Hi, so my setting is a sleazy, down on its luck strip club so I need info on how strip clubs run and how management functions especially since this is a club that is extremely mismanaged and is trying to become a better place for the sex workers. If anyone has experience, can you tell me: How do you clock in, assign shifts, organize hours How interactions with other dancers are How a typical night usually goes How interactions with management goes How you get paid and other financial details What are the rules regarding touching and if there is any under the table sex work and attitudes towards it (especially management's) Security and safety
I could give you some answers here, but out of all the entertainment industry, strip clubs vary in so many ways. It is definitely a profession where there is a lot of favoritism and scratching of each others backs, I mean after all it's an incredibly money driven environment. I can tell you that there is not really ever a clock in procedure though the dancers do have shifts. Clubs usually have a general manager that runs the whole club, a head bartender that takes care of the bar and wait staff, and a house 'mom' that manages the dancers. The schedules like I said are very fluid depending on who is on the good side of the house mom. If a dancer is late, misses shifts, or is not earning very much money because they aren't pushing for customers to buy them drinks or special dances, they are often assigned to work week nights or day shifts when business is slower, until they start to show a little more hustle. Some clubs even make girls get 'drink tickets' to keep track of how many drinks they get customers to buy them, because the club charges more and the extra money goes to the house. Every night the dancers usually have the basic 'tip-out' that goes to the club and some clubs have the girls tip the DJ for playing good music for them and tip the bouncers for walking them out. Also when there is a special dance like private couch dances, there is a set fee the girls have to give the house. Dancers aren't considered employees of the club because they do not receive a wage and are instead considered independent contractors. Every club usually has bouncers/bouncer, though some will not have them come in during the day when business is slow. When dancers or staff leave, they are escorted out to their car or ride. They have to let the club know who their ride is, because they can not be seen leaving with a customer because that can be considered prostitution. You will have to look up rules on touching, whether the dancers have to wear pasties over their nipples, dance nude, etc. on your own because that varies by state and sometimes city. If I missed anything you can just shoot me a message and I'll try to give you a good answer.
No problem, if you want a couple other things in particular that the new manager fixes, here is a few secrets. Bartenders and wait staff aren't supposed to do private dances. They are on the clock and it isn't their job. Girls are encouraged to get customers to buy them drinks, so girls aren't supposed to tell their age. Bartenders are supposed to have a list of dancers that are underage and when they get a drink, it is supposed to be made 'virgin' and they will get a specific color straw to show that so that management knows if they are drinking something they aren't supposed to. Often clubs will have one of the bouncers also do the bar back work. If it is a large club, they might have someone that is only a bar back and escorts the dancers to their cars. If girls play pool or darts with customers they are usually supposed to charge the customer but most clubs don't enforce that. If I think of any other specifics I'll let you know.
I worked in a strip club/adult theater for a year or so managing the store selling magazines and videos, along with a surprising variety of adult toys (this was pre-Internet - that business is much different now). The first thing you need to address is the location of your club, as laws vary from state to state and even by community. Here in Michigan, topless clubs can sell alcohol, but all-nude clubs cannot. As you might imagine, the clientele is dramatically different between the two. I'm not exactly sure why, but the topless clubs (with booze) seem to attract younger and better-looking dancers, many of them in this area being college students working their way through school. The club I worked at was all-nude and sold very expensive soft drinks. The dancers were mostly women in their twenties, who likely would have been working minimum-wage jobs if they weren't dancing. There were probably twelve to fifteen dancers at any given time, with a core group of five or six who had worked there for years. Oddly, physical attractiveness didn't seem to make much difference in a dancer's income. Speaking of income, it wasn't unusual for a dancer to make $50K+ a year, all in cash. It may be twice that now. Our club, and others I know of, had (usually middle-aged) men who picked up extra money by driving the dancers to and from the club, mainly as a security measure (lots of creeps around the business). The dancers paid them by the trip. Our club immediately fired any dancer found to be setting up 'dates' (turning tricks) in the club. I'm not sure all clubs were as law-abiding. At every club I'm familiar with, it was possible to arrange a 'private show', usually involving two or more dancers engaged in simulated (or not) lesbian sex, usually in a motel room. The overall vibe at our club was sort of seedy and sad.
While I have never worked in a strip club I used to have to go to one for 'lunch break'. I was working nights in a semi-automatted factory that manufactured curtain hooks. The lunch break was 1-2am and the rest room provided was extremely grim and dirty. In the middle of the city at that time there were limited places to go for a sit down and table to eat sandwiches at. Just round the corner from this factory was a fairly seedy strip club. It had become the practice of the blokes working at this factory to nip round to the strip club for lunch. The management were used to this and only charged a token mount for us to go in. egular customers were better than none. It was expected that we would at least buy one drink each. So we would be gathered around a table in a corner eating our sandwiches and reading our newspapers and magazines. At first I was mesmerised by the action on the tiny stage, which was a little half-hearted and weary at that time of night, but that soon wore off. Sometimes we were the only punters in the place and the girls were obviously allowed to have a break from performing. One in particular was reasonably friendly with a couple of the all hands and would wander over for a chat - clothed of course. Occasionally one would talk to me but I was rather young and tongue-tied at the time. I was struck with how old some of them seemed to be, although at about 19 years old anyone over thirty looks aged. The chat was invariably mundane. One of them was a West Bromwich Albion (soccer) fan and would often talk about recent matches.
Why not have one that offers "door to door" service? A subscriber needs only to leave a certain color porch light glowing away at night. Poof! A dancer appears ready to go!
