Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
Hey ladies,
I am wondering if some of you can share your experiences of working in clubs where you sell drinks for commission. I have never worked in such a club and now that I'm looking to start dancing in Europe I notice that it seems to be pretty common place.
How important is this? Is it impossible to making money without doing this? Is this a huge money maker that I'm stupidly assuming is a waste of time? Are customers used to having to sit for a while and buy drinks with the dancer before going for private dances? Is there a divide between customers who only buy drinks and spend time having a conversation vs those who are there for dances? Are there dancers who entirely rely on making money with drink sales and don't do dances? How does the club monitor how many drinks you have had bought for you and how to you get your percentage from the drink sales?
Soooooooo many questions!
Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
I'm not sure where you currently dance, but if it's the US, Canada, or Australia, your earnings will be much lower in Europe, so be sure to temper your expectations.
It is indeed important to sell drinks in those types of clubs because it's another stream of income. You work on commission, so you get a cut of dances, a cut of drinks, and a cut of VIP. The cut depends on the club, so you'll have to do the math yourself to see what is more lucrative for you to sell -- maybe selling bottles will net you more than selling dances, or maybe it'll just be easier/faster to sell a bunch of drinks instead of one dance because of the price difference, so it really depends.
Customers vary, so some may just want company on the floor and you will only make money off of them by selling drinks, while others will go for dances or VIP. It's nice to have the option of making at least a few euros off every customer even if they're not willing to go for dances though, so it's not like you're totally wasting your time. Try for both -- you'll figure out a way that works best for you and the clientele over time. Maybe you'll find it's good to open with VIP and then work your way down to a dance, bottle, or drink. Maybe you'll find it's good to open with a drink hustle and then push a dance/VIP and if they say no, keep hustling drinks. It depends on the club and customer.
How the club tracks sales will vary -- you may get a ticket for each drink you sell and then you turn them in, or maybe they will track on their own behind the bar. They'll explain the system to you, don't worry.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
yes, i work in a club where we make roughly 10% on drinks. drinks for dancers start at 30 bucks a pop.
its a nice supplement, but if you can get a guy to do a dance for 30 bucks instead of a drink, then yes i'd definitely push for something where you make a bigger cut obviously. it really depends on what % they give you, how expensive the drinks are, general club environment.
its absolutely possible to make money without it. although it will vary club to club, so we can't really give you a definitive answer without knowing your club set up.
for instance, i only make 4 bucks off a drink when a customer buys one for me, so if he wants me to stay and talk/have my company he will need to buy a drink and then tip me on top of that.
keep track of your drink numbers..they'll generally either give you a ticket or write it down at the bar but make sure you know how much they owe you at the end of the night.
i have never heard of a dancer relying soley on drink sales unless she's selling $500 champagne one after the other..and even then, they generally dont give you a large % on drink sales compared to what you make on dances/stage/tipped time with customers. if you want to make money off drinks, i'd suggest becoming a waitress or bartender instead of dancer
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
I use to work in the US and moved to Europe and work in a small club here now. Some days there are a lot of guys who only want to talk, so I try to gently push for us to get a drink when I know this person might not want to get a dance. They may feel more comfortable doing something like that. The drinks are around 25-30euro, unless it's champagne bottles, then it's 100-300euros per bottle, which is always nice.
At the end of the night I get to keep 50% profit off the drinks sold and dances I've done. Dances at this club seem to take up a lot more time than in the States for less money. (Compare $20/song vs. 25euro/15min). So I try to keep a good balance and end up usually making more with dances (they are requested more), and typically I have a drink with the customer before suggesting (or already suggested) a dance. But, if the customer doesn't seem to want to have a dance, try to suggest a drink instead.
So, in that case, I'd say depending on the percentage you get from drinks, it can be a quick source of money, as long as you keep a good balance with dances as well.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
Thank you everyone. I appreciate the input.
heyitsunshine - Where do you work?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
heyitsunshine
I use to work in the US and moved to Europe and work in a small club here now. Some days there are a lot of guys who only want to talk, so I try to gently push for us to get a drink when I know this person might not want to get a dance. They may feel more comfortable doing something like that. The drinks are around 25-30euro, unless it's champagne bottles, then it's 100-300euros per bottle, which is always nice.
