Get Your Finances In Order: Essential Lessons From A Personal Trainer

At GoSimpleTax, we encourage our users to be innovative. Not only can they use our platform to stay on the right side of the taxman, but they can also use it to help them maximise their take-home pay.

Josh is one such user. He’s a personal trainer with previous experience of the HMRC online portal. But he wanted something more.

In need of a solution that helped him file his Self Assessment tax return and manage his finances all year round, Josh turned to a colleague for advice. He referred him to GoSimpleTax.

We interviewed Josh to see the difference our software had made, as he strives to achieve financial success as a personal trainer.

There’s a lot of trial and error

“As soon as I finished my personal training course, I went self-employed,” explains Josh. “In the first six months, obtaining clients was noticeably the hardest part.”

Josh reflects back on the early days of his career and how business development is tricky for any personal trainer.

“I teach classes in the gym, and ask after each session if anyone wants any pointers. This is hard when you’ve yet to find your confidence. I found my niche when I started doing free weight-loss classes and then emailing those who signed on.

“Some PTs will rent the gym from the owners and use all their free time to scout out potential clients. For me, and I’d recommend the same to anyone starting out, I preferred running classes for the gym – being seen and winning clients that way.”

Tax matters aren’t covered in a PT course

After the initial few months as a personal trainer, Josh explains that he wasn’t where he wanted to be financially. His gym manager had suggested claiming expenses to ease his tax burden.

“I had known that I could claim things like travel expenses for when I was running group classes. But I didn’t know I could claim for marketing material I’d been making – material I’d hand out after classes that contained information on health and posture, as well as my contact details.

“My mum has experience as a personal trainer as well, so I was able to get some advice. But, generally, Self Assessments aren’t exactly covered in your PT course.”

You can find your feet with software

Josh continued to explain that, gradually, he began to better plan his finances. By doing so, he could cover the months that are unpredictable in terms of new business.

“You’d think months like January would be jam-packed, and the gym generally is. But that doesn’t mean I’ll get any more clients. That’s why, after my first month earning, I realised the best strategy to achieving consistent financial success is to get clients to pay me up front or on a committed monthly basis.

“Even so, after filling out my first tax return on the HMRC site, I found the process overwhelming.

“My manager recommended GoSimpleTax. It was perfect as it allowed me to keep tabs on how much I was earning in real time. As I was spreading my earnings out, GoSimpleTax allowed me to track how much tax I would owe.”

How Self Assessment tax return software helps

“GoSimpleTax allowed me to better log the earnings I was making. The app made it even easier. It meant I could keep an eye on where I was financially from the palm of my hand.”

Considering what advice to give other PTs starting their business journey, Josh ardently believed the most important thing was to “try new things”.

“Don’t be afraid of people saying no to you either – take the opportunity to experiment, show off, and run classes if you can so that up to 30 people see you.

“With my tax affairs handled, I was able to better focus on what drove the most results.”

About GoSimpleTax

Of course, GoSimpleTax can help personal trainers with a whole lot more than keeping you on top of your finances. Our intuitive software allows users to look back through previous tax years, submit a compliant tax return directly to HMRC, and review tax reports.

We can even rid you of receipts as you take photos of your expenditure instead. By uploading evidence of your purchases, our software continues our work in simplifying the Self Assessment tax return process.

If you’d like to log your finances in real time like Josh, sign up for our free trial today. Alternatively, if you have any questions about our software, speak to a member of our team.

Blog content is for information purposes and over time may become outdated, although we do strive to keep it current. It's written to help you understand your Tax's and is not to be relied upon as professional accounting, tax and legal advice due to differences in everyone's circumstances. For additional help please contact our support team or HMRC.