The ROI on Exercise Education
Benny Price, COO of RTS Global, is returning to Australia to deliver another of RTS's leading courses. At $1500, it looks like a significant outlay - until you run the numbers.
The average personal Trainer in Australia charges around $60 per session. Across 30 client hours a week, that’s roughly $7,000 per month, or around $80,000 in annual revenue before commissions, gym rental and other costs totalling around $20,000. Take-home: approximately $60,000 before tax.
The Trainers at the top end of the market are charging closer to $100 per session, managing 40 sessions a week, and pulling in up to $150,000 in annual revenue. After costs, that’s around $120,000, double the average.
So what separates them?
Reputation and experience play their part. The more results a Trainer produces, the more referrals come in, and the greater demand justifies higher rates. But plenty of Trainers have spent a decade doing the same things, never evolving, writing off poor results as a lack of client commitment rather than a gap in their own service.
The Trainers who move up do so by improving what they actually deliver: the depth of science in their approach to personalisation, and the ability to solve problems other Trainers can’t.
What One Dollar Per Session Looks Like
An “average” Trainer doing 1,500 sessions a year needs to increase their rate by just $1 per session to recover the cost of the course in year one. From that point on, it’s pure return.
If their education allowed them to raise their rate by $5 (which is conservative if the service genuinely improves), that’s $7,500 in additional revenue against $1,500 in costs. A $6,000 return. An 10% increase in annual take-home.
Alternatively, the education doesn’t change their rate at all, but it allows them to take on one client they previously didn’t have the skills to help. Two sessions a week for the rest of the year (minus a month for holidays). 88 sessions at $60. That’s another $5,000. Similar return, different mechanism.
RTS Global works with Trainers in markets charging up to $200 per hour, giving them the tools to leave “average” well behind. The course cost is the same. The return scales accordingly.
The Calculation You Shouldn't Need
$1,500 isn’t small change. It’s a long weekend in Bali. The question is whether a long weekend in Bali gives you a 400% return in year one that compounds every year after.
It shouldn’t require this calculation. Engineers and lawyers receive enough in their foundational education to leverage hard work and experience into a refined skillset. Our industry decided that a weekend course was sufficient, stamped it with a logo, called it a profession, and left the rest to us.
Which means the decision to invest falls to you. Given the numbers, it’s not a difficult one.
🟢 Learn more about the upcoming RTS courses and dates (Sydney) here.
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