How to run a personal training business using Simplifythis
You know how to train people. This is where each part of that lives in Simplifythis — your hours, your sessions, the packs, and getting paid. About fifteen minutes to set up.
1. Set the business up once
Two screens, then you never come back to them.
Settings → General. Your business name, address, and the timezone. Get the timezone right before you add anything — every session time, reminder and booking is read in it.
Settings → Billing. Currency, and tax if you charge it.
Connecting Stripe
Stripe is how clients pay you online — a card at booking, a pack bought from your website, a membership that bills itself. Go to Settings → Billing → Connect Stripe. It hands you to Stripe for your business and bank details, then returns you here showing Connected. Payouts go to your own Stripe account.
Settings → Billing → Stripe payments.
You can run without it. Bookings, the calendar, attendance and the client list all work, and you record cash or a card taken on your own terminal. What you lose is clients paying themselves, and memberships billing on their own.
2. Your hours are the product
This is the step that matters most, and the one trainers skip. A 1:1 is offered from your working hours. The booking screen turns your availability into bookable slots — so with an empty week, a client opens your booking page and sees nothing at all.
Open your own record under Staff and fill in Availability: the days and times you actually take clients, weekly or on a longer cycle, from a start date.
Staff → your record → Availability. Two blocks in a day is normal — set the split you actually work.
Set the hours you want to be booked, not the hours you are awake. This is how you protect your own time: a slot that is not in your availability is never offered, so there is nothing to decline later.
For a one-off change — a Thursday you cannot do, a Sunday you can — click that day in the preview and adjust it. The date changes; the rest of the pattern is untouched.
3. Put your sessions in
Two shapes, and most trainers need both.
- Service — one client, at a time they pick from your availability. Your 1:1s, your assessment, your consult.
- Class — several people, at a time you pick, with a cap. Your bootcamp, your small group.
Services → Add. Duration decides how much of your day a booking takes.
A free assessment as its own service is worth setting up. It is the lowest-friction thing a stranger can book, and it fills the top of your week.
Two things that make a service invisible, both worth checking if one does not appear: it is still a draft, or it has nobody assigned. A service with no staff cannot be booked and will not show on your website, even while it is active.
Bootcamps and groups
Add these as classes, with a capacity. Pick Series for something recurring that runs on indefinitely — your Tuesday 6am bootcamp — and people pay per visit. Pick Course for a fixed block bought as a whole, like a six-week transformation program.
Classes → Add. When a class fills, it stops offering itself online.
Classes run at the time you set them, whether or not that sits inside anyone’s availability. Only 1:1s are driven by your hours.
4. Take it out of draft
Everything new starts as a draft, and draft means invisible — not on your website, not in booking, not to clients. If you have made something and cannot find it anywhere, this is almost always why.
A draft is invisible everywhere until you change it.
5. Decide who can book it
Separate from draft and active. That decides whether it exists; this decides who may book it.
- Public — anyone, including someone who has never trained with you.
- Clients only — they must sign in. Only people on your list.
- By request — not offered online at all. They ask, and you book them in.
A common setup: the free assessment is Public so strangers can book it, and 1:1s are Clients only so your existing people get the slots. Public only does anything if you have also switched on Let new people sign themselves up in Settings.
6. Sell blocks, not single sessions
The single biggest change to how a training business feels. A pack is paid once, drawn down per session, and it turns a weekly payment conversation into one conversation every ten weeks.
These live under Packages. Name it, price it, then say what is in it: a number of sessions, and which services they can be spent on.
Packages → New. Put several services in one row and a session can be spent on any of them.
Three decisions worth thinking about:
- Expiry — days after purchase, a fixed date, or never. Days is the usual one, and it is what stops a block bought last year reappearing.
- Who can use it — one person, or anyone on the account. The account option is how a couple shares one block.
- What it covers — one row listing both your 1:1 and your small group lets a client use a session on either, which is usually what they expect.
After that it runs itself. Each booking takes one session off, the balance shows on their record and on their own portal page, and cancelling a booking puts the session back — so nobody is charged for a session they did not have.
Memberships, for the ones who come every week
A membership bills on a cycle instead of per session. Set the price, how often it bills, and a joining fee if you charge one. Then set what members get: a number of sessions a period, a discount, or nothing to pay at all.
