Hi ladies,

I'm new to the business, and I've been thinking about whether or not to keep doing this independently or to join an agency. A couple of weeks ago I came up with an idea that I think is pretty ingenious; I was thinking or creating a kind of 'collective' of girls (5-7 of us)  that'd allow us to could get all the pros of an agency without having to give hard-earned to anyone else.

This is what I had in mind:
- a joint website with profiles for all of us (and all sharing the cost of creating it and paying for SEO and possibly even google pay-per-click ads)
- jointly hiring a (part or full time) PA to take calls and arrange bookings for us
- possibly hiring a flat together for incalls (atm I only do outcalls) as well as a cleaner to come in in between bookings
- the possibility of some of us offering duo bookings
- support, safety and friendship

We would all pay a set sum each month to cover the costs (rather than a percentage of our earnings) - probably around ?500. The initial costs would prob be around ?1500 for the website, a deposit for the flat.

I'd like to do this with girls who are different in terms of looks, likes, and personalities - but similar to me in many ways: degree-educated (or able to blag it by being intelligent and good conversationalists), genuinely enjoy what they do, charging fairly high fees. This is not because I think I'm in some way superior to other kinds of WGs but because I think it makes more sense to have girls that are branding themselves similarly for reasons of marketing & advertising! I'm currently at ?250 ph, ?400 for 2h but plan to increase this too 300/500 when I have a pro website etc so it'd be great if you'd charge fairly similar rates.

If anyone's interested, let me know. I'm hoping we could meet up in a couple of weeks time for a coffee to chat about this.

Also, I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on an arrangement like this. Have you done something like this before? Do you think it's a good/bad idea for some reason?

Freyja x

Hi, thanks for your view Rooby. It's good to point out any problems that might arise, as I admittedly am fairly new and naive! However, I don't see any problem in trying to reach a decision in a group - this is what most people do in regular day jobs all day. I do see though that when you get used to the independence of working as an escort and making all the decisions alone I suppose it could be harder to make group decisions. But I hope that especially for a group of like-minded girls who've agreed on certain things (e.g. acceptable monthly expenditure etc) before starting to work together, it wouldn't be too hard.

I don't think the finance aspect would be too hard either if we all agree on a set sum we put to a joint account, from which we have direct debits for things like rent, cleaners etc. I also hope no one would be petty enough to try and exploit the common finances considering the hourly salaries we'd be making anyway!

The reason I mentioned education at all is not because I think it has anything to do with being a good escort, but (as I clearly said) because of branding/advertising. Some men out there are looking for well-educated and well-spoken girls in particular, and so far I haven't seen any good websites offering just that so I thought that could be a gap in the market. All the girls I'd work with wouldn't have to be completely similar but it'd be good if in addition to having our own individual brands we'd have a clear, appealing brand for the 'agency'. I have a day job in marketing so maybe I think about these things too much

I can only echo Rooby's thoughts here, although I do also agree that it's a lovely idea in principle.

Freyja, there's no way to say this without being a bit patronising (honest apologies for that) but I think only someone new to the biz would make this suggestion. Basically, once you've been around for a bit, you'll start to see some of the shocking - no, SHOCKING! like from "Take A Break" magazine - ways in which people mess each other about. Not just in this biz, of course, but any "collective of indies" would either involve sharing a ton of very personal (dangerously personal, in certain unfortunate cases) information with a bunch of strangers OR just working based on trust, which is also a very dangerous way to go!

Now, that said, you mustn't despair. Being an indie escort is usually about working on your own for the precise reason of keeping yourself and your income safe from the vast-seeming amount of nutcases out there - sh*tty agents, scammers, weirdos, idiots, etc. I wish I had ten hours here to write every single horror story I've heard (or experienced myself!) about this industry, but if you keep reading the forum and browse older posts, you'll soon unearth your own mountain of scariness.

BUT! As an indie, I have (carefully) made quite a few friends; lots of fellow escorts are actually just as smart, down-to-earth, fun and 'normal' (i.e. not actual sociopaths) as anyone could hope - but you have to suss each other out slowly and carefully, just as you do with any new person you meet off the internet (clients, agents, fellow escorts, all alike). You can definitely make some amazing friends for support, or even to share flats with or to help each other with marketing and promotion stuff, and so on. But meeting 5-7 of these in the next, say, month is probably a statistical impossibility. There are loads of amazing women here on SAAFE but they're spread out around the country and not everyone wants to meet others IRL. The rest of the Internet is, as far as I can tell, just pretty much full of mad people.

So yes. I think your idea is great and, in fact, I implement or would implement quite a few of your ideas with my industry friends - but I don't have 7 of them, and we probably all wouldn't want exactly the same things even if I did!

