Does your club charge lots of fees?
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Does your club charge lots of fees?
Is it just your club or all the clubs in the city? At least if it's the latter, customers have limited options if they don't want to pay the fees (ie. they have to leave the city).
I find that charging the dancers extra fees instead of bringing in more customers is a common issue amongst club management. Charging dancers extra fees is easy and produces quick results. Marketing takes a lot more planning, requires a budget, and can take a while to see results. Management is often short-sighted and just want money NOW.
My club is fairly good about fees (just a house fee, they don't take a cut of dances), but this past year once our summer slump hit, they put up signs saying they will be charging fees if you no call/no show, show up late, or give the wrong phone number with your booking. A year before during the summer slump, they tried to up the house fee by a significant amount. They know the club will get busier once fall hits, but they need some extra income to make up for the decreased bar sales in the summer. And they also know that they aren't going to drive away too many dancers since there are only so many clubs to work at in the city, and some are more preferable to work at than others.
This is a case of the club pushing the marketing costs onto the dancers. In order for us to make enough money, we have to hustle before we ever reach the club. I use social media and text messaging and email lists to get my schedule out there and try to connect to as many potential customers as possible. That way, I can put the costs of the increased fees onto the customer by means of higher per dance costs. I explain to them that the dance is $40, but I have to pay $5 of that back to the club and that the customer covers the house fee as part of the dance.
Then I upsell the 3/$100 dances and offer to cover the house fees if the customer wants to do more than one dance. Almost always do they upgrade and the vast majority throws in an extra $20 to cover expenses.
Sure, it's lazy on the part of the club, but this also makes me the club's customer. Management can get used to making a couple hundred a day off of a high producing girl. I think the most I ever spent in fees at my current club is almost $700 in a single shift (12 hours of crazy!). That is pure profit for the club and it's employees. Since I can bring in this kind of money for the club, I can also pretty much do whatever the fuck I want. I work when I want, for as long as I want, and only when I feel like. Every now and again the owner will make noises about fines and schedules and the like, but I just smile and nod and keep doing whatever I want. The club doesn't want me quitting and taking my client list with me. :)
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club is now charging fees for each dance on top of the fees that already have to be paid. WTF?!?
Were not allowed to show anything here. This has caused business to slow over the years. one would think that clubs would just do more to get more customers in the club to cover overhead instead of charge dancers extra fees.
Now i have to charge the customers more or basically demand tips to cover the fees.
This sucks. And I can't help but think this will encourage extras.
This is part of an economic phenomenon that has been 'shaping up' for a while now. From the standpoint of the clubowners, they are experiencing rising property taxes, rising utility bills, rising insurance costs etc. ... which increases the clubowner's 'costs of doing business'. But on the flip side, generally speaking, club customers also find themselves with less 'discretionary' dollars to spend at strip clubs since the customers' own taxes, utility bills, insurance costs etc. are also rising. This can lead to a situation where the amount of revenues a club can generate via customer door cover charges, drink sales etc. becomes insufficient to cover the clubowner's higher 'costs of doing business'.Quote:
I find that charging the dancers extra fees instead of bringing in more customers is a common issue amongst club management. Charging dancers extra fees is easy and produces quick results. Marketing takes a lot more planning, requires a budget, and can take a while to see results. Management is often short-sighted and just want money NOW.
As others have already pointed out, the quick and easy way for clubowners to remedy their revenue shortfall is to effectively 'appropriate' for the club a percentage of customer moneys spent on private dances / VIP. This has been common practice at clubs in 'high cost of living' states for many years. When dancers are faced with having to 'share' a percentage of the customers' private dance / VIP dollars with the club, there are several options available ...
- pay out the club's percentage from each private dance / VIP, leave pricing unchanged, and 'eat' the loss in earnings per dance. However, as Tourdefranzia points out, it's sometimes possible to make up for the fewer remaining dollars per dance by generating a higher total volume of dances sold.
- pay out the club's percentage, attempt to raise pricing ( by whatever means ... expected tip ? ) to maintain earnings per dance, and risk club customers passing you by in favor of other dancers who have left private dance / VIP pricing unchanged
- pay out the club's percentage, attempt to raise pricing, but maintain customer 'interest' by providing increased contact / 'extras' in exchange for the expected tip money
I would also add that, in areas where clubs are heavily 'regulated', clubowners may face limited options in regard to effective straightforward marketing options which would actually attract additional club customers. However, creating 'word of mouth' advertising that high contact / 'extras' are available from some dancers is usually effective in attracting additional customers ... with the added bonus from the clubowner's standpoint that it will be the dancers and not the clubowner who must actually bear any negative consequences.
This is fucked up.... I also work in a club in Miami where the are trying to charge xtra dumb fees for every and anything they can think of and just makes me want to look around for somewhere where they actually look out for us not try to "pimp us"