# Fitness job offers, enough to live on?



## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

Hi guys,

I'm from London and there's a potential job opening is Abu Dhabi with shared housing/food/bus to work included for me as a fitness professional.

The base salary is only 3,050AED, but the has potential to generate commission from personal training sessions. 

Another potential job in Qatar is offering 5000-6000, commission based. 65% of this would be basic salary, housing 25% and transport 10%.

I understand the cost of living is high and I have no idea how well PT's do on commission out there compared to London

p.s It's not Fitness First. 

I hear PT's are never going to get too much unless they're working privately.

What do you reckon?


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
That’s about what a taxi driver or well paid makes per month!
Frankly - these are terrible salaries.
Commission is often hard to earn - as the minimum sessions before any commission kicks in are hard to achieve - especially as clients often book and then cancel sessions frequently.
One friend did mobile fitness at clients houses for a company.
They provided him with an internet enabled iPad to keep track of the bookings - it was also keeping track of his location - so that company could see if he was at a clients house doing a training session privately - without pitting it through the company!
Cheers
Steve


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
That’s about what a taxi driver or well paid maid makes per month!
Frankly - these are terrible salaries.
Commission is often hard to earn - as the minimum sessions before any commission kicks in are hard to achieve - especially as clients often book and then cancel sessions frequently.
One friend did mobile fitness at clients houses for a company.
They provided him with an internet enabled iPad to keep track of the bookings - it was also keeping track of his location - so that company could see if he was at a clients house doing a training session privately - without putting it through the company!
Cheers
Steve


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> That’s about what a taxi driver or well paid makes per month!
> Frankly - these are terrible salaries.
> Commission is often hard to earn - as the minimum sessions before any commission kicks in are hard to achieve - especially as clients often book and then cancel sessions frequently.
> ...


This is super helpful and all taken on board, thank you. Living in London the whole renting is what gets most people so the opportunity to earn £1000+pm with everything paid and doing fitness looked ideal. But like you say, you don't know what the commission is going to be like until you're physically there in the gym, otherwise you may be stuck on the 3kAED, then you're screwed unable to get clients.

It also concerns me because personal training is a fairly low level trade so I wonder about the treatment of the staff (like your friend). This may be ignorance on my part but I can imagine affluent places like Qatar/Abu Dhabi aren't going to go out there way to look after someone on taxi wages.

This was the structure.

25% of all Personal training. (commissioned from the net amount) This % changes to 30% for over 10K and 35% over 15K with up to 40% for everything over 20,000AED Revenue generated


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

I’d be equally concerned about the housing etc ..... it will likely be very basic and shared in a way you won’t be used to from the UK and on 3k salary you’ll be trapped. 

Also pay close attention to the visa situation...... many get strung along on low paid jobs waiting for a visa. 

Also probe the medical insurance thoroughly


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

UKMS said:


> I’d be equally concerned about the housing etc ..... it will likely be very basic and shared in a way you won’t be used to from the UK and on 3k salary you’ll be trapped.
> 
> Also pay close attention to the visa situation...... many get strung along on low paid jobs waiting for a visa.
> 
> Also probe the medical insurance thoroughly


If it makes any difference which I doubt it will. It's with a very well known hotel chain in and the apartments I'm told are a maximum of two, each with own bathrooms. The apartments are situated on a very well-to-do street in the centre of Abu Dhabi

A service charge handed out at end of month was also mentioned possibly bumping it up to 3200/500 but again I know very little of how this actually works as with most job, it's not until you're there that you see how things work.

The the two jobs are paying pretty much the same, one is 6000pm but after transport/apartments have been removed it it's exactly the same as the above. I mentioned that I'd be interested in 6000pm after everything has been taken out.

The worrying thing is what Stevesolar mentioned about commission. This is what most would be surviving on but I have no idea of how hard it would be compared to say a top London gym.


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

Wotastorymark said:


> If it makes any difference which I doubt it will. It's with a very well known hotel chain in and the apartments I'm told are a maximum of two, each with own bathrooms. The apartments are situated on a very well-to-do street in the centre of Abu Dhabi
> 
> A service charge handed out at end of month was also mentioned possibly bumping it up to 3200/500 but again I know very little of how this actually works as with most job, it's not until you're there that you see how things work.
> 
> ...


Gut feeling is that you may struggle with getting PT clients unless the gym is very well used by outside clients although could be wrong. 

Send me a PM with the hotel details and I may be able to let you know as my daughter lives in AD.


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

PM sent.

The Qatar job is a stand-alone gym so more chance of commission but would need more information on medical insurance and what housing situation is within the shared accommodation.


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

After doing a bit more research (and the replies in this thread) I've realised neither offer is going to make it worthwhile me moving from London.

Qatar - Minimum I'd want 10,000QAR (Offered 5-6000QAR w/o housing/transport)
Abu Dhabi inc housing, transport, food - Minimum I'd want 5000 AED (offered 3000 AED)

Both roles are commission based, one is a fully fledged gym which means reaching 10,000QAR wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

I believe moving from a place like London To the Middle East for pretty much the same money is not worth it. Ideally I'd want to have a good £1,000 left over for saving after everything is paid for. I guess the 'excitement' got me.


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## UKMS (Jan 9, 2017)

Wotastorymark said:


> After doing a bit more research (and the replies in this thread) I've realised neither offer is going to make it worthwhile me moving from London.
> 
> Qatar - Minimum I'd want 10,000QAR (Offered 5-6000QAR w/o housing/transport)
> Abu Dhabi inc housing, transport, food - Minimum I'd want 5000 AED (offered 3000 AED)
> ...


Glad you’ve seen through it all ! 

You’d probably want a bit more than 5k in AD 

Way too many people get swept away with a dream of moving here particularly commission based roles and the reality is often far from a dream. 

Good luck in finding something better !


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

UKMS said:


> Glad you’ve seen through it all !
> 
> You’d probably want a bit more than 5k in AD
> 
> ...


Thank you and just as an update they sent me a bit more information which I found interesting. There's only one personal trainer working in the gym and they have around <100 guests signed up. There's no minimum sessions to be able to reach commission and it's a 'free lance' role so you manage your own time. And doesn't seem to be an issue with outside business.

The one thing with this job is even with a couple of PT"s per week that bumps the price up considerably and you're not competing with other PT's.

They confirmed that it's a non shared apartment, no bills.


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## Mimi76 (Jun 10, 2010)

The offer in the UAE seems really really terrible. I have experience of both living in London(currently) and in Dubai ( 5 years ago).Do not take that offer.


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## Wotastorymark (Jun 26, 2019)

Mimi76 said:


> The offer in the UAE seems really really terrible. I have experience of both living in London(currently) and in Dubai ( 5 years ago).Do not take that offer.



I didn't take the offer in the end, and luckily enough I found someone who worked in the same Hotel and didn't have great things to say about it, they even mentioned the hotel wasn't getting much custom so a lot of the rooms/restaurants were closed down.

So my plan of making commission would have gone out the window! Looks like I dodged a bullet.


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