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Hey. So, I just have to ask, to the hobbiests and providers. 

Do you think me changing my rates, due to undercutting myself, was a smart move?

Have other girls gone through the change/lack of clientele due to rates? I just feel like I've lost many people due to the fact that I've changed them.

Please send tell.

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    You should be free to ask the rate you see appropriate. As for it causing a clientele migration, I only see it if you go from below average to above average. If the service/offering matches the recommended donation, not too many should leave.

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I admit, if a provider that I'm a regular with raises her rates, I'd at least be prompted to go looking. Doesn't mean I won't continue seeing her, but yes price is a factor in seeing a provider. Especially for people who don't have a big budget and especially since paying for services is not a necessity but a luxury. Sexual services are also touchy and can trigger an emotional response, if the client feels they have a connection with you, a price increase can feel like a form of rejection even if it's not. 

 

I have no idea your rates but lets just say you raised it just $20. If I was an existing client and a regular I'd be thinking well can I find the same or better value with another provider? With that $20 I could get some weed, I could get some cigarettes, I could get some beer, I could get some groceries so do I want to skip spending that money on those things or do I want to continue seeing that specific provider. 

 

 

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As a hobbyist, I never argue about the rates. The provider has every right to determine as she sees fit. I also believe the hobbyist has their own choice which is determined by many factors, the location, availability, schedules, the cost and many other factors.  With any changes, there will be those not return. Their loss.

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As with anything, it's all about supply and demand. If you want less business, increase your rates, more business, lower them. I'm sure there are SPs here who find themselves working more than they want to (maybe they've got other full time jobs, or only want weekend work), so rather than turn people away, the best way to solve that problem is increase the price a bit. I've also seen SPs lower their prices, and I would assume that is to try to bring in more clients if things are slower than they'd like. 

To answer your question about whether or not it was a smart move, only you can decide on that. If you were hoping for a decrease in business, and you're happy to have achieved that, then that's a positive thing, if you were just hoping for an increase in income, while seeing the same amount of people, but that hasn't happened, then maybe it isn't a smart move. 

If you're hoping to maintain the same level of clients, and increasing the price has had a negative effect on that, you could consider some other options to try to bring in more business. Your availability doesn't really work at all for anyone who works a Monday to Friday day time job, as likely a lot here do, if you can change that, you can probably bring in more business. Any boundaries you set, only serve to potentially decrease business. By limiting your schedule to those days, stating that you prefer 24 hours notice, but maybe can work with 3 maybe, asking people not to text after 10, etc, you have a lot of people possibly ruled out from sending you a message. 

Also I can see people interested in kink sessions being turned off by a 2 hour minimum. Often times boundaries/safewords, etc are discussed prior via email, quickly firmed up upon meeting, and isn't considered billable time at the full rate for the session. You could consider a 1 hour minimum for kink sessions, but a slightly higher rate than non kink sessions to make up for a 10 to 15 minute discussion at the start on what's going to take place. 

Anyway, I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I'm not suggesting that your rates are too high, or that any of your stipulations are unreasonable, but regardless rate increases, and boundaries will still have the same effect of potentially limiting your business, so if you want more business, you've gotta figure out which of those things you can adjust, or other ways to add value, or just deal with the level of business you have as a result. Most of the time when I meet up with an SP it's a last minute decision, and I send a text, then within an hour or 2 meet up with them. I've planned out things a day ahead and half the time it doesn't work out because they cancel, forget, don't text back till it's too late, or very occasionally something could come up with me. Some people have families or whatever and don't know 24 hours prior if they're going to be able to get away, etc. 

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Agreed on all the comments above and never to forget it is a luxury service we as hobbyist cherish. Prices are going up with everything, cost of living and so on. As a provider you are setting your own price according to your own costs and service you provide.

Just like with anything we like to "purchase", there is always some shopping going on. We all do it on a daily basis. Like a cost to benefit kind of thing, to put it a blunt way.

As a hobbyist and in my humble opinion, providers are in a service industry and depending on the service, there is a cost to it. If a provider increases her rates slightly and nothing has changed in the service provided, location and surroundings, then it may be due to the cost of living. That is understandable. Anything above and beyond, I would not be surprised if you see some changes in your customer base.

Hope everything works out for you ....

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I agree with Greenteal above. 

Your rates did jump significantly, but from what I’ve seen and read about you, you were asking well below “market value”.

You are definitely asking above average now, but if you offer an incredible experience then it’s likely justified, and those that think so will keep coming back. 