At the end of the night I get to keep 50% profit off the drinks sold and dances I've done. Dances at this club seem to take up a lot more time than in the States for less money. (Compare $20/song vs. 25euro/15min). So I try to keep a good balance and end up usually making more with dances (they are requested more), and typically I have a drink with the customer before suggesting (or already suggested) a dance. But, if the customer doesn't seem to want to have a dance, try to suggest a drink instead.
So, in that case, I'd say depending on the percentage you get from drinks, it can be a quick source of money, as long as you keep a good balance with dances as well.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
one club I worked drinks were 40$ dancer gets 30$. waitress does all the hustling. I thought it's a good deal. some guys liked it over dances. another club was paying out 65% from drinks and that was a bad deal for dancers and always felt like wasting of time
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
The Glass Slipper in Boston did drink commissions when I worked there a few years back. I'm not sure if they still do it now but being able to make some money while interacting with customers was cool. The downside was that we couldn't really give customers any attention/conversation without a drink, so if they didn't want to buy you a drink or get a dance you'd pretty much just have to sit around doing nothing. Also, bartenders will keep tabs on how long you sit with a custy if they DO buy you a drink, which is annoying.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
I've worked in clubs like this since day 1. I don't know what your portion of what you sell will be but my advice will be to hustle but don't hustle to hard. Example at the clubs I've worked at in the past everything was split 50/50 except for stage tips of course that was all of the dancers to keep. So if dances were 40 the house kept 20 the dancer got 20. 20 dollar drinks the house kept 10. Here's why I say don't hustle to hard champagne at my club started at 100 and up to 10000. None of us ever tried to sell a bottle over 500 here's the catch. It's not easy a lot of times to get someone to spend 1000 plus on a bottle now all that hustling and establishing repor with a customer to let the house get 500+ off you is crazy. There's just no way Ima push for 10000 And only get 5k. On some real before I'd let a customer even spend that much I'd tell him straight babe just give me 3k and let's skip the middle man. I don't know how you guys will go about your sales but our sales took a lot of mind games, mini relationships, phone calls it's hard work etc.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
Every club differs, even within the same city. I've worked in clubs in Europe where drinks are everything, other clubs where they're nothing and some clubs where it's half half. When you get hired, they'll explain everything to you.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
Quote:
Originally Posted by
baby-cougar
The Glass Slipper in Boston did drink commissions when I worked there a few years back. I'm not sure if they still do it now but being able to make some money while interacting with customers was cool. The downside was that we couldn't really give customers any attention/conversation without a drink, so if they didn't want to buy you a drink or get a dance you'd pretty much just have to sit around doing nothing. Also, bartenders will keep tabs on how long you sit with a custy if they DO buy you a drink, which is annoying.
they still do that. they've actually driven away a few potential regulars with their really nasty attitude of "you need to continually buy 30 dollar drinks as long as she's sitting there" and its a real turn off
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
Wow, I'm kinda surprised @ this..esp a 30.00 drink?? I can't speak for Europe, but this's very old school-ish way of doing things, & yea it's a TON of hard work/hustling!
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
If it's alcohol too there's a problem there, it's pretty much encouraging girls to get very drunk...yes drink commissions would be awesome but at the same time when they're THAT expensive I can see girls wanting to just sell drinks for the commission and having it add up.
also, when you think about it it's not really worth it. Unless you can drink one drink per song you won't be making what you would if you were giving dances, right? I mean if the guy is also tipping you to sit that's one thing but getting 30 bucks every 30min or so isn't the best possible average when you could be making a lot more stacking dances and making that per song!
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
You know, I never thought of that^. Where I was, they were very watered down. There was a thread in stripping, about a club that really encouraged dancer drinking.
Re: Clubs where you sell drinks for a commission
its hit or miss for me,i don't drink so I usually don't bank from it. The bartenders know I don't drink so it'll be a Sprite or something. Its cool for the most part