Cost of Business

Every business costs money to run. There are rents to pay, advertisements, car expenses or taxis, and so on. So with this in mind, I thought I'd write some information for you to consider if you're considering setting up as a private worker in the sex industry

Just keep in mind, everything that is about to be listed/discussed are legitimate business expenses so it's important that you keep a detailed record of them so that they can be deducted from your gross income at tax time. It is net income (gross income - expenses) that is taxable. Not all expenses will be deductable depending on what you register as, but it's a good idea to keep records of everything anyway.

What is a legitimate business expense?

Basically any expense that is incurred in the making of assessable income is a deductable business expense. In terms of being a sex worker who works from a unit for example, a percentage of your electricity, gas, rent is deductable. Your work phone is completely deductable as is website expenses, cost of buying fetish clothing and many more items. If you wish to know more about tax and income please have a look at the page on tax located here:

http://sensualdownunder.wik.is/For_Workers/Your_Business/Tax 

Expenses to consider when setting up a business so get saving!

- rent on a working apartment

- bond for apartment which is 6 weeks rent in advance unfurnished and at least 8 weeks rent in advance if fully furnished

- cost of buying or renting furniture in working apartment (depreciation if owned by you). At a minimum you need a bed, washing machine, dryer and a lounge, fridge, garbage bin

- electricity, gas, water in working apartment

- cleaning of working apartment, and any other similar care and maintenance costs

- hire of accomodation for working purposes if you choose not to rent an apartment to work from full time

- advertising (including website, classifieds etc)

- secretarial or receptionist services; driver

- motor vehicle expenses (lease or depreciation, fuel, maintenance and repairs, insurance,  etc)

- travel expenses (fares and accomodation)

- telephone, internet and mail (rental and usage)

- business equipment like laptops, sex toys

- interest on business loans, and bank fees and charges

- office supplies (stationery, etc)

- professional fees (accountant, lawyer etc)

- licence and registration fees

- work related medical expenses

- consumables (bed linen, condoms, lube, lotions, candles etc)

- laundry costs

- beauty expenses (brazilians, eyebrow waxes etc)

It is EXTREMELY expensive to set yourself up as a private worker. It is EXTREMELY expensive to maintain yourself as a private worker. At a minimum you will need to make at least $1k a week if you have an apartment in the City, a single website and want to run a very meagre advertising campaign either online or in local papers. If you cannot gaurantee you will make $1k a week, I wouldn't bother and would keep my straight job. If you make $1k a week, all you will do is break even MAYBE. There will be no proift and this estimate does not take into consideration your real life expenses like feeding yourself, personal phone, Uni fees etc.

Record keeping

It will be a good idea to purchase and install on your computer a simple accounting package. Something like a basic MYOB package from Harvey Norman or similar retailer will be quite sufficient.

The reason for entering your income and expenses on the computer on at least a weekly basis is that it makes accounting for things like the GST, producing BAS statements, and income/expenditure figures for your accountant so much easier. It is a recommended practice. It also allows you to see how much you need to make, how much you are making and when times are tough, help you to identify where you can cut back on expenses.

Example of Private Worker Expense Per Month

$2400 in rent (if renting 1 bedroom in Sydney CBD)

$300 Search Engine Optimisation (if you have a website)

$120 to advertise on Sensualdownunder

$175 to advertise on Australian-Babe

$255 to advertise on Australian-Escorts

$300 to advertise on Open Adult Directory (main overseas Directory that will get you overseas clinets)

$60 gas

$120 electricity

$90 mobile phone

$90 internet ADSL

$20 condoms, lube etc

$100 waxing

TOTAL: $4030

and you haven't even fed yourself, bought lingerie, paid for pictures for your website, bought a website or any other work and/or personal expense. If you only advertised on a single forum and the cheapest which would be SDU, you'd still need to make $3300 before you can feed yourself. You can cut down advertising expenses by listing on free directories, but then you are sitting in amongst 200 other girls with nothing defining you or making you stand out. Many of the free directories will also only allow you to advertise if you have a website you can put their banner on, so you'd need to buy a website and pictures to put on it first.

It is VERY expensive being a private worker!

Summary

Before setting up as a private worker, be VERY sure you can afford it and have some money already stashed away for rainy days. I'd recommend getting as shorter lease as possible in case work dies off, so you're not lumbered with a very expensive apartment you cannot afford. Rent is what kills most girls in this industry. Normal people pay 1/3rd of their income in rent, most girls in this industry shovel 85% - 95% of their income into rent. This will KILL YOU in the slow times. 

In the current economic environment I would not recommend ANY sex worker gets an apartment to work from, or shovels the money into work that we use to. No-one is making any money at the moment. At the moment I would suggest girls only escort or rent a room for a day in a serviced apartment and tour (even if only within your home state) when they have enough bookings to make it worth their while. You could also rent a room from another private worker or from a brothel for the day.

We use to get lovely apartments for the benefit of guys. If you charge a certain amount of money, guys expect to sit in a certain quality apartment. This is no longer a reality or luxury we can afford to lavish on clients. If they want nice, they can rent a hotel room and you can see them there. Do not kill yourself financially for this industry. Keep in mind you're in this to make money, you're not a men's charity.

Good luck ladies, it's VERY tough at the moment so be VERY vigilant on what's going on for yourself financially. The golden rule is... IF IN DOUBT DON'T

written by Sydney Escort Lucy Blake; site design and maintenance by Lucy Blake; Copyright Lucy Blake  www.lucy-blake.com 2009 - 2011