Personally, I am definitely hoping to be booking a date with you soon, regardless!  (Maybe you should have a Lyla member special rate... lol 😉)

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16 minutes ago, PeterConrad said:

As with anything, it's all about supply and demand. If you want less business, increase your rates, more business, lower them.

    It's a bit of an oversimplification and the reality is not as clear cut. In the industry, hobbyists will pay more for services that are unique or specialized. Most won't mind a little inflation if they think they get their moneys worth.

    Dropping the rate doesn't instantly translate to increased business. On many occasions it raises red flags and show signs of desperation. While it can bring new clients , it's not always the most welcomed ones.

    If the OP offers a personalized service that match her rate , she should be fine. But if her regulars don't see the value, this is where she needs to rework her rates and offers.

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Well in her case it appears to be that simple.. Her rates increased, and her business went down.

"change/lack of clientele due to rates? I just feel like I've lost many people due to the fact that I've changed them."

It's simple economics. Yeah of course there's always more to it as with anything, but in general the idea applies. 

I've got a couple of regular SPs that I see, and I've been to a couple new ones lately. The new ones that I saw, I enjoyed my time with, but less than I do with one in particular, and the one I enjoy my time most with costs less than either of the other two I tried out recently. After I visited her once or twice, she offered me a new rate, and I keep returning. I do visit others to see if I'd enjoy their time even more, and if I did then perhaps it would be worth their increased cost. But as it is, I can pay $200 per hour for the one I have enjoyed the most, or $320 to $360 per hour for ones I enjoyed, but to a lesser extent. So I wouldn't bother returning to see those SPs, partially due to the rate, but also due to enjoying my time more with others. 

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7 minutes ago, PeterConrad said:

Well in her case it appears to be that simple.. Her rates increased, and her business went down.

    With the little info we got, it's unclear if the business drop was totally due to her rate adjustment or just one factor in many. Many Halifax hobbyists are serving members and there always some movement this time of year. There maybe a few who left her due to the increase, but others likely did because of professional or family related reasons.

    It's not always about a few dollars.

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If you really want to build a more profitable customer base going forward, then re-read PeterConrad's postings to you - again and again. He makes some excellent suggestions.

Price and service level are always reasons why customers choose and become regulars.  You have cultivated your existing base by these very two elements.  Now you have change one - price. Some leave you due to limited capacity to pay, others to a sense they are being overcharged for something they used to get cheaper and others thing "if I have to pay this much I may as well try some variety".  

It will take time to cultivate a new customer base. Can you afford the loss in revenue?  You know, you could offer existing customers only a small increase for the next year and new customers the full new price. This would soften the transition to new pricing.  As would many of Peter's suggestions.

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SarahAlexx, your new rates are not too high. You provide an excellent, professional experience, a decent location and you’re gorgeous. You’re prior rated we’re too low. You’re worth every penny of you’re new rates. 

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I think most would agree you should charge more than what you were charging. The sticking point is probably how much the increase is (more than doubled). However depending on what you're looking to accomplish it may be the right move. Personally i will see you again but probably less often and it will likely cause ppl to look around.

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Just throwing this in the discussion for now, since this thread is recent and being that we are at the beginning of spring time maybe some guys are busy going to the cottage, getting the boat ready for fishing, saving up for a new car, etc...

All I'm saying is that it's possible that many of us have priority once the snow is gone.

 

Just saying...

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While I admit that I'm disappointed in myself for not taking advantage of your previous rates, in my opinion your new rates are inline and reasonable. It just gonna take me a little longer now to save up for a visit :-)

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16 hours ago, Biker Dude said:

SarahAlexx, your new rates are not too high. You provide an excellent, professional experience, a decent location and you’re gorgeous. You’re prior rated we’re too low. You’re worth every penny of you’re new rates. 

 

Exactly. Your rates are right where they should be. It will take time to build up a clientle, but once you do you'll have a wonderfully positive cashflow. I don't know about you, but in my business lower rates seem to attract less desirable customers, so I price my services high enough to leave the sewage where it belongs. Work smarter not harder.

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I have one suggestion. I would start an email newsletter list. You can use mail chimp, it is free. You set up one newsletter email per month with a small discount from your higher rate to those on your mailing list. 

 

This gives posters like above me, to not miss the chance to see you at a little lower rate and maybe they won't wait so long because that special is only offered for that month. 