But making friends with like-minded fellow escorts is a very good idea so definitely go ahead and do that, and maybe see then what ideas you can come up with together to make life/work easier for both/all of you? You definitely need at least one security buddy. This job can be a bit tough alone, even though you're free of crazy agents and free to turn down icky clients and set your own working hours and keep all your earnings and all of those benefits; at the end of the day, it's easier if you've got friends for support.

By the way, ?1500 for a website is a lot. Make sure you're getting *exactly* what you want for that cost (bespoke design of excellent quality, a proper CMS, etc etc) before shelling out. If you need a decent website for almost no cost, PM me or search this forum for other discussions on this topic (and don't worry, I very much understand if you're intending to avoid Moonfruit - there are other options, too!).

I really don't think the decisions that need to be made would be too hard, especially if we agree on key principles and see if we are on the same page before starting to work together. Most companies have board meetings where (often more than 5) board members/partners come together to make key decisions - which are usually much harder than 'should we rent out a flat in Mayfair or Chelsea?'.

Emily is a far nicer person than I am, so I'm going to leave her to deal with you now. If you want me I'll be in La-La land, watching Unicorns poop rainbows and hoping really really hard that you are right and I am wrong...
Like I said, good luck! 
R xx

EmilyJones, I understand your point about all the weirdos out there. My biggest worry is indeed disclosing my name - in case there are some disagreements and someone decides to be a bitch and do something silly like post your name online or message all my facebook friends to let them know what I do as a hobby!! I suppose it also helps that it wouldn't be the end of the world for me if my little secret got out - my circle of friends is very liberal, as is the company in which I work. So far I've only told two people, but I've been 'testing' other friends by saying things like 'I've thought about working as an escort part-time... what do you think?' and my friends have all been really encouraging, so I think in the near future I'll let more and more people know.

I'm also currently using the two friends who know what I do as my security buddies - I always send them the address I am going to and let them know when to expect me to call and say I'm alive. I've instructed them to go ahead and call the police if I haven't called them 30 mins after my booking is supposed to be over and haven't picked up my phone.

By the way, ?1500 for a website is a lot. Make sure you're getting *exactly* what you want for that cost (bespoke design of excellent quality, a proper CMS, etc etc) before shelling out. If you need a decent website for almost no cost, PM me or search this forum for other discussions on this topic (and don't worry, I very much understand if you're intending to avoid Moonfruit - there are other options, too!).

I'm new to escorting but I'm not new to business! The current quote I have and think I'll accept for a website for just for me is around ?1000, but it is for a bespoke design, CMS, on-page SEO etc. The way I see it is that I make that much in just a couple of bookings, and a classy website will be necessary to be credible as an expensive escort. As I said earlier, I work in marketing so I think about this side of the business very professionally and will make sure that all of my marketing budget will deliver return on investment.

Overall I think I was being a bit too ambitious to start with... I've lowered my expectations and I'm now thinking of finding just a couple of other girls for a joint website / spending some money together to promote it, acting as each other's security buddies and doing duo bookings. This much, I think, we could do without telling our full names to each other. If things go well we could look into renting a flat out for incalls together in the near future...

Surely if you dont trust them enough to exchange real names then you wouldnt want to be working with them as partners on a website or anything... I know that i personally would not agree to getting into a business relationship if there was any element of a lack of trust.  
I still think your idea is a good one but i think you should work on making friends with girls first and then bring up the issue of business with them. Rather than bringing girls into the business and then deciding whether or not you trust them.

I think those that will spend ?500 on a meal will only do it once just out of curiosity. Just to boast that they forked out a months rent on one bland-arse piece of food that got a great review on tv! After that, they go back to their Sainsburys 'Dine for ?10' meal because its the same damn thing but more convenient!
As you said, 'agencies' charge extortionate amounts but you're not promoting yourself and your co-workers as part of an agency. You're a group of independants.  And what is so unique about your groups service that will convince the guys that its worth the money every time? Will we cook them a hearty meal before they leave? Will we drive them home? Will we provide an alibi for them to give their wives when they get suspicious? I would love to see something truly unique. One good idea would be to have a household of real goths and cyberpunks! Theres not many of those on the market!

I don't think it could work. It's a nice idea that a group of girls could work together but at the end of the day I'm only concerned for me and my earnings only. I'm not a new escort and I've been the industry in some form for a few years now, would I want to join up with a complete newbies? If we are both on the site I already have a customer base a newbie doesn't, is that fair?

Say there is 5 girls, we all pay equal share to the website but it wont take 5 to run the site and what are the odds one individual will get lumped with that. Also lets say there are 5 girls on the site one girl gets a job a day the other 4 get a job a week, could cause tension? From experience (non adult) it always sound good to start group ventures but there will always be a need for someone to be the leader which means one person on taking more work that they don't directly benefit from. I don't see the need to pay for someone to take calls a job I can do perfectly well myself

Yes of course this is purely based on my opinions and it doesn't means some girls won't love the idea but I can only see negatives.