SAAFE forum
General Category => Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Miss_Lorrainne on 20 March 2017, 04:06:04 pm
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Hi girls I know most of you are independents and I'm curious about what percentage of your earnings you invest into the job to pay for advertising etc?
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This sounds like an opportunity for me to crack out my spreadsheet and do some data analysis :D
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Escorting isn't my sole income, nor do I want any of the directories etc. to know my real name or bank details etc., so the only marketing I actually pay for is my website. I don't get many AdultWork credits, but those I do I use to display my phone number.
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OK! This was pretty easy because I've been bringing all my accounting up to date ready for tax year end ;D
Now bear in mind I am primarily a touring escort so my percentages will be different to someone who is mainly based at home. I can't work very much at home due to a number of issues with my property.
My total travel costs - this includes hotels, fuel, parking, eating/drinking while away, and a cat sitter - is 23.5% of my overall profits for the last 6 months.
My next highest cost is advertising outside of AW, which is 1.6%.
Then health insurance at 1.3%
"Equipment" at 0.7% (this is permanent equipment such as sex toys, bedding, luggage)
Consumables at 0.6% (primarily condoms, lube, baby wipes etc but also stockings and tights! I don't count lingerie as I wear the same stuff for civvy fun)
I spent 0.4% on phone top ups.
So a note about AW advertising: I earn enough credits via web cam, PG sales and clip sales to never have to buy credits for anything. Because of the way AW takes a cut when you withdraw, it makes more economic sense to spend my credits on featuring rather than to withdraw them and then need to buy credits. I do still withdraw the "excess" (via Daily Pay group, which doesn't cost anything) and those withdrawn credits made up around 10% of my total turnover for the last 6 months.
I display my phone number every day which is 1.20 (it's extremely rare for me to take my phone number off.) I try to buy featured for the days I know I'll be touring, which I can usually get for less than 10 credits a day if I remember to log in early enough. I also buy featured movie clip/rental but only if I can get it below 2 credits for rental and below 4 credits for clips. If I do a short notice tour and haven't bought featured then I'll take local escort search for 1.50 a day.
So generally on a touring day I'll be spending around 20 credits a day with AW, but it's not an actual outgoing if you get what I mean? I've just done a rough calculation and for the last 12 months I've withdrawn about 60% of my credit earnings and have spent the remaining 40% on AW advertising of various sorts. That includes 1 shot of 250 credits in one pop on getting direct cammer of the day some months back, which was very much not worth what it cost.
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gosh umm I don't pay to advertise on AW the condoms I buy are durex which are mire expensive than most but I like them I work from my own home so I don't have to pay hotel fees or rent a holiday apartment to work from. Underwear sets including suspenders I buy when ann summers have 20% of which cost me ?50 or ?50 odd pounds stockings buy from debenhamdams for ?9.50 each but they last forever as I handwash them and by forever mean months so it's woth investing in good quality ones work clothes I buy from boohoo.com and misguided when they have 20% of or more sales and work boots and shoes I buy in the sales to lube costs ?10 a bottle but lasts forever so max ?150-?200 a month depernding on how much retail therapy I induldge in ;D
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VC you killed me :o I am looking for accountant if interested ;D ;D
Well if its too slow and my private gallery doesnt fund me enough I pay for AW but i consider it less then 0.5 of my total income. I am not stockings lover and dont wear them often so I keep few cheap pairs from ages. In total I guess around 30% 35% goes for accomodation, lingerie, advertising, travel expenses, lubes, condoms, whipes etc.
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Its coming up to my first year in the UK so as of yet, not totally sure on my end of year figures.
VC gave an excellent reply - touring Ladies costs will be far higher than those who work from home or rent a working flat.
Looking at past years and baring in mind that I always toured abroad, my expenses were between 40 - 45%. This however includes a lot of flights (some very long distance), pricey advertising (never used AW abroad so all advertising costs came directly from my pocket) and "all" other costs such as food (which nowadays cannot be accounted for as a cost)
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Love the percentages VC ;D
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"all" other costs such as food (which nowadays cannot be accounted for as a cost)
Is that advice from HMRC, Adele?
