Efficiency for Providers - Keep more of your money (In response to Expenses thread)

[dentonseek]

So, I had a whole post written up until I realized the provider expenses thread had been closed so i'm only going to post the suggestions portion of my post here. I have an experimental idea for any provider who is willing to give it a try.

I'm sure you could keep track of ALL expenses in a given quarter, keep counts on how much water you bought for your incall, how much you spend on makeup, how much you spent on clothes, phone, hotel rooms, hair/nails, everything. Then reduce that amount by 25% for the following quarter.

You can purchase your water/supplies in bulk since you know how much you will need for 3 months. Amazon has the new "subscription" feature where you can purchase a consumable item like water and tell them to deliver the item every 30 days or 90 days and they give you an immediate discount of 15% more/less because you somewhat commit to buying more with no obligation.

You can purchase discounted gift cards from ebay/craigslist or card exchange sites to Sephora and Victoria's Secret or restaurants, gas stations you frequent and save 10-15% right off the bat, use Google Voice instead of having a second phone, use GroupOn/LivingSocial for hair/nail/spa visits, set the scheduling timer on your home AC to save a few percent on your electric bill over the summer. If you don't have health insurance but notice your family is visiting the doctor frequently, sign up for prepaid care with a walk-in clinic, some have rates of $125 per month/per family. Use CouponMom for groceries.

If you priceline your rooms or if you haven't already, learn the tricks of priceline so you can consistently get the same hotels for the same prices...etc. So now you just increased your income by running it like a more efficient business. I know some ladies probably do take advantage of some of these things, but I don't know if anyone has looked at it from a business expense perspective which affects their bottom line.

Just some food for thought. Perhaps ladies could post other money-saving tips that haven't been considered.

[rcg001]

The Priceline idea is a good one. I was just with a provider and she said that she used Priceline for every time she went to a new city. We were at a very nice hotel that normally has rooms for 200 a night and she got hers for 50.00.

Another idea would be if a provider was done with her room and there was still time on the clock so to speak, she could go to the powder room and let the other girls know that it would be available for a small fee. This would only work for ladies that already know each other and trust each other, but it could save the second lady some money and help out the first by off-setting the major cost of providing...the incall.

[LovingKayla]

Do your rent by the week. When I lived in Garland, my office and my house worked out to 420 a week. I took it off the top and put it away. My landlord happened to be a friend that knew I would have rent no matter how long she waited. By about 4k I would say, hey come get your money before I go shopping.


But even before that PAY YOURSELF FIRST AND PAY YOURSELF FAIRLY. I went 8 years and never ever needed to come to the board for help because I saved and did my bills by the week. (In fairness, I did have an incredible support system that helped me) but the weekly thing saved me. I couldn't just crap 1700 on the first without touching something I shouldn't. The way I got used to that was using priceline and paying for the hotel (before naughtyville) on Monday thru check out Friday. I was already used to paying that 100 for the hotel (yes it was that cheap. Fairfield too) so 140 wasn't hard at all, then add the next 280 a week for my house and we were off and running.

Things are much harder now for just about everyone. The rules stay the same. Pay yourself first, then pay your rent, car, insurance, phone. Figure out all these and do your WEEKLY budget. Girls you all know that when you get that envelope it's way to easy to say, "meh, there will be another just as big tomorrow." That mind set will send you to the beggars house. If you have the capability to have chickens and a garden, you can damn near eat for free. CAN EVERYTHING. I'm so flipping sick of tomatoes I can't see straight, but you know what... my family will be fed come hell or high water.

DO NOT GO SHOPPING. For one month, put back the cash you WOULD have spent if you just went out shopping like we do. Money FLOWS through your hands and you don't even see it. Sometimes its because you see it as ill gotten gains and subconsciously you are trying to get rid of it (look it up. I didn't just make that up.)

Think ahead at least 3 months (6 is the accepted recommendation.) You NEVER know what's just around the bend. There won't always be one more envelope to make up for that one. There will come a day when it will be your last envelope and it will pass through your hands like all the others.

There's a company starting soon that can help with all of this. I don't have permission to post this yet so I won't, but it is coming. Hold a tight line ladies. Every single one of you is capable of greatness. When you look in the mirror, see your potential.. not just a provider. Not just a girl, no one knows or cares about... not a lost child that found her way here. You are amazing and you CAN control the money. It only has the power you give it. (either power over you or power to make you a fortune.) Make your money work for you. It's amazing what a whip and a brokerage account can do for you.

[Putanna Di Classe]

Kayla, as always excellent post!

I have a few small things that help me.

1)besides buying waters, etc in bulk buy your party hats in bulk. You will save quite a bit!

