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Sex Work, Escort Burn-Out and The Economy
As an adult webmistress and sex blogger, I read than most people on the planet in order to keep up on multiple industry segments, look for trends and know what issues are most important to active sex workers.
Right now, the discussion lies on the economy, a softer working market and pricing. Women want to know if other escorts are suffering business slow down and if they should drop their rates in order to make ends meet. But I don’t think this should be the focus, I see an alarming trend that I have found from reading between the lines that girls are living off savings and compromising their values/safety in order to keep their homes, feed their kids or just live.
Here is what I say: STOP. STOP right there.
I am really tired of reading haphazard advice and strangely thought out blog posts as to why this happens and what the “solutions” are.
Here is my solution, GO ON VACATION. Even if it is only for the day, and think about the following things:
Economics: A woman in this industry must realize that this business ebbs and flows. And it ebbs and flows with the state of the economy. When the economy is strong, tourism is up and consumers are spending money, our business increases to the point we don’t have enough time in the week to deliver services we provide that leave them wanting more. When the economy is soft, we ourselves stop spending, its the same with our clients. Their discretionary income is allocated to what we use it for - food, petrol and daily living expenses. Also, It is summertime, summertime is when our market is flooded with more women - younger women - for their yearly tuition money and living expenses. We all know this. Summer always means MORE money and time invested in advertising. Remember those great little areas you toured last summer that gave you hella good money? Maybe it’s time to go again, even if its a Tier 3 city.
Burn-Out: Scandals, the media coverage of the escort business publicized (err, exploited) everywhere and the ever decreasing American dollar, sex workers are working harder to make their money. Everyone in this industry knows that only ten percent of what we do is related to actually providing services; the other ninety percent is related to marketing, administration and running our business. Many sex workers are getting burnt out, whether they have realized it or not. Instead of stepping back out of the spotlight, most women push even harder begin to make the same money they did last year because they can’t live without their weekly $2000. They haven’t saved it so there is no luxury of down time. This leads to compromises in values and in rates, two things that are very difficult to recover from. Once you have done that not so safe act for a client, they are going to expect it over and over again. Once you drop your rates, you will have a hard time raising them again. And if word gets out in the community about your the compromises, you could lose quality clients and ladies that are your allies because compromising safer sex practices increases their risk of STIs or bad client experiences.
Finances: If you find yourself with no money, then you really have on one to blame but yourself. A woman in this field should be saving and planning from day one. If you have gone nuts, spending a $1000 in one day because you could make it the next, stop. Rethink your goals, pick up a book on finance, Suze Orman or whoever your Oprah finance guru is for the moment, and read. Lay out a financial plan (no - not a budget, budgets are like diets, they don’t work) for long term financial freedom. Join a forum on ladies finance and get moving! Once you do this, then it’s time to start thinking about what you charge and what services you offer, not everyone is dropping their rates - 20% of the women I know in LA increased their rates and rethought their marketing strategy (with a little help from me of course).
Marketing: If the current state of the business is causing loss of sleep or deep anxiety, it’s relax, breathe and reevaluate your business, skills and goals. It’s also time to think about the “Brand” that makes up your image. Every woman in this industry is a “BRAND”. For Example: Amy Taylor, everyone I talk to wants to be Amy Taylor and she is their idol. Amy Taylor is not not most famous escort, she was one of the best, most marketed escorts. And it’s okay to idolize her or anyone else you look up to. But a woman looking up to an escort is not looking to become that woman, what they want is to be branded in the same group as that person. Do you want to be the Bentley or the Chrysler 300M?
It’s all in the marketing and branding. First of all, it takes years to build a brand, not just a few months. Women like Amy know this and they continually worked to market image and build their brand to become known for who they are. Myself included, I have worked on being “Callie Simms” for years with successes and failures along the way. I am still fairly new and my brand is ever developing! I have spent money on advertising, website design, continuing education and experimental marketing strategy. Some where raving successes and some were failures. But all where experiences that I bring to my current business and I can give my expertise about - and why am I an authority, because I’ve done it and have the data of it does and doesn’t do. If what you are doing isn’t working, it time to figure out what’s broken and how to fix it. You may need to revamp your strategy, set new goals for your “escort/sex work persona” and create a new marketing strategy. Note: $200 per hour should not be your goal, if it is, you are reading the wrong information. (I will write more about this in another blog).
If I have angered you with anything I have said, GOOD. Now go figure out why it made you angry. Write about it, see where it leads you. You might discover something life changing. So with these thoughts, go on a mini-break, read a few books, spend the day at the museum, run on a beach. Think about what I have said and ask yourself:
1. What is it that I want from my life?
2. What do I deserve?
3. How am I going to get there?
And write me when you do. I would love to talk to you.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Good post - Amber Rhea pointed me here.
I’d also suggest adding to the toolkit that folks seriously consider doing some on-the-job training in marketing and economics. Take pricing data from your region and plug it into Google Maps. See if there’s a correlation between US census data for median household income and your client base.
If your clients permit you to contact them via email, open up a Salesforce.com account and do REAL customer relationship management.
If you’ve got some down time to invest in yourself, go watch some marketing gurus like Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell. There are plenty of free videos online to help you retrain your mind to think like an effective, powerful marketer. TED.com is a great conference whose videos are free.
Check out the works of Dan Kennedy, too - he wrote Ultimate Sales Letter and Ultimate Marketing Plan, both good complements to any marketing strategy that incorporates direct mail or direct outreach components.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Thanks Chris! I am adding you my blog roll, GREAT website.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
This is all excellent advice! For working girls who advertise on escort review sites, I want to remind them not to be intimidated by clients’ crack-pot theories of “hookernomics.” Dropping rates is never the answer while the price of all other goods and services continue to rise. A vacation and time to reevaluate your situation is a much better idea.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:36 am
I think the trend is toward escorts becoming a bit more professionalized - definitely a positive thing.
Hopefully, material such as this, along with the books by Callie, Amanda and J. D. Roberts and others will go a long way towards educating those in (and entering) the business and getting them to think about their long term financial prospects. We need to heed the advice and guidances of those who have the experience IN the business and not those outside who think they know how things work because of some limited experience with an escort or what they’ve read on a web site.
Keep up the good work, Callie.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Thank you Alexa and Emilie!
May 16th, 2008 at 4:19 am
And Emilie, you honor me by writing here. I love you!