 

I do do this as Durham is a lower price point in the market then our neighbours in Toronto but my rates are more akin to those TO rates. I believe mine are the highest in the region. This helps bring some clients who would not normally be able to see me. 

 

This is way you are not offering public discounts that can bite you in the ass and you can work on building clientele in your new price market. 

 

Remember, your type of client is going to change based on the rate. You have now jumped into a different market and they may need something else to help book. Maybe it is pro pics, maybe a different style in website, maybe they want more pics or more thought provoking writing on your ads and site. You may just need a little tweak. Also your advertising venues may not support your new rate. If you jump from a $80 LL girl to a $250/hr lady, then maybe LL is not the place to put all your ad money. 

 

I hope some some of that makes sense. I'm slightly rushed but wanted to get some of this down for you. 

 

Please feel free to PM me and we can chat more about it if you like. 

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20 hours ago, PeterConrad said:

As with anything, it's all about supply and demand. If you want less business, increase your rates, more business, lower them. I'm sure there are SPs here who find themselves working more than they want to (maybe they've got other full time jobs, or only want weekend work), so rather than turn people away, the best way to solve that problem is increase the price a bit. I've also seen SPs lower their prices, and I would assume that is to try to bring in more clients if things are slower than they'd like. 

To answer your question about whether or not it was a smart move, only you can decide on that. If you were hoping for a decrease in business, and you're happy to have achieved that, then that's a positive thing, if you were just hoping for an increase in income, while seeing the same amount of people, but that hasn't happened, then maybe it isn't a smart move. 

If you're hoping to maintain the same level of clients, and increasing the price has had a negative effect on that, you could consider some other options to try to bring in more business. Your availability doesn't really work at all for anyone who works a Monday to Friday day time job, as likely a lot here do, if you can change that, you can probably bring in more business. Any boundaries you set, only serve to potentially decrease business. By limiting your schedule to those days, stating that you prefer 24 hours notice, but maybe can work with 3 maybe, asking people not to text after 10, etc, you have a lot of people possibly ruled out from sending you a message. 

Also I can see people interested in kink sessions being turned off by a 2 hour minimum. Often times boundaries/safewords, etc are discussed prior via email, quickly firmed up upon meeting, and isn't considered billable time at the full rate for the session. You could consider a 1 hour minimum for kink sessions, but a slightly higher rate than non kink sessions to make up for a 10 to 15 minute discussion at the start on what's going to take place. 

Anyway, I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I'm not suggesting that your rates are too high, or that any of your stipulations are unreasonable, but regardless rate increases, and boundaries will still have the same effect of potentially limiting your business, so if you want more business, you've gotta figure out which of those things you can adjust, or other ways to add value, or just deal with the level of business you have as a result. Most of the time when I meet up with an SP it's a last minute decision, and I send a text, then within an hour or 2 meet up with them. I've planned out things a day ahead and half the time it doesn't work out because they cancel, forget, don't text back till it's too late, or very occasionally something could come up with me. Some people have families or whatever and don't know 24 hours prior if they're going to be able to get away, etc. 

I'll reply to this one first, just so others know too.. by responding to these points, may answer other below questions.

My half hour rates were raised by $100 to stop fuck and dumps. I was having an internal battle on whether or not I wanted to offer half hours at all anymore, due to the the sexting and no actual booked time, no shows, or even 2am wake up calls. I dont cater to drunk men (I don't believe consent can be given while drunk).

I require a 24 hour heads up, majority of the time, because I do this out of my one bedroom home, while also having a full time girlfriend who has serious health issues. I book my time around her. Most of my clients have been before 10am or after 12. I rarely have my clients ask for evening times. Solely because that's not the clientelle I cater to. The hobbiests who text and arrive, are the ones I dont make time for. I'm sorry. But I can only do so much with the space I have. 

I had someone inbox me and tell me DFK and BBBJ were mandatory parts of GFE, so I should take down my 'safe play' statement. I for one completely disagree. I do not offer bb of any kind, and kissing is the lease likely way to contract anything other than mono(kissing sickness). 

Heres a break down of my rates and how the jumped:

$80/HH is now $180 - for the reasons above.

$150/H is now $260 - now in the middle range of rates.

$300/2H is now $500 - same rate as most SPs who offer the same services as I do.

Kink sessions have been changed from 1 hour minimum, to 2 hour, because 99% of the messages I receive from kinksters is all sexting about what they want me to do to them and then never book my time. This way, if someone is genuine and I build a bond, after our first meeting, our actual play time will greatly increase. I refuse to play with a bottom, if I cant get to know them as much as I can within our session. Kink isnt just about sex (as most of my kink session dont actually include penetrative sex) it's about control and that person giving it with full trust. That takes time. 