2)buy your sexy clothing on clearance. Save literally hubdreds per year. The guys don't know it is last seasons stuff, they just know it looks damn sexy on you.

3)get rid of your hobby phone and internet at your incall. Consolidate it all instead to one smart phone (your RL phone, upgrade if you must) using google voice as your 2nd line. This saves me about 75 bucks monthly. Just do the "heavy" internet stuff at home.

4)minimalize electricity use at the incall when you aren't there. For example we bump the air up to 80 when we leave. It could be days before we are back up there, why waste all that money on cooling an empty place? Save 500-1k per year just turing everything off at night.

[Copierguy0]

Tiffani Jameson is going to be pissed that someone started this Thread back up, lol j/k sorry tiff, I couldn’t resist.

Great idea Loving Kayla, save Rent/Mortgage by the Week and Car Payment. and utilities........ Add up what you spend to live on Monthly and divide by 4 and thats what you need to save weekly.

There are a lot of great ideas if ya’ll could just find a way to use the BUDDY system. Example: how many times have hobbyists got a room at 4 or 5pm and left at 11pm when checkout is the next day at 12:00 noon? Now think of all that time that went to waste when a provider somewhere on this board is down on her luck and could use that room with the allotted time left and is already paid for. Another example: extended stay’s by the week or month when (in many cases) 1 or 2 days are lost or given up when a provider (if she knew about it) would bend over backwards to step in there. And be thankful. So why don’t we all do that? Because of the TRUST factor, that room is in a certain person’s name, what’s going to happen to that room in the remaining time that could come back on us? If we could find a way to work around that little obstacle, it would be a win-win situation.

Nice savings for Vision & Dental here:
https://www.safeguard.net

What really has me curious, is how ya’ll Veteran providers are going to handle retirement? As I get older and a couple years away from 60, I think about things like that more and more lately. All my growing up years I never gave it a thought and said: fuck it, I’ll deal with it when I get over 50 well, those years flew by and here I am, over 50, now what? Well I got social security that I paid into since I was a teenager but that’s not enough for retirement alone…….. so a few years ago, I upped my 401K from 10 to 20% and I started saving more by bringing a lunch to work instead of fast food for Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Then I start thinking, a provider has not paid into SS (unless she worked in her earlier years) so, there’s no funds avail there, and no 401K (Do Ya'll know, if you were married before, you can tap into his SS if he worked and paid into the system & ya'll know his SS number.) I know the younger providers don’t think about this but what about ya’ll Veterans?

CG

[TexTushHog]

dentonseek, what you describe is nothing more than keeping books on the expense side by via different accounts on a GL based on what the expenses are for. I do this for my law firm and have done so for fifteen years. While we use a more sophisticated bookkeeping system than Quickbooks, I would think it would be fairly simple for a provider to adapt a bookkeeping program such as Quickbooks to have accounts for Rent, Laundry, Condoms, Refreshments, Utilities, Advertising, Transportation, etc. Frankly, I just assumed some of the smarter providers did that either via accounting software, Excel, or via a note pad. But perhaps some CPA who is familiar with bookkeeping programs could chime in and talk about how to do this with a simple, inexpensive accounting program, or even Excel. It doesn't sound very difficult and DentonSeek correctly points out that controlling your expenses starts with understanding what they are.

Likewise, you can do the same with income. What percentage of your income comes from repeat customers; first times; one hour appointments; multi-hour; which day of the week; etc. No reason not to track that as well.

[dentonseek]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

dentonseek, what you describe is nothing more than keeping books on the expense side by via different accounts on a GL based on what the expenses are for. I do this for my law firm and have done so for fifteen years. While we use a more sophisticated bookkeeping system than Quickbooks, I would think it would be fairly simple for a provider to adapt a bookkeeping program such as Quickbooks to have accounts for Rent, Laundry, Condoms, Refreshments, Utilities, Advertising, Transportation, etc. Frankly, I just assumed some of the smarter providers did that either via accounting software, Excel, or via a note pad. But perhaps some CPA who is familiar with bookkeeping programs could chime in and talk about how to do this with a simple, inexpensive accounting program, or even Excel. It doesn't sound very difficult and DentonSeek correctly points out that controlling your expenses starts with understanding what they are.

Likewise, you can do the same with income. What percentage of your income comes from repeat customers; first times; one hour appointments; multi-hour; which day of the week; etc. No reason not to track that as well.

Didn't think of it as a customer ranking system but that's also an excellent suggestion. Excel could definitely be used to sort and sum, were really dealing with 90 days worth of info, tops. Its a good look at efficiency vs inefficiency. Why not, its not like this method will make you lose any money. Kayla and Marla had some good tips on the cost cutting end as well.

