Basically, this is the scenario: suppose that I offered to show you how to make over $20,000 each month working only three days a week with a total of five clients? Impossible? Maybe not; just hang in there while I explain how this could work.

Suppose that your business was a high end personal training operation which aimed its services exclusively to the wealthiest people in your community? Now obviously, you'd have to offer a personal training service which was just so good that these people who are used to getting the best in everything would be willing to use you as a trainer, but consider this pricing model:

$350 per session, coming out to about $4,200 per month for each client you attract. Naturally, if you're going to be able to command these kinds of prices, you have to offer clients a lot more than just personal training services. You'd have to have a upscale facility, professional staff and all the amenities these clients would expect of a high end service like this. Wellness and aesthetic services would probably be a part of the package, including massage, a weekly grocery list to help clients stick to their diet and so on.

Basically, an incredibly comprehensive package of services and amenities - the kind of thing that would build you a reputation very quickly and more than likely, some welcome free publicity. What you'd be offering isn't just personal training, but a status symbol.

The challenge is to establish a reputation as a fitness expert to the well to do. If you can manage this, then getting a handful of the wealthiest residents of your city to pay you $4,200 per month.

The beauty of this business model is that identifying your target market is incredibly easy; you'd just create a list of prospective clients based on local residents whose incomes are in the seven to eight figure range.

However, the point I'm really trying to make here isn't that you need to position yourself as the personal trainer of the wealthy elites, but that you need to stand out - you have to be known for something if you want to get noticed. You could become the least expensive personal trainer in your city as well and you'd also attract a great deal of business.

In this scenario, you'd use an online publicity strategy with a blog, some automated marketing tools and your secret weapon - a specific number of clients who you'd give free introductory packages to: these people would provide you with a powerful word of mouth marketing campaign.

Even if you set yourself up as the cheapest trainer in your city, look at the numbers like this: if you had 500 clients each paying say, $30 monthly, you'd be bringing in around $15,000 per month before expenses; still pretty decent, you'd have to agree.

In order to really thrive as a personal training business, you need to break away from the pack. The competition is always the toughest in the middle, since this is always the densest part of the curve. When you can set your business apart, you have a lot less competition to overcome and an instant name recognition with consumers - because your business is actually known for something, unlike 99% of your rivals in the fitness business.