Do any of you have any insights into how dancers adjust to new income levels after their days dancing are over? I'm thinking in particular of the very successful ones, who are unlikely to be able to reproduce their earnings as dancer in some other field. It's got to be something of a let-down, but perhaps not.
Many strippers round these parts talk about going into real estate after they stop "dancing" (if you know them over the long term their post-stripping plans seem to get less and less ambition over time. Um, not that there is anything wrong with salespeople).
Reasons real estate is a good job for ex-strippers:
It takes a very short time to get certified (strippers are not much into school for the most part), they can utilize the sales skills they learned as strippers, they think the money will be good, and the hours are fairly flexible.
Stripping can actually be good preperation for a sales job or something with similar public dealing, if the girl works hard and learns from her experience. It can also provide useful contacts with professional people who these girls would otherwise have no chance of ever knowing. I know several ex-dancers who have done well in part because of the things they learned and contacts that tthey made while stripping.
One other adjustment that is often overlooked is the fact, alluded to above, that most strippers have been living on a cash budget and getting paid every day they work. It is a lot different when the bank isn't just where you put your extra money a few times a month and when you have to wait two weeks between paydays. When I worked for tips I don't think I used an ATM for two years. Bill paying was interesting, because I'd have rent due in one week and no money, but I wasn't worried because I knew I'd make enough in tips to cover it. You get very used to that regular cash infusion and it is a real adjustment. The other thing is taxes. I've been through this discussion once, but let's just say that taking home $1000 a week cash is a lot better than a $60,000/yr salary after taxes.
it's very true that the money is really not what it used to be. don't get me wrong, it's still great, but it's not AMAZING like it used to be. i used to average approx AU$1700pw cash, now it's more like $900-$1100
it's also very true that the high-contact girls make a whole lot more than the non-contact girls. i worked briefly at a club that was supposedly "no contact" but was more like "you do whatever you want and we'll turn a blind eye to it cos it's pulling in the customers." i was the only girl there with strict no contact rules, and once the regulars realised this and the novelty of the 'new girl' wore off, i started earning on average $40 per day working from midday-9pm! needless to say i didn't last there very long and went back to a club where the no-contact rule was heavily enforced. some of the girls at that club made fucking phenomenal $$$$ though!
that club was the only club in the city that allows contact, and surprisingly, the club only lasted about 6 months and went out of business. with that gone, i don't think the contact vs non contact thing affected my earnings at all, because we only had other non contact clubs to compete with.
i think the fact that over time, my average earnings are slowly decreasing, will probably make it easier for me when i stop stripping. going from earning $1700 every single week, to all of a sudden earning $400 every week... that'd be really, really difficult
In Providence the dumpy club on the edge of town is the only place drawing any customers during the daytime. The fancier places close to downtown with higher prices are almost empty except for weekend nights. I agree the higher end places are suffering the most. As a rule, girls want to work in higher end clubs because they are generally lower contact and, at least in the past, the money came from high rollers who where more interested in sipping champagne with a beautiful woman than with having her grinding on his lap. Those days are gone and girls who worked those clubs have either had to adapt and move to contact clubs or suffer a loss of income.
My ATF danced in a tiny hole-in-the-wall juice bar in an out-of-the-way blue collar/farming community. She considered $300 to be a bad night and $1,000 nights weren't uncommon on the weekends. This place featured $10 medium-contact topless laps and was packed every night - the girls would do private dances non-stop all evening. Several years later she waitressed in another strip club/restaurant and made pretty much the same money, which was more than most of the dancers were making. I think the inexpensive places still do pretty well in many areas, it's the expensive places that are suffering. So why do all the girls want to work in the fancy places?
FONDL: I agree, the money isn't nearly what it was 4 or 5 years ago and probably never will be. Unfortunately, it was much easier to bank tons of cash or invest it back when $2K-3K a week was an atainable goal.
My ATF quit dancing about 7 years ago and still makes less today then she did then, and she has to work a lot more hours to do it. But she's doing fairly well and is a lot happier now than she was then. She never saved anything because she was so young. But she didn't dance for very long either. I don't think very many of today's dancers make as much as she used to. The business has become a lot more difficult.
I work with a former stripper in my job and we've talked several times about her old profession. She always says the hardest part about quitting is the fact money doesn't flow as easily and adjusting to the same schedule normal people have, although considering our job doesn't have a normal schedule, it makes you question whether anyone there is normal. As for my ATF, she left but then came back because she was out of place in the job she chose. That's another thing, for if they do quit the stripping profession, they should want to be in a job they can like.
i'm only 21, so i've still got a long time before i'll be hanging up my stripper shoes.... but i've definitely given some thought as to what i'm gonna do afterwards. stripping isn't a career for me. i love it, it's great fun, but really it's just a means to an end. so i'm careful with the money i earn. i don't spend it all. by the time i finish stripping i hope to own a house with the money i've earned. while i've been stripping i've also done a whole lot of other stuff do - i'm a qualified makeup artist & hairstylist, i've done some work in radio announcing and would love to pursue that one day, and i've also studied graphic design and webdesign. so when i do quit stripping, it's not like i won't have somewhere to go. yeah i'll have to get used to not earning such huge amounts of cash, but i figure if i'm sensible while i am earning a lot, everything will work out in the end.
I knew a dancer in South Florida that retired at 39. She could have lept dancing. You'd never known her age. She had to show me her Dl before I believed it, and still didn't really believe she was that age. She had been dancing and living modestly for almost 20 years. She had saved and invested wisely and not wasted what she made. She retired quite comfortably and didn't need to work as long as she didn’t go getting spend happy!
When it's time to go it's time to go. Many girls have to deal with a lower income but have made the decision to get out anyway. My retired ATF went from $800 to $1500 a week to zero when she quit. She started her own business and now makes about what she did while dancing. The top earners, if they are smart, know it's not going to last forever and try to save.
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Reasons real estate is a good job for ex-strippers:
It takes a very short time to get certified (strippers are not much into school for the most part), they can utilize the sales skills they learned as strippers, they think the money will be good, and the hours are fairly flexible.
it's also very true that the high-contact girls make a whole lot more than the non-contact girls. i worked briefly at a club that was supposedly "no contact" but was more like "you do whatever you want and we'll turn a blind eye to it cos it's pulling in the customers." i was the only girl there with strict no contact rules, and once the regulars realised this and the novelty of the 'new girl' wore off, i started earning on average $40 per day working from midday-9pm! needless to say i didn't last there very long and went back to a club where the no-contact rule was heavily enforced. some of the girls at that club made fucking phenomenal $$$$ though!
that club was the only club in the city that allows contact, and surprisingly, the club only lasted about 6 months and went out of business. with that gone, i don't think the contact vs non contact thing affected my earnings at all, because we only had other non contact clubs to compete with.
i think the fact that over time, my average earnings are slowly decreasing, will probably make it easier for me when i stop stripping. going from earning $1700 every single week, to all of a sudden earning $400 every week... that'd be really, really difficult