Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas decorations in all the stores the day after Halloween; it's that time of the year. Good news and bad news for escorts. Good news because many clients love to follow up a Christmas party with the pleasures an escort can offer, bad news because clients are often caught up with family driven Christmas events and can't get away. Like any mixed blessing, the Holiday Season for escorts is as much about planning and creativity as it is about an expected fall off in business.
Just as importantly, the Holidays offer real opportunities to step back from your business and take care of yourself. The important thing is to take those opportunities because they really do only occur once a year.
Now, the truth is that Christmas can also be a very sad time for some people. Missing family, seeing yourself as outside the happy Christmas bubble, simply having time on your hands when your phone does not ring can all be pretty depressing. If the Holidays have been difficult for you in the past that is all the more reason to be clever and creative this year.
Basics
This may seem obvious but the calendar needs to be consulted. This year Christmas falls on a Friday and so does New Year's Day. Practically what this means is that everything will shut down on Christmas Eve and there will be a week where people will be giving themselves over to the Holiday Spirit.
The first choice you need to make is what your escorting business will be doing from December 24 to January 4. There are a lot of options, the question is which direction do you want to go?
If you have some money saved, and you should, taking this time off entirely is a great choice. But, and it is a big but, if you are a person who finds the Holidays difficult or depressing or you are a long way from friends and family, you could be bored to death. In fact, for a busy girl, ten days off work can be exhausting rather than refreshing. We'll talk about how to make those days really work for you below.
Another alternative is to keep working but on a reduced, Holiday, schedule. If you normally see five or six clients a day, drop your pace down to two or three. Set Holiday hours, instead of being on call from 10 AM to 11PM, try noon to nine. Or "black out" a few days like Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Reducing your schedule will likely reduce your income but you will still have enough appointments available to finance after Christmas sales.
A totally different choice is to take full advantage of the Holidays. Just as there are lots of clients tied up with family, there are also a lot who will be off work and likely pretty bored after the Christmas festivities. Brighten up their Holidays, and yours, by offering a seasonal special. "I'll be naughty, you be nice" as a headline for a Holiday post can be very effective.
We were talking to Allison in Chicago who has her own Holiday specials.
"I am a bit old fashioned. I love Christmas, I have friends in town I like to spend Christmas Eve and Day with. And I like to relax over the holidays. Now I have been successfully escorting for nearly four years and I have a wonderful group of regulars. For the last couple of years, from around the 20th of December to the week after New Years I only see my regulars. I don't advertise and I don't take referrals; just my regulars. I don't drop my prices but I do turn off the clock and I am perfectly happy to accommodate those kinky little extras I normally charge extra for.
It turns out that when I add in the generous Christmas tips and all sorts of lovely things by way of gifts and Amazon wish list purchases, I actually make nearly as much money as I would normally and I only work a third as much. Which is what I call a Holiday!"
It is Way Better to Receive than to Give
When a girl escorts at a certain level, many of her clients, especially her regular clients will enjoy buying her things. Which is lovely but, and it is a huge but, most men do not have a clue what a girl actually wants. This leads to dreadful sex shop lingerie, stripper heels and cheesy jewelry none of which is pretty or useful. While there is not much a girl can do about random gifts she can certainly point her regulars in the right direction.
Many men have specific things they like. A lot. Pretty lingerie, great shoes, stockings, vintage dresses or sleek bits of designer wear are all things which the right man is only too happy to buy his favorite escort. In the run up to Christmas a few well planned shopping dates can be great fun.
The key thing about a shopping date is to have something in mind and to give your kind gentleman a limited choice. No point in confusing the poor dear. If you want the pretty La Perla bra, panty and garter belt set, make sure you have visited the lingerie shop on your own and picked a couple of sets which fit and are in the colours you want. Same with shoes. Even the most hard core shoe fetishist does not really want to spend two hours watching you try on shoes. (Well he might, but not necessarily in a shoe store.)
Make sure you have a serious idea of what your client might be interested in spending as your not so secret Santa. And, as ever, make sure you dress well when you shop. You get much better service in a decent coat, nice boots and a skirt or dress. You are likely to be much younger than your shopping companion and there is no reason not to have a little fun with the sales clerk. She'll think you are kept, you know you are.
