Fitness Instructors.  Tune in for more information about how to outperform your bosses expectations so that you qualify for raise, a step-by-step guide to approaching your boss about the raise, and some out-of-the-box ideas on how to earn $100 or more per hour of your time as an instructor.

See you then!

I promised you that you would never find anything for sale on this website.  My purpose here is to help you keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket and to help you find ways of increasing your bankroll.   In the future, we will talk more about how to earn more money as a Group Fitness Instructor.   But today, I heard about something that sounds literally too good to be true.  I have just begun my research on the topic, but what I’ve learned really sounds great, and you will want to know about it, too.  We’ll be stepping out of the world of group fitness just for today and talk about a service that might be just what you need to earn a little bit extra for a new pair of shoes or a new John Sines CD.  It is service that allows you to earn money for surfing the web.  Sound like a load of crap?  I thought so too, until I dug a little deeper.

You may or may not realize just how profitable the web really is.  Far more than just the goods and services you buy on the web, and even more than the web advertisements you see - someone is making money almost everytime you click your mouse.   Granted, each mouse click may only be worth a fraction of a penny to the person earning the income, but think how many clicks happen on the internet every minute, let alone every day…  every year.  Now the math sounds a bit lucrative, right?

The company is called Agloco and the concept goes like this: Advertisers are already spending money to advertise to you, usually with ads and paid search rankings. Agloco’s concept is very similar to any rewards program you may already belong to, only here, instead of flying the friendly skies for miles or buying gas with your gas card for cash back, you get rewarded for surfing the web and referring friends to do the same.  Agloco will collect and then share a percentage of those advertising dollars with you, the consumer.

It works through a browsing plugin that you will be able to install in a week or so. This is from Steve Pavlina’s post, where I first learned about Agloco:
 
By installing the Agloco web browser plug-in, you can actually earn income from regular web surfing in 4 ways:

Is it a pyramind scheme?  Nope.  You aren’t required to buy anything, or sell anything.  You simply install the Agloco plugin, surf, refer and reap the benefits.  What isn’t to love about that?  If it sounds interesting to you, I do encourage you to look into Agloco for yourself. The worst that could happen is you learn a little something about how the internet works.  A little more optimistic outcome could include additional income for your efforts.

What about privacy?  Agloco isn’t in the business of selling your information.  They have a very descriptive Privacy Policy that describes how they protect your information and retain it only for the purposes of your membership.

I hope you find this interesting and helpful.  I realize that it is slightly off-topic, so I won’t burden you with it again.  Thank you for checking it out and thank you doubly for using my links to sign up!

Peace and prosperity to you all!