[Bobave]

Originally Posted by LovingKayla

Think ahead at least 3 months (6 is the accepted recommendation.) You NEVER know what's just around the bend. There won't always be one more envelope to make up for that one. There will come a day when it will be your last envelope and it will pass through your hands like all the others.

Exceptionally good advice ,,, for EVERYONE

[Bobave]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

dentonseek, what you describe is nothing more than keeping books on the expense side by via different accounts on a GL based on what the expenses are for. I do this for my law firm and have done so for fifteen years. While we use a more sophisticated bookkeeping system than Quickbooks, I would think it would be fairly simple for a provider to adapt a bookkeeping program such as Quickbooks to have accounts for Rent, Laundry, Condoms, Refreshments, Utilities, Advertising, Transportation, etc. Frankly, I just assumed some of the smarter providers did that either via accounting software, Excel, or via a note pad. But perhaps some CPA who is familiar with bookkeeping programs could chime in and talk about how to do this with a simple, inexpensive accounting program, or even Excel. It doesn't sound very difficult and DentonSeek correctly points out that controlling your expenses starts with understanding what they are.

Likewise, you can do the same with income. What percentage of your income comes from repeat customers; first times; one hour appointments; multi-hour; which day of the week; etc. No reason not to track that as well.

Now I know why Woody doesn't want to live near you... LOL

[Guest020720]

When my "just came back" reviews started up - and I was turning down a bunch of appointments due to schedule and what not - The first thing Loving Kayla said was "Don't spend it all!"

At the time - that's hard advice to follow when EVERYTHING was behind or due.

Then, I ended up feeling compassion for a old old friend - and got my own self into financial trouble trying to help them. (a 2 yr old was involved - and the child is innocent...I felt that they were worse off than I was....and I also think that part of it was what Kayla mentioned - how we earned the money to begin with. My real job money sits in my bank forever. But if I make an Angie deposit - or have Angie earnings in my hand, it just flies out. I'll be working on this more as the month goes by...but I have to move again soon, so it's not as simple as just putting back for a rainy month.)

[Carrie Hillcrest]

This is all great advice for anyone wanting better control of their finances -- provider, client, civilian, whatever. Thanks for starting the thread, dentonseek.

[Chevalier]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

Likewise, you can do the same with income. What percentage of your income comes from repeat customers; first times; one hour appointments; multi-hour; which day of the week; etc. No reason not to track that as well.

Hear, hear.

I suspect many/most ladies have a sense of the answers to those questions -- but when working on marketing or long-term business strategy, cold, hard data is almost always better. It may turn out that the guesstimate was significantly off. And quite probably more so for a breakdown/analysis of income than for expenses.

Obviously, this is advice applicable to any small business, not just P4P. A lot of small businesses struggle not because they don't have a good product or service but because they don't track the data and use that to address problems and improve the business.

[TheWanderer]

[quote=[B]LovingKayla[/b];1445427]

But even before that PAY YOURSELF FIRST AND PAY YOURSELF FAIRLY.

Things are much harder now for just about everyone. Girls you all know that when you get that envelope it's way to easy to say, "meh, there will be another just as big tomorrow." That mind set will send you to the beggars house. If you have the capability to have chickens and a garden, you can damn near eat for free. CAN EVERYTHING. I'm so flipping sick of tomatoes I can't see straight, but you know what... my family will be fed come hell or high water.

DO NOT GO SHOPPING. For one month, put back the cash you WOULD have spent if you just went out shopping like we do. Money FLOWS through your hands and you don't even see it. Sometimes its because you see it as ill gotten gains and subconsciously you are trying to get rid of it (look it up. I didn't just make that up.)

quote]
______________________________ ___________________________

I think that is very, very wise advice for anyone, especially someone new, young and carefree....remember the adage..."Easy come easy go."

I'm also glad to hear that sage advice coming from someone other than a hobbyist.
If you put that rule in place about paying yourself first (and that doesn't mean with luxury items or partying), you can have success in any field. Reminds me of my younger brother with his first real job when he was about 20. I think we all have relatives like this. He would get paid on Friday and after the big weekend, he had trouble affording lunch the following week, but when payday rolled around again, he was eating steak.

I know a provider here, been in the business more than 10 years and she has little more than her last appointment's envelope to show for it. She knows who she is too, but I don't have to worry about her reading this, she doesn't read or pay attention to threads like this....lol

[Tiger Woods]

here comes Chipper with the padlock again....

[TheWanderer]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that like it sounded. It's the same wise advice my father gave my brother and to me and the same advice I have given to the aforementioned until I was blue in the face. I just think it is a very sound principal and it was refreshing.