Some escorts see gifts as just another source of cash. The client buys and they return the gift or sell it. Which is fine but another way to look at client gifts is as real perks. Rather than converting them to cash for pennies on the dollar, get your clients to buy you very nice things which you want but would never buy for yourself.
Name handbags have become crazy expensive and, frankly, not worth the price of a new car. But there are plenty of wonderful bags from up and coming designers which are relatively affordable. Scout around, the internet is bag city. As well, look seriously at vintage designer bags. In many cases these are better made than current bags, are in lovely condition and cost 10% to 20% of their retail cousins.
Pay attention to accessories: a really nice pair of sunglasses, a few pairs of ultra sheer seamed stockings, Hermes scarves. Yes, the list is endless. And, of course, don't forget beauty and skin care. The fact is a nice Tom Ford or Charlotte Tilbury lipstick can cost 40-50 dollars. Ideal as a stocking stuffer but spendy if you are buying it yourself.
And, why yes, you should have an Amazon wish list. In fact, you should have a special Christmas wish list. Don't be shy adding products you want. Amazon stocks a lot of designer goods, many of the better make up lines and an astonishing array of sex toys, bondage gear and personal vibrators. Plus, and this is the sort of thing clients just love getting for a girl, things like sheets, towels and beautiful beeswax candles.
Finally, escorts need all sorts of services. Hairdresser, colourist, manicures, pedicures, waxing, delicious take-out food, coffee and, of course, serious spa time and a gym membership. These days there are giftcards for all of these services and many more. While a regular client may not be eager to buy that Prada bag you are lusting for, he's bound to feel comfortable giving you an afternoon at the spa or refilling your Starbucks card.
The point of shopping dates or your Amazon wish list is to guide your clients' choices for your Christmas gifts. You can make sure that you really want what's under your tree.
Your Gift to You
Having some downtime from your escorting business, whether you close completely or simply see fewer clients than usual, is a wonderful gift to yourself. If you actually use that time.
There is a temptation to crash on the couch and eat Christmas treats and watch Netflix. And nothing wrong with that, for a day or two. But actually spending a bit of time planning what you are going to do on your Holiday break is a good idea.
Kerry in Minneapolis spoke to us on Skype about her plans for the Holidays. "I have been escorting for five Christmases now. The first one was awful. I was new to the city, didn't know many people and I had very few regulars. But things have improved a lot since then. Mainly because I promised myself I was not going to sit in my apartment for ten days while the rest of the world celebrates.
First thing, I go on Holiday hours from the Monday before Christmas. What that means for me is that I am only available between three o'clock and nine o'clock and I don't work Christmas Day or New Year's Day. My goal is to see one, or at most two, really good clients on the days that I work.
Second thing, a lot of the services I use are totally dead between Christmas and New Year's. Which means I can get great deals when I book hair and facial and other grooming appointments. I like this one spa that is right downtown and almost totally empty during Christmas week.
Third thing, I have four or five well-heeled escorting regulars who I like to try to have dates with during my down time. These are really great guys who have been seeing me for a couple of years. They know how I like to thank my regulars at Christmas so we will go on a lunch shopping date either just before or just after Christmas. Most of these guys get a bonus and because they are at the higher end of the pay scale that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. For these Christmas dates my time is entirely free. So are the consenting adult activities after lunch and shopping. Shopping, on the other hand, is very high end. I like great clothes, nice bags and there is never anything wrong with diamonds. If I have learned one thing in the escorting business it is that if you take care of your regulars they are delighted to take care of you.