The same hour, three ways to be paid for it.
A weekend bootcamp
A bootcamp is not a block of sessions someone works through at their own pace — it runs on set days, and it only works if everyone comes to all of them. Set it up as a Workshop: first day, last day, and the hours it runs each day. It is booked and paid for once, so nobody signs up for the Saturday and leaves the Sunday half empty.
Classes → Add → Workshop. Consecutive days, same hours, one price.
7. Let clients book themselves
Three ways in, and they are the same booking underneath.
The website you get. Built from your real services, prices and hours, with a Book button on each. It lives at clients.simplifythis.com/your-business, and you can point your own address at it under Website → Custom domain.
If you already have a site, keep it. Put your booking link behind its Book button: clients.simplifythis.com/your-business/portal/booking. It is a link, so it also works in an Instagram bio, an email footer, or a QR code on the gym wall. Settings → General has it ready to copy.
Their own page. After the first booking each client has a portal: what they have coming up, sessions left on their block, what they owe, and buying another block without asking you.
Their portal — this is what stops the “how many have I got left?” texts.
8. Running the week
The Schedule is your week. 1:1s and groups sit on the same calendar.
Schedule → the week, with how full each group is.
- A standing weekly slot — book the appointment and set it to repeat, with an end date if you want one. Only the exceptions need handling.
- Mark attendance, so the regular who has quietly stopped coming is visible while there is still time to send a message.
- Cancel one date without touching the rest of a repeating booking.
- Change a price or a name and the calendar is left alone.
9. When something changes
- Taking on fewer clients for a while — trim your availability. Nothing is offered outside it.
- A service you no longer sell — set it to By request, or make it inactive. The history stays.
- Putting prices up — change the price. Blocks already sold keep what was agreed.
Questions trainers ask
A client says there are no times to book. What is wrong?
Your availability is empty, or the service has nobody assigned to it. The booking screen offers slots from a trainer’s working hours, so with no hours there is nothing to offer. Open your own staff record, add your working times under Availability, and check the service lists you as staff.
Should a session be a service or a class?
A service is one client at a time, at a time they choose from your availability — your 1:1s. A class is several people at a time you choose, with a cap — your bootcamp or small group. Most trainers need both, and they sit on the same calendar.
How do session packs work?
Build one under Packages: a name, a price, and how many sessions it includes. Each booking draws one down automatically, and the balance shows on the client’s record and their own portal page. You can also set it to expire a number of days after purchase.
What happens to a session if a client cancels?
Cancelling the booking puts the session back on their pack, so they are not charged for a session they did not have. If you want to enforce a late-cancellation policy instead, leave the booking in place and it stays used.
Can a couple share one package?
Yes. When you build the package, set "Who can use it" to anyone on the account rather than one person. Then either partner can book against the same balance.
Can I set a standing weekly slot for a regular?
Yes. Book the appointment and set it to repeat weekly, with an end date if you want one. Only the exceptions need handling after that.
How do I stop clients booking a slot I need for something else?
Availability is the answer, not blocking each booking. Set your working times to the hours you actually take clients, and add a one-off change for a specific date when it differs — click that day in the preview on your staff record.
Can I run 1:1s and small groups side by side?
Yes. Set the 1:1 up as a service and the group as a class with a capacity. They appear on the same schedule, and a package can cover both if you put them in the same row when you build it.
Do I need Stripe?
Only to take money online. Connect it in Settings → Billing and clients can pay by card when they book, buy a pack from your website, and be billed for a membership automatically. Without it everything else still works, and you record cash or a card taken on your own terminal.
How do I see who is about to run out of sessions?
The remaining balance sits on the client’s record, so you can catch a renewal while they are still booking rather than after they quietly stop.
Do I need a website?
One is included, built from your real services and prices, with a Book button on each. If you already have a site, put your booking link behind its Book button instead — it works anywhere a link works.
Should I sell blocks or a monthly plan?
Both work, and they suit different clients. A block is bought once and drawn down as they train. A monthly plan bills on its own date and covers whatever they do that month — steadier income, and no awkward conversation when a ten-pack runs out mid-program.
Can I take payment in the gym, away from a desk?
Yes. Tap to Pay on iPhone takes a contactless card against the back of your phone, so a client can pay on the gym floor, and the payment is on their account before they have left.
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