The Joys of Nightshifts!

During the first 6 months of my dancing career, I worked primarily dayshift at my first club and only nights at my second. This was because my second club didn't even offer daytime hours and opened daily at 6pm. Thankfully, it was also a lot larger and more spaced out than my first club, so working packed nights there wasn't quite as stressful and overwhelming for me. There's a plethora of things I learned from my time working nights throughout all of the clubs I've danced at - and some great, unique experiences that really made me appreciate this particular shift. 

*Disclaimer: These are my specific opinions/observations, and they may not be true for everyone. I will be doing my best to share the aspects I really like along with reasoning for each topic, so you have a good idea of why I'm sharing on these particular areas! *

Higher Volume of Customers:

It's absolutely still possible to have a slow nightshift, but it's quite a bit less common than it tends to be on the day side. Typically, the first couple hours after open/before the night gets going are going to be a little slower. Think dinner time hours - people are eating with family, just getting off work, or running the last couple errands of their day. This can be a great time to show up and get settled into your stripper energy for the night and potentially score some dances off of the customers still hanging around or just popping in before things get too loud and wild. I always loved getting to my nightshift club at open because I felt much more at ease walking into a slower paced environment and warming up to the crowd slowly as it began to grow. 

Of course, when and how you'll get busy is all dependent on multiple factors like your club size, location in relation to major cities, hours of operation and typical clientele for the area/club and your particular hustle style. Let's assume you work at a mid-sized club in a decently populated city. The higher volume of customer mean you'll have increased variety in who is entering. People from all backgrounds, ethnicities, races, and preferences will be mingling in and that can provide you with tons of great opportunities to secure sales. Your look, vibe and selling style are sure to appeal to at least a couple handfuls of patrons visiting the club on most nights - if not more! 

Often times, you will see several groups of friends or bachelor parties coming in at night to let loose & celebrate. Groups and parties aren't always guaranteed money, but they certainly can be. I always like to approach large parties, ask what/who they're celebrating, and if anyone is going to be a hero and buy their friend a VIP with me. This may not end in a VIP, but fairly frequently one or a few of the friends will chip in on buying the lucky guy a handful of dances or one of them will decide to buy dances/VIPs from me instead. Strip Tip: Ask the friends what kind of girl the bachelor/birthday boy is into. If it's someone like you, great! Work your magic and close the sale! However, if it's someone totally different from you, i.e. different body type, hair color, race, vibe, etc, try to find another dancer you can recommend or bring over. This helps out another girl and can also help you out, too. In the future, she may do the same for you. Additionally, the group might really love to see you being kind and helping another dancer and their friend & in turn, reward your good attitude with tips and/or dances/VIPs with another member of their crew. In an environment where people often believe the misconception that we are all catty and hateful to one another, it's refreshing for everyone involved to spread kindness and help one another. 

Higher Dollar Transactions:

High rollers are typically seen frequenting strip clubs on nights and weekends to really get their good time going and enjoy a long night of beautiful ladies, partying and indulging. This is why it's paramount that you approach everyone you possibly can. Not everyone with a lot of cash to throw is going to be dripping in designer, and a great deal of the time, they're considerably more low profile about having money. They may prefer to keep this low profile, so they don't have to deal with loads of dancers trying to quickly shove them into VIP all night. Instead, they're looking for the right girl who approaches confidently and gets to know them a bit first. You don't want to miss out on a potential whale because you judged a book by its cover at any time in the club - day or night. People visiting the club at night, whether high rollers or not, will often be more willing to spend due to the party vibe, high energy and fast pace, and drinks flowing which lower their inhibitions toward spending and getting more dances than they'd maybe originally planned on. Larger crowds & parties can often mean better overall stage tips. When a couple people start throwing money, more are inclined to do so as well. Bring the energy and sex appeal to your sets and watch people flock to you. I like to wear something unique especially on nights to draw attention and give the crowd a WOW factor! 

Upselling can be a crucial part of nightshifts. If you know how to upsell well and pose the suggestions with ease, those lower inhibitions and desires to stay with you to enjoy more of your company can keep customers spending for quite some time. Always be ready to pitch another dance or more time in VIP when it's getting close to the end of the time they've already paid for. Remember to suggest that they can use the ATM to pull out more cash, dance dollars/funny money/club dollars or whatever your club calls credit card transactions and keep the party with you rolling for even longer - this is especially useful if they tell you they'd love to do more but are running low on cash. In addition, nights can frequently garner higher tips and more of them. Do not be afraid to ask for a tip from every customer who does a dance/VIP with you & even the ones who reject you! This is extremely important. I've heard tons of girls say how much they struggle with asking for tips and hate how it negatively impacts their earnings so many times. I know it can be hard, and feel pushy/unnatural/intimidating to ask, but honestly you won't make many tips if you never bother asking. You definitely aren't working that hard to go home with less than you deserve, so work on coming up with some tip-asking lines that fit your personality and selling style! Keep your eyes peeled for one of my next blogs where I'll discuss some ways I like to ask for tips. Strip Tip: Always - and I mean ALWAYS get your money up front for whatever service you're providing. I don't care if it's a $20 air dance. It may not be the most common thing in the world, but you bet your ass there are men out there who can and will steal services from you if given the chance. Also, please keep your money wherever is safest during your time with the customer. 

