Welcome Sarah,
Please see the below link for an earlier response from xyz.
Also, to reiterate what is mentioned in the linked post your best bet is to post ad's in your regional Chicago TER ad board. This will hopefully generate well established TER clients who can then review you on TER. Also important is to post photos, in the general photo only forum. As mentioned in several posts, a new provider getting reviewed by a new reviewer, doesn't always help as TER admin will hold reviews until other more established reviewers review the same provider
There are two individuals who are very helpful and offer really sound advice and offer great suggestions. The first being Swimtrekr. He is a board moderator and you'll always see this name highlighted in Red. The second being xyz23. I've included a link to a previous posting he provided that I hope you find helpful.
Not to say that you wont receive other helpful inputs, but both of these individuals I would highly suggest you pay attention to.
As Swimtrekr has already suggested, you can post an ad every 7 days on the appropriate regional ad board. You can also post a photo daily on the Photo Only board
Going independent was one of the best things I ever did for my business, and I am the type of girl who LOVES working for an agency!
Do you have any reviews and verification accounts (P411, DateCheck, etc)? Your first item of business would be linking them to your profile here and getting everything in your control. I had a little trouble switching all my stuff, but I think that's more because I suck at technology than that it was meant to be painful, lol!
Then I would highly, highly recommend getting a website set up. It's your "home", and will give you far more opportunities to customize your advertising than any other website. Personally I use Veda because as previously mentioned, I'm no good at these things, but I also recently helped a girlfriend set hers up on SquareSpace, and it was so quick and easy! Both will cost you money, but the free websites while tempting, are ALWAYS having trouble. Plus they link to sites for free nookie and I just can't support those kinds of sites.
As far as ads, P411 has been awesome for me, but advertising will really depend on where you are and you'll kind of have to play with it a bit to see where the guys you like hang out. TER, a big ad mall (super expensive, losing support in some areas), P411, DateCheck (meh experience for me), and smaller local boards are a good bet. BackPage can be good, but it can also produce a lot of time wasters and LE, so you just have to be ready for that. Some girls say they've had luck with A place well nicknamed "icky" in the south, but the huge majority are repulsed by it... For good reason, lol! Slixa is another that the ladies love, but seems to be very regional as far as clients. It's beautifully set up, almost like a Facebook account, but it's only used in a few places right now since it's so new.
As far as screening, that depends on what you're comfortable with. Most ladies seem to be ok with two verifiable references within the last six months. You can ask for real world information, just know that your inquiries will go down do you do. But, you'll also never be one of the girls posting about how a guy ripped you off/stalked you/hurt you and you don't know what to do.
In addition to the screening sites listed above, I would recommend getting an account set up on VerifyHim. It pulls all kinds of information, and will more than likely save your ass at some point. The provider only board here is also a good source of information and community, though you'll need reviews and posting history to gain access.
Good luck! Going independent is definitely one of the scariest and most exciting things you'll do for your business, and some days you'll feel like you're losing your mind, but it's allllll worth it when you're working half as much and can eat lunch without worrying about being able to afford it or having time to. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more, not everything can be said publicly 
you could get TER to change your contact information. If that doesn't work, after you get a new review, you could get the profiles combined which would reflect your experience as a reliable provider.
Does your agency own your photos? (Paid for photo shoot?) In any event, they don't own your profile here & I have seen gals go indie or even work an agency & indie.
I was going to suggest that Sarah try to get control (ownership?) of her old TER reviews but I think we've heard about that problem before.
A good agency or a nice owner will notify TER and give Sarah her old Profile and reviews, even if it's under a different name. (The Profile then becomes "Sarah / Oldname".) I think that Sarah will have to prove to TER that she is the same person as in the Profile (with pictures, maybe?) and have new info (website or linkable ads; phone or email; etc) and, of course, a TER member ID which she has: sarahchicago1. And then she can link her TER member ID sarahchicago1 to her Profile.
I seem to recall a few threads about girls leaving agencies and the owners refusing to relinquish the old reviews and Profile.
Sarah should get her ads and biz up and running and at least give it a try. If her old boss is a dickhead and refuses to give Sarah her old reviews maybe there will be some other suggestions.
(Sarah: Do you have reviews from your agency days? What is the TER Profile ID number?)
To be honest, i am a homebody and never knew anyone in the hobby until recent. That got me the courage to go indie. I met a girl and she told me about TER. I never had a clue it existed so i have no clue if the agency has a TER name for me!! My new hobbiest friend did search up the agency and she didnt find it.
No they do not own my photos, and i am assuming they took down all the advertising for my area because they are no where to be found other then Cali!! and i believe they were sending me to the ones that already had the # but in the past month 7/10 were cancel or didnt answer the door!! so time to start a new journey!!
Dear Sarah:
In addition to all of the other pieces of advice that you have received, also try to see if you can get into any meet and greets in you area. From there see if you can also get into some providers' only meet and greets. Once you are there you can interact with some veteran booking agents who can give you considerable insight to the game. From there they could have package deals in which you could get pictures taken and a defrayed subscriptions to online ad sites. Also when you advertise perhaps you could give incentives to members of verifications sites and for those who write reviews. In fact if you can see who is a frequent reviewer in your area. Try to contact them or see where they go as well. Once you understand the trends of cyberspace as well as different places to receive information, then things will be easier for you.