Someone also mentioned pictures....

Some of you may not know this, but I'm a cam girl and model on the side. I'm an amateur adult film producer. My professional photos and videos are not something I lack in, they are just for sale, not for free eyes. 

Huge thank you to everyone who commented. I appreciate the support so much. I hope I can figure things out so everyone is happier. 

---

Jessica, if you dont mind, I'll send you a message soon. 

Edited by SarahAlexxx
Structure error.
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Those are all valid reasons to me, and you don't even have to justify that to any of us anyway, it's your call to make. But it's also you who lives with whatever good or bad consequences come from that I suppose. If your objective in raises your prices was to get rid of losers doing that sort of stuff, you could consider offering a discount to return clients who you trust aren't going to do that, and who you enjoy working with. When I'm browsing ads, I like seeing that I may be offered a better rate if I'm to become a regular. One of the SPs I visit a bunch, I visit significantly more often due to the cheaper rate she offered me, than I would be able to/ want to otherwise. Hopefully that would get you the best of both worlds in terms of fixing the issues with idiots, and also keeping your good clients returning lots. To me, your old rates seem like they were quite low, so I'd imagine you had a lot of time wasters and idiots messaging you trying to take advantage of that. I don't think I ever noticed your rates prior to this thread. I certainly hadn't noticed they were that low. 

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11 hours ago, PeterConrad said:

Those are all valid reasons to me, and you don't even have to justify that to any of us anyway, it's your call to make. But it's also you who lives with whatever good or bad consequences come from that I suppose. If your objective in raises your prices was to get rid of losers doing that sort of stuff, you could consider offering a discount to return clients who you trust aren't going to do that, and who you enjoy working with. When I'm browsing ads, I like seeing that I may be offered a better rate if I'm to become a regular. One of the SPs I visit a bunch, I visit significantly more often due to the cheaper rate she offered me, than I would be able to/ want to otherwise. Hopefully that would get you the best of both worlds in terms of fixing the issues with idiots, and also keeping your good clients returning lots. To me, your old rates seem like they were quite low, so I'd imagine you had a lot of time wasters and idiots messaging you trying to take advantage of that. I don't think I ever noticed your rates prior to this thread. I certainly hadn't noticed they were that low. 

Thanks. 

I do make exceptions for regulars and the hobbiest who were seeing me prior to, have received grandfathered rates. ♡ I always want to be fair.

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I’m somewhat surprised at some of these responses. It’s my observation that what you were charging was part and parcel most likely the reason you had so many negative responses when advertising. I would expect those with lower rates would attract a less desirable clientele. Although I’m sure higher priced ladies get their share as well. If you’ve lost some clients who you feel were decent then perhaps question your meaning of decent. As I believe a decent client wouldn’t object to a lady charging a reasonable rate, which your rates are now, very reasonable in fact. No I think a good  and decent client should have objected to you charging so little and would have offered more and showed some concern for such low rates. But there will always be those who want a superb lady yet don’t want to pay a fair price to share her time. I’d say forget these suggestions for discounts  I think you have already given enough away. Your rates are more than fair and justifiable.   Those that refuse to pay the difference have done your screening for you. Move on and enjoy a more selective and appreciative clientele.

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Yup. Charge whatever you want. You decide what your rates are... nobody else.

Given that you've increased your rates by a significant amount, I'm not entirely surprised that some of your existing clients may have gone. They may have just seen the new rates and not know you'd be OK with grandfathering them in at the old one, if they never asked; even if you put that in your ads, people are sometimes terrible at reading.

It also puts you into a different ballpark, and clients who are in that zone might not know you're there too, yet, and so it may take a while for them to see your ads and get you on their radar - so things may pick up again as that happens and new clients arrive.

Also: you may be seeing fewer clients, but are you making less money? If you double your prices and see half as many people then you'd have the same income and more time for the rest of your life. And if a rate increase get rid of some of the tire-kickers and time-wasters, that's a win too.

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As others have stated.  You set your rates where you think they should be.  It's only your business. 

 

Having said that, the higher you go the more exclusive you make yourself. 

 

I imagine it will impact your client flow.  That's the nature of any business.  Price level = Exclusivity level = client numbers. 

 

Jaguar is pretty expensive and exclusive but they seem to still be producing cars that people are buying. 

 

It's all about what you want...

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