Teresa Scott-Johnson

Teresa Scott-Johnson fell into a 9-5 job and worked in accounts in her home town of Peterborough. She never felt particularly fulfilled, so when she was offered voluntary redundancy, she decided to take it.

Teresa was already working as a self-employed aerobics instructor, teaching four classes per week, and she decided she'd like to expand her business and offer personal training as well. Having previously done her level 2 course with Lifetime, Teresa was already a fan of the company and its teaching style. So she called up again to enrol on the level 3 personal trainer course. She was delighted to learn that she was eligible for the government funded programme - it was a really pleasant surprise to know that she was going to be able to save a substantial sum of money.

Since completing the course, Teresa has worked hard to build up her business. She already had quite a good client base from the classes that she taught. She has also invested in designing leaflets and advertising and has given talks to a number of local slimming groups which has won her a few more clients. (She is grateful to Peter Hood, her Lifetime tutor, who gave her plenty of information from presentations and speeches that he has used in this respect.)

Most of her new business is word of mouth and at the moment she is doing a new consultation once a week, so her client base is growing steadily. She currently has 14 clients and they tend to have one, two or three sessions a week. She believes that she will reach capacity at 20 clients.

Teresa is delighted with her career change. She says that she never actually intended to work in an office environment - it just 'happened'. So as she's always had an interest in health and fitness, she's loving her new job and the flexibility of being her own boss. Teresa also enjoys doing something new everyday and being out and about in the fresh air.

Finally, she finds it an incredibly rewarding job watching her clients progress - for example, her very first client, who could barely climb the stairs when she met Theresa, has now lost four dress sizes and can run three miles!