That leaves just three more Holiday "musts". I always try to have an escorting date for New Year's Eve. I actually advertise a special package for New Years and it always sells. Just like restaurants which offer a deluxe New Year's Eve package, I pull out all the stops. I look for that one, wealthy client who wants to have a great time – for once – on New Year's Eve and be assured of a very happy ending. I usually have five or six gentlemen interested and I pick whichever one screens well, doesn't blink at the rate and lets me plan the evening. Drinks at my place at eight. We get to know each other, complete the final financial arrangements – I have already taken a deposit – and I usually give my client a little tease to get him right in the mood. I have a perfect restaurant which puts on a prix fixe dinner with paired wines and really good champagne at midnight. I wear a real live evening gown and I encourage my client to enjoy black tie. If I do my job right he will forget I'm escorting and enjoy a great evening with a pretty, willing, fun, girl.
Once that date is out of the way I sit down in my apartment on New Year's Day and review the whole of my business. I keep very good records of both revenues and expenses and I actually have a spreadsheet which details what I've done and what I've earned. I also look at my escort advertising, my website and all the rest of the things which bring my escorting clients to me. It is incredibly worthwhile to see what has worked and what hasn't.
The one other thing I do over the Holidays is volunteer to serve Christmas Dinner at a homeless shelter. It's not much but I really enjoy it. It connects me to Christmas."
Moving Forward
As Kerry pointed out, the Holiday Season is often a good time to take stock of your escorting business, your clients, advertising and revenues. It is a welcome break in the normal escorting routine. For girls like Kerry who keep track of their business it is the opportunity to think about what the year has brought. For girls who don't keep track it is a good time to start "minding your business".
Taking a few minutes over the Holidays to buy a nice notebook and then sitting down to do a little planning for your escorting business is a great way to ensure 2016 is a more lucrative, less stressful year. Planning does not have to be complicated. It really is no more than asking yourself a few questions.
What are you doing to market your escorting business? Where are you advertising and how is that working for you? Do you have a website? If not what could you spend to get one? When was the last time you got new pictures? What does your post say?
As you ask these questions some more strategic questions are going to emerge. What sort of escort are you? Who is your ideal escort client? In the rush of day to day escorting many girls don't have the chance to plan.
"Until last year I just went from day to day," said Donna in a Skype call from Orlando, "I'd been working for two years. I have regulars. But last Christmas I realized that I had no money. Which was crazy because I can regularly make 5 or 6 thousand a week. More sometimes.
I like escorting. It gives me a good income and enough free time that I can do courses in web and graphic design. I am a year away from getting a web design certificate. But how could I have no money?
There was an answer to that and it was not pretty. I made a list, as best I could, of what I was spending money on. I wasn't broke because I wasn't making enough money, I was broke because I was wasting a ton of money on a bit of a party lifestyle. Which is really easy to slip into when you are escorting. After all, you really don't have to get up in the morning. And you have lots of cash for clothes and bags and you can tell yourself you need to look good for work.
Rather than doing the whole New Year's Resolution thing – which never works – I decided to put myself on a generous allowance. It is a little thing but it worked. My objective was to spend no more than half of what I made plus tips. I made it really simple. If I got paid $400 for a date, 200 went into my wallet and 200 went into a little box I had.
I started doing this the day after Christmas. That week, which is always slow, I had a few dates but, unlike the week before, I ended the week with a bit over $2000 in my little box. Which was a start. I had a big date New Year's Eve and I started this year with $3000 in my little box. I take that money to the bank every so often because I don't like having a lot of cash around the house. My bank balance is looking like $80,000 right now and I've paid my taxes for the first time since I started escorting.
That was the start of my plan. But once I got a bit of control over my money I began paying attention to other parts of my business. When I really thought about it I realized I preferred to do a few, longer dates rather than short sessions. So I tried changing my advertising up a little and, gradually, the mix changed. I also decided to make a real effort to get more regulars. What I did was offer clients I liked a 20% off coupon for their next visit. Again, gradually, I went from three or four regulars to about two dozen.
So, as I come up to the Holidays this year my escorting business is evolving. I am keeping more money which is great; but what is even better is that I am escorting the way I want to. A little planning and now I am in control."
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So whether it's pampering or planning an escort can and should make the very most of the Holiday season. It's a wonderful time to reconnect with regulars, have some new pictures taken or simply shop the sales for that little black dress which you know you want. Of course, it is also a wonderful time to remind your clients that they have the chance to be a not so secret Santa for their go to girl.