My understanding was that you could still claim a subsistence rate, although they seem very cagey about how much. When I was in a civvy job we had a limit of ?35 per day subsistence so that's what I've been going for.
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This was advice from my accountant back in 2014. Now I am unsure if it is just for lunch/dinner meetings. But from my understanding it is meals in general. Good if we both double check this. x
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From Tax relief for escorts.
Subsistence. If you are working away from home and have to stay overnight then you can claim for the reasonable cost of hotels and subsistence including lunches. And from Gov . uk: meals on overnight business trips
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Thanks for that. I have mailed my accountant for clarification. Maybe he is not familiar with tax relief for escorts. I'm now wondering if there is anything else I am missing as I have never looked into this specific "tax relief for escorts"
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Thanks for that. I have mailed my accountant for clarification. Maybe he is not familiar with tax relief for escorts. I'm now wondering if there is anything else I am missing as I have never looked into this specific "tax relief for escorts"
The rule is not specific to Escorts, it's general tax stuff so no reason he shouldn't know this stuff.
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The rule is not specific to Escorts, it's general tax stuff so no reason he shouldn't know this stuff.
I was just going to say this, its why I also mentioned Gov . uk as well.
Businessmen can claim for their meals if away on business so why wouldn't we be able to.
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I was just going to say this, its why I also mentioned Gov . uk as well.
Businessmen can claim for their meals if away on business so why wouldn't we be able to.
Yep, I did a day course on being self-employed and the tutor said you could basically claim for food and drink that you wouldn't have to buy if you were at home, so doing 24h in a hotel with a B&B rate that would be e.g. lunch, dinner and perhaps one coffee/snack.
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This sounds like an opportunity for me to crack out my spreadsheet and do some data analysis :D
This is a fantastic idea! I'm only just starting out but you've absolutely inspired me to organise with spreadsheets.
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Thanks Ladies. I received his reply this morning;
"Certainly subsistence, as opposed to entertaining, is tax deductible. You would need to substantiate the need to be away from home"
I guess that when he said entertainment dinners/lunches etc, I simply interpreted it as food in general.
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Thanks Ladies. I received his reply this morning;
"Certainly subsistence, as opposed to entertaining, is tax deductible. You would need to substantiate the need to be away from home"
I guess that when he said entertainment dinners/lunches etc, I simply interpreted it as food in general.
Oh my goodness I need to learn about all of this once I start getting new clients. I've not been self employed before but want to do this properly.
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Ahh yeah, he was probably referring to if you did a dinner date with a client.
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I don't tour often enough to have large expenses. But way I would probably do subsistence if I could tour full time would be, what would I have spent at home and what have I spent while away? And then only claim for the extra costs, as way I see it if I was working from home food etc wouldn't be included anyway.
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Back on topic, I had a skim over my spreadsheet just now (also gathering up everything for the end of the year :)) and without actually doing any calculations I can see that hotels/travel and the associated costs are also far and away my biggest expense (accounting for over 50% of my total expenses) followed by my work flat which covers roughly another 25% of them - what was interesting is that even added together these costs come to less than half what I spent on places to work during my most expensive year when I was touring all the time.
Everything else makes up the rest - my advertising costs are next to nothing as my website only costs 20 quid a year for hosting, my directory ads are free and I rarely need to buy AW credits because I don't spend much on the site bar phone number display five days a week and featuring when I'm in London. My phones and internet are the next highest single category after my flat but at an average of about 50 a month it's a big drop off.
As a percentage of earnings I'd say my total expenses would be somewhere between about 20 and 25%, so by the sound of things fairly average. I'm planning on sitting down and working it out in more detail now I've started, if I ever get the time :).
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Forgot to mention that the percentage I mentioned earlier also includes my fixed monthly salary and all costs associated with it.
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Loved reading about your business models ladies 8)