I did a quick search for the topic... doesn't seem this question been asked before (surely it must have but I just can't find it!) Anyway I am very curious about how everyone got started, and what your initial feelings were before and after seeing your first client. What lead you to make the decision and how long did it take you take the jump and give escorting a try? Did it change the way you see yourself or have you remained pretty much your same self prior to becoming an escort?

I'm just interested in everyone's "how I got started" story.

After splitting from a long controlling relationship I realised, hey! Theres nobody here to tell me what to do!
Started with phonesex to earn extra cash, moved onto webcams and then before you know it I was on my first outcall. I thought about men id dated when I was single and wondered why I had bothered.
Its changed me in that I dont automatically trust others now, whether man or woman. Things are there that I never picked up on when I took things at face value such as a look or a tone of voice. Im much more cynical about others motives.
On the plus side its shaken me out of my "safe zone." Im much more compassionate and realise that my old way of life isnt the only way of life.

After splitting from a long controlling relationship I realised, hey! Theres nobody here to tell me what to do!

Partly this ^

I'd fancied it for a long time. My sister was a stripper when I was about 6 and I remember hearing her bitching about how guys would try to pay her for 'extras' - the amount of money she was talking about, I thought she was mad to turn it down. I read Belle de Jour's book when I was 17 and that got me seriously thinking about it. There's never been anything else I really wanted to do. I don't enjoy any other work, I am smart but I hate studying, I have worked in shops and hate it, I did beauty school and really didn't want to work doing that. This feels like what I was meant to do, haha.

When I was 19/almost 20 I split from a boyfriend who had been trying to change me the whole time we were together. Trying to get me back into school, trying to make me read literature instead of books, trying to improve the way I talked and dressed and everything. He wouldn't even let me put topless pictures on the internet to show my friends, he was very against me expressing the sexual side of my personality. Ugh. Once he was out of the picture I realised I could do this if I wanted to. At the same time I was suddenly handling bills on my own for the first time, working a shitty job with shitty pay just to keep myself going, I didn't have anything left for myself. So I thought, why the fuck not? If I hate it I don't have to keep doing it.

I didn't hate it, packed in the day job 3 days later, no regrets

I know I'll be scared to death at my first booking too... if I ever get around to it! The problem is... I'm not really sexually aggressive. I like to be wined and dined a bit and coaxed into sex. I don't think I could just meet a guy and get down to business just like that...

Pixie, I'm not sure this industry is the right one for you. I know you've been considering it carefully for a long time but I'm not sure what you're waiting for someone here to say? That it's awesome and we all earn a million pounds a year and the men are all Richard Gere? Essentially, we all made that decision you mentioned: to meet a guy, take a fee and get down to business just like that. Sure, the business might include a glass of wine and tons of foreplay but you don't build a relationship with a client and decide whether or not you fancy him before you have sex with him, that's what the fee's for!

As for a lack of sexual aggression, I don't think that's a problem while you're new - on my first booking I had no idea when to 'get started' so I chatted away until he said in a terribly failed attempt at suaveness, "Come with me upstairs please!" Then I pretty much just peered at him carefully as he did what he wanted - the lovely and straightforward oral + missionary - tried to remember to act totally enthusiastic but not overdo it, and generally basked in the glow of my brazenness (and the glow of earning some money)!

The only thing I was nervous about was getting assaulted and/or murdered. It really doesn't matter if you make a fool of yourself in front of a client in comparison, does it? Your first few times it's bound to happen and even now I frequently stumble in my heels or literally get my knickers in a twist! Just giggle and act like it's their overwhelming charisma that is making you clumsy.

I can't say I was frightened on my first booking - more excited than anything else. But I think that had more to do with the fact that I worked for an agency before becoming indie - so I knew that there was a driver outside waiting should something happen. I'm sure I would have been petrified just diving in at the deep end by myself. The appointment itself was a fairly standard appointment, and the guy was reasonably good looking! I do remember he had nice muscly arms... Only issue was that I had picked a red blouse with about 20buttons to fasten. So I was stood there forever at the end trying to put it back on! (I'd had the idea that guys would want to see you undress slowly - wrong!) x

I started out watching straight porn. Then I went to gay porn. Then I started sucking dick. And of course they sucked mine. Then I went from getting fucked, and of course I started fucking. Of course, if Im going to be doing all this sucking and fucking, I have to have gas money and a place to do it at some point

I was surprised at how many just wanted to suck me, and how many wanted me to go after they'd come, even if that was only a couple of minutes after we'd started.

About time you bring your ass back around here LOL. You've been around for years, but dont post much LOL.

I always worked as a self employed because I couldn't bear anything else...Then I met Steve and started swinging and before we knew we were working as escorts together! I always wanted to try this and after I tried, I wanted even more! Our first client was very easy for me as he wasn't interested in me at all - only in Steve!  I don't regret anything and I'm glad we are doing this.

It's was a quite simple economic decision for me. I needed to pay for my hormone therapy before I totally lost my marbles. Almost all the effective treatments regarding M to F transition are only available via private providers and so really do cost! After transition because I was self employed it was made abundantly clear to me my services were no longer required and I couldn't transition on the dole.
My first job was a nightmare as it was an outcall to a hotel near Derby which coincided with  a bunch of morons transporting a wide load along the A50 thus making me very late due to the 25 mile traffic jam they caused. My blood boils even now thinking about it. As luck had it the client was very understanding and the booking went well. I was just so relieved that it had been a positive experience after.
Escorting has boosted my self esteem no end after all the dates I had had with men who treated me as an unpaid escort when I was looking for a relationship before I started this career.