Thanks for the perspective. We often don't see the other side of the fence. While I agree with others that rates are a little out of whack, hearing your side of the story takes the edge off and gives a little insight. I am a hobbiest that has to save for my indulgences, but I value the quality time I receive versus a lower rate provider that makes me wish I had never picked up the phone. I always seem to make my rounds to an unproven provider that makes me say "You dumbass! Stick with what you know!" I guess everyone wants more for less these days, whether it is an Extra Value Meal at McDonalds or an Extra Value Meal with a provider. 
While I have not seen you before Madison, I value your thoughts and opinions and wish you the best. Maybe we can get together in the near future. Take care!
Let me first say that I agree with your statement that a provider has every right to charge whatever rate she sees fit. I am not disputing that. Does charging a high rate make the best business sense for the majority of providers? No.
I can only think of two reasons why anyone charging $300 an hour would be barely scraping by: lack of business, or severe financial mismanagement.
As I’ve already stated, I also agree that providers shouldn’t be expected to burn themselves out running an assembly line. It would be completely insane to think that providers could bill 8 hours/day like other businesses. I’d say the upper limit would be more like seeing 4 clients a day max, or 20 billable hours a week. Since its better not to overstress yourself, and run close to your limits, let’s just say 3 is the ideal number of hours to bill per day, 5 days per week. 15 hours x 300 = $4,500 a week!
OK, I hear you, that’s revenue, not profit. The biggest expense incurred for taking incall appointments is the hotel expense. Let’s say $100 a day x 5 days = $500. So, profits are $4500 - $500 = $4000 – advertising expenses. I have no idea how much it costs to take out an ad on Eros or TCU, but let’s just assume, for the sake of argument, that it is so outrageously expensive that it equals hotel expenses ($500 a week). This still leaves a profit of $3500 a week. $3500 week x 50 weeks = $175,000 a year! If a provider can’t live on that, they need to seriously readjust their lifestyle, because I believe that puts them in the upper 2%!
But what about general housing and living expenses going up in the Twin Cities? Those expenses are irrelevant, in my opinion, because everyone incurs these same expenses regardless of occupation. By this logic, the prices for all services in the Twin Cities market should be skyrocketing, and inflation would be very high. It isn’t.
What, $175,000 a year, you say! Most girls charging 300+/hour aren’t making anywhere near that much. I agree. They aren’t. See above: Lack of business because of the high prices they are asking.
When a provider sees only one client a day because of low demand, overhead as a percentage of revenue is much higher. It is a much bigger hit breaking the expense of a hotel room over one hour vs. three. If a provider books a $100 hotel room for a single customer, hotel expenses = 33% of revenue. If she breaks the hotel expense across three clients, hotel expenses are only 11% of revenue.
This doesn’t even take the following additional factors into account:
- Saving boatloads of money on hotel expenses using services like priceline.com. I’ve booked $120 rooms for $45!
-A reduced need for advertising if you can establish a loyal customer base.
-Providers who don’t report the majority of their profits because it’s a cash business with no paper trail. In other works Net Profits = Gross profit. Taking this into account, a virtually tax free $175,000 would bump a provider to the top 1% income wise.
The tax thing is killing me. And so is the pay per year you have the providers at. TAX FREE ya right. GOT PRISON?? Most of us dont want trouble like that and pay a S***load of taxes. Try low end of $20,000 being due each year or more. You dont account for health insuarance, 401K and so on and so on. Also you are thinking that all providers stay in Motel 6 or something a $45.00 hotel room that was $120. I tried priceline once and got screwed ended up in a dump at what they consider to be a 3 star hotel. GRoss. Also girls that worry about how many times they stay in a hotel cannot do that. You can end up in the same hotels over and over again. Because you have no idea what place it is,that's why it is cheap. Works great on travel but not local hotels for us. Also a great many girls dont have or want hotels on their CC Cards. So that goes out the window. They pay cash, most often at regular rate. And please also know that when we have conventions in town, sports games and so forth you pay much more. Once I had to pay $230.00 for a low end place because all rooms were booked. Also your thing of 3 to 4 clients. Most hotels that would be wayyyyyyyyy too much traffic and good way to get busted. Not slinging here at all but your numbers are way off. Also working 7 days a week. I would not recomend anyone do that in any biz. Also it is forgotten the girls who are in school, have other jobs, obligations, child care expenses, etc etc. We do have other things going on. You just cant sum this all into some numbers and think everyone runs the biz the same way. No two of us do. Just trying to clarify the many things that arent always thought about from the other side. Take care guys Madison
U tuition per year aprox. $17,000 Low end taxes $20,000 per year Retirement etc depends on girl Clothing, lingerie, supplies can really add up Hotels per month low end $2,000 for those who supply them on a reg basis. Day care $1,000 plus for avg 2 kids. School expenses for kids in a year several hundred Day care expenses for her working hours........several hundred a month Medical bills for provider with kids and lack of coverage god forbid any ER Visits or Hospital stays....around a $800 per month Avg rent for 2 bedroom $1,200 per month. Cell phone low end $100.00 month.......one told me of a $1,000 bill in one month. OUCH Advertising rates doubled and tripled on some popular sites. Retaining a lawyer........spendy but priceless. And I could go on and on and on. with the questions to the girls that left the biz cause of babies..........they could not afford to work and had to move home with mom and pop. So much for being wealthy.
-- Modified on 9/25/2003 7:31:08 PM
I'll take your word on those expenses. My point is that most of those expenses fall into one of two general categories: the cost of supporting a family, or general expenses involved in being self employed/running a small business.
Most self employed individuals face the same dilemma of having far more unbillable hours than billable hours in a day because they have to run the whole show, including sales, administrative, and accounting functions; none of which are billable. They also are forced to incur overhead unique to their particular profession equal to or greater than those of a provider. The main difference is that very, very few of them can get away with charging anything even remotely close to 300+/hour.
The fact that you can cover the complete cost of your college education, in addition to everything else, without incurring huge student loans, shows you are doing very well. Most students working other jobs while attending school graduate 10’s of thousands of dollars in debt.
I hope you don’t think I’m the big bad wolf, trying to blow your house down. I’m a nice guy, really. I just like to debate. I know most guys treat pretty girls with kid gloves; as if they are intellectual inferiors incapable of rational thought. I find that a bit patronizing. I’m sure you are quite capable of defending your points without me going easy on you.
For the record, I was addressing providers’ rates in general rather than addressing the rates of any specific provider. YOUR optimal rate may very well be 325/hour. I stand by my statement that $300 is not the optimal rate for the majority of providers. Most would be more profitable if they lowered their rates rather than waiting around for someone to pay them top dollar just because you and a few select providers are able to command such rates. They are putting the cart before the horse. If they lowered their rates and concentrated on building a solid foundation, they might be able to raise their rates in due course.
Look at Eros. Virtually everyone there wants 300+, but most of the providers advertising there have no track record, or a poor track record. They think they deserve 300+ just because you get it. Of course everyone wants to start at the top, and it’s certainly their prerogative to give it a shot, but the majority of providers would make more money charging a lower rate.