Staying the Night & Last Hour Magic:

I get it, it's 2:45am and you're exhausted. Your feet hurt, you've been approaching, talking, selling and dancing all night. You want to go home. However, your club closes at 4am, and you've only got to push through one more hour and 15 minutes to make it there. People are still scattered out on the club floor and a good number of dancers have already left. You decide to stay, because you know about the magic of the last hour in a strip club. 

Though leaving can be so very tempting, I implore you to at least try a few nights of staying all the way until close. Often times, people will be coming from other places such as bars/events where the alcohol has been cut off and/or they want to keep the party going. Obviously, this means new potential customers who haven't yet seen you and gotten to experience your charming energy. They're not typically there to sit and stare, so getting them to go for a dance or VIP can require a little less effort since you've got the "now or never" card to play. While it may not always be the case, a lot of girls will have left by this time, too. While I don't love referring to other dancers as "competition", for the sake of the particular subject, I will. Realistically, the customer doesn't have as many options as they would have an hour or two ago, and that gives you the advantage of less dancers competing for their attention and cash. 

In some cases, people who have been hanging out all night will feel that "now or never" pressure I talked about and decide to go big or go home and drop a lot of cash at the very end of the night. While I myself don't work a ton of nights until close, the ones I have worked were almost always profitable, especially within that last hour or so. Staying until the club closes can no doubt be exhausting and daunting, but I really recommend trying it and seeing for yourself how this part of the night works for you and your hustle. You may really enjoy it and shine out there!

More Dancers = More Opportunities:

I know you might be going, "Barbie, how the hell are more dancers a plus to working nights?!" but hear me out! The more girls you're working with, the more opportunities you have to double on stage or in dances/VIPs, work together to approach large groups or couples and work in tandem to wing-woman for each other. Seeing other dancers as the enemy is, in my opinion, not the best way to operate all the time. I have made many sales with friends of mine and often two is better than one when it comes to convincing customers! 

Stage sets with a girl of opposite physical looks and/or aesthetic of yours is a wonderful tactic to bringing a wider variety of customers to your tip rail, giving you not only more probable stage money, but an opportunity to introduce yourself to even more people in a shorter time. I once worked at a club where doubling on stage was something that 90% of the dancers participated in on weekend nights, and for good reason! It generated a lot more cash on stage than a single dancer alone would. I mean, also think about it from a customer's perspective - two beautiful women, almost or fully naked (depending on your club type) dancing on/with each other? That right there is a dream come true for most guys! If your club allows it and you can find a trusted dancer to share the stage with, give it a shot on those busy nights! 

At one of my first clubs, I became friends with a girl who had very similar hair, skin tone, and body type to mine. We often used this to our advantage and claimed we were sisters who decided to start dancing together. Customers ate this up, time and time again and we scored ourselves many VIP suites and tips because of it! Get creative with how you approach customers together and see what works for you and the other girl best. 

Another thing I loved doing was introducing other dancers to good regulars who I felt would also enjoy interacting with that particular dancer. Other dancers have done it for me, too and a lot of the time it has ended very well for both of us! Sometimes the customer will take you both up for dances/VIP together. Other times they'll rotate between the two of you, going back and forth with each of you throughout the night. A good regular will likely also come to tip both of you on stage through the night after they've been introduced. Helping others is a great way to keep the energy positive and the money flowing all around.

Honorable Mentions for the Pros of Nightshift:

• Faster paced environment is a great way to quickly try different selling styles and see what works for you.
• Regulars who work a 9-5 job are more apt to come see you in the evening after work.
• Busier atmosphere can help keep your energy up & your hustle mentality in high gear.
• More people = more potential connections & networking is important in our business.
• Later hours can be a plus if you've got a 9-5, watch your children during the day & have someone else with them at night, or you're a night owl and prefer to sleep during the day.

Thank you so much for reading! I am hopeful that I've planted a seed for you to try nights even if they might not be your favorite or they feel intimidating right now. Of course, I'll be doing my next blog post on some of the downsides to working late hours at the club. Stay tuned to read that next one soon! As always, please comment any questions, thoughts or suggestions you have about this blog post, or any other industry-related topic and I'll gladly do my best to address it in a future post!