Your gym takes a cut of every session. Would you earn more on your own? Do the math.
Rent for space, insurance, booking software, marketing - everything it costs to operate.
Read this: these are pre-tax estimates for planning only, not tax advice. Gym employment is usually W-2 (employer pays half your payroll tax); independent is usually 1099 (you owe self-employment tax, roughly 15.3% on net earnings, plus income tax). Independent also means no-shows, gaps, and marketing are your problem. If the math is close, the steadier paycheck often wins.
The gym takes a cut of every session, but going independent means overhead, card fees, and chasing clients yourself. This calculator compares the two side by side. On the gym side, enter your sessions per week, the session price, and the gym's cut: presets of 40, 50, or 60 percent, or a custom number (50 is the default starting point; the tool notes an industry benchmark that coaches often keep around 44%, but you should enter your gym's real split). On the independent side, enter the sessions you could realistically book per week, your session price, your monthly overhead such as space rent, insurance, booking software, and marketing ($800 is the default starting point), and your card processing fee (2.9% by default). The tool computes each side's monthly take-home and shows the difference, plus a break-even number: the sessions per week you would need on your own to match the gym paycheck. Read the fine print: gym work is usually W-2, independent is usually 1099 with self-employment tax on top of income tax, and these are pre-tax planning estimates, not tax advice.
Example only, not typical earnings. Gym: 20 sessions per week at $70 with a 50% cut gives 20 x 70 x 0.5 x 4.33 = $3,031 per month. Independent: 15 sessions at $70 is $4,546.50 gross, minus 2.9% card fees is $4,414.65, minus $800 overhead is $3,614.65. Independent is ahead by about $584 per month. The break-even is 14 sessions per week, so as long as you book at least that many on your own, independent beats the gym paycheck before taxes.
It varies widely, which is why the tool offers 40, 50, and 60 percent presets plus a custom field. The default is 50%, and the tool cites an industry benchmark that coaches often keep around 44%. Check your actual contract.
Rent for training space, insurance, booking software, marketing, and anything else it costs to operate. Add it all up per month and enter the total.
It tells you the minimum weekly sessions needed on your own to match the gym paycheck. If that number is higher than you can realistically book, the gym wins even if the headline pay looks worse.
No. These are pre-tax estimates for planning only. Gym employment is usually W-2 (the employer pays half your payroll tax); independent is usually 1099 (you owe self-employment tax plus income tax). That difference can swing the answer.
The defaults assume 15 independent sessions versus 20 at the gym, because the gym feeds you clients. Set both numbers to what you can honestly sustain.
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