How to Become a Freelance Corporate Trainer

It is easier than ever for you to now work for yourself, no matter where in the world you are living. The Internet now affords you the opportunity to work freelance and to develop your own micro-business.

One business that is especially good if you have the motivation to work for yourself, is to be a classroom trainer where you teach adults. What can and should you teach and how do you go about starting the business? All is revealed below.

Why Being a Corporate Trainer Can Be Great Career Move

The training industry is one that will always exist as people always need to acquire new skills. Whatever the sector, there is always training needed whether it be to learn computer skills, soft skills (such as Unconscious Bias training), presentation skills, MS office training, Project Management or any other skill.

The point is that there is and always will be a need for training and hence a need for corporate trainers.

You might ask why company's themselves do not offer the training and indeed, it is the case that often they do. The trainers they use though are often hired from outside the company and right here is an opportunity for you as a trainer.

It is often not cost-effective for a business to train a trainer to learn, research and provide the training when there is someone, such as yourself, who specializes in providing corporate training.

Being a trainer can be rewarding for a number of reasons. Firstly, you get to work for yourself by offering training to the company's you want to work with or for the clients or people you build up.

Secondly, you can do a lot of work from home as a trainer. You will spend time, for example, creating and developing or planning the training (although if you buy off-the-shelf customizable training packages, you can avoid even having to do any of the research and avoid developing the training materials.

What Does a Corporate Trainer Do?

The idea is that you teach adult learners such as those in businesses, company's or for people that you invite to workshops you hold yourself.

Certainly, if you can develop a client base of corporate clients, you simply go into the company once or twice a year and provide certain training. The fees you charge will reflect the fact that you are providing expertise in a certain field and offering training to several employees. In other words, offering corporate training can be quite profitable.

Using resources such as meetup.com groups and other platforms online, you can alternatively hire a venue yourself and create an event. If you wish to offer Mindfulness for beginners courses, a platform such as meetup.com can be a great place to build up a group of people who might be interested in your workshops.

As a corporate trainer, you do not have to necessarily be an expert in a particular subject at the beginning, but I would recommend that you have a definite interest in the subject/s you plan to provide training in. One of the keys to being a successful trainer, from my experience, is to have a genuine enthusiasm for what you teach. The students you teach will sense your interest or not and this can really impact the quality of the training you provide.

Offering training that people enjoy can be a sure way to getting repeat business in the field of corporate training and business coaching.

Best Things to Teach as a Classroom Trainer

As touched on above, in deciding what to teach, firstly consider what you yourself would be motivated by. There is no point to be self-employed if you do not enjoy your work and lifestyle. One of the big benefits of being a freelance trainer is to shape your own time, clients and working locations. This should not come through, at the expense of enjoying your work.

To give some guidance though, from my experience, soft skills are always sought after by the companies. Likewise, training that gravitates towards equality and fairness in the workplace is becoming more popular these days and can provide a great opportunity for you as a trainer.

Being a freelance trainer is a fantastic career path if you are self-motivated and are happy to stand up in front of adult learners. For me, the freedom to choose what I teach and to whom and the flexibility time-wise is amazing. Many companies avoid offering training in the summer months because many employees tale their holidays or vacations and so for you as a trainer, taking 2 months off in the summer is more than possible.

How to Save Time as a Business Coach or Trainer

The hard part of being a corporate trainer is developing training programs in the first place. What should you include and what files types are worth using. How can you make sure that the training programs offer enough student engagement and incorporate different learning styles?

The people you teach will learn from varying teaching methods and so learning by listening to your the trainer, from group activities, and by other techniques will be important. We design our training programs to include a lot of activities and student engagement, including with ice-breakers to start the training sessions off in a positive manner. There is a lot to think of.

You can avoid spending dozens and dozens of hours designing the training by downloading a good customizable training package and just add in your logos and own branding. That is by far the easiest way.