Thinking of retraining to be a Personal Trainer or Makeup Artist - any advice?

[tigerbear]

I’m currently self employed in a role/industry where I can never switch off and is highly stressful. I’m thinking of retraining to do something else, and DP and I are making plans in order to reduce our overheads and mortgage so I can do so.

Ideally I’d like something I can do, complete, then not have to think about (or think about a lot less) until the next job or project. At the moment I can never switch off.

Has anyone else become a personal trainer or makeup artist (more wedding, events and personal jobs rather than high fashion or TV), or a combination of both?

What are your hours, how much do you make a year etc?
Thanks in advance.

Bump

I did a PT qualification, but do it on the side of my normal job. Because I don’t have to rely on it for income it means I don’t have to worry too much about getting clients, but actually I really don’t think it would be too much of an issue anyway, lots of demand.

I think the worst part is that you would be doing it while people weren’t at work, so early mornings, late evenings, weekends. Unsociable hours.

I was advised to find a niche in my area (for example, pre and post natal). I also have a lot of friends who have done a spin instructor course which is always in demand (and cheap to do).

PM me if you have any specific questions.

My DP trained as a PT. he was very motivated and found it easy to get his level 1 & 2.

He got a job with a popular 24 hour gym where he had to do a number of classes in order to use the gym to try and drum up customers. It was a new branch so he did quite well and had a few clients at £25 an hour. He found that people would cancel and then he would be stuck at the gym for a time until his next client.

He moved to a closer and larger gym but there were 10 PTs all competing for clients. He struggled to make a living so gave it up.

It was a shame as he was really good at it.

@Needallthesleep thanks for the advice, I will prob message you in the next few days if that's ok. Your mention of specialising in pre/post natal fitness is interesting, as I was def thinking of this also. My aim is to specialise in one to one training, and also do women only groups and boot camps.

BG2015 That's such a shame that your DP had to give it up :-(
I'm hoping to steer clear of the gym environment, and offer one to one appointments either at the client's home, my home, or outside in local parks (I used to train with a PT in a park and it was so much better than in a sweaty gym).

The aim is to make fitness less intimidating, as I think a lot of women especially find a gym quite intense and scary, especially when starting fitness for the first time, or after a long break.

Not sure if I'm being a bit naive here to think this could work, but the ideal is to buy a house with a large garden, and have a small studio cabin where I could do small classes, and also let it out to other PT's and yoga teachers to do sessions, and use the garden for boot camps. Could also sell fresh juices, smoothies, energy bars etc as a sideline, after sessions and classes.
The other plan is to perhaps also do a short course in doing manicures, gel nails, etc and each business could feed off each other, as would offer discounts on each service if a client had booked either, IYSWIM?