In any career choice, it’s common that you will have to make some sacrifices in order to be successful at it. Doctors, brick layers and teachers all go to school and train for their jobs, giving things up along the way. This dedication to a career may require money, time and extraordinary effort. Becoming an escort is not much different.

You must hone your skills. You have to perfect your image and appearance. You have to make yourself available to clients. Becoming an escort is not as simple as posting a single ad and seeing a client per day in order to pay your rent. Being an escort takes time, and it requires sacrifices.

Here are the top 12 sacrifices you may have to make in order to become a successful escort:

1. You will have no regular schedule in the beginning. As a newbie to the industry, you will have to make yourself available to clients when they are willing to book you for an encounter, within reason. If a client wants to see you at midnight, you’d better be able to show up. If you can’t be there, he’ll find someone else. That same client may want a 3 p.m. encounter next time, and he will expect you to make time for him then, too. For an escort without a regular client list, you will have to take the bookings when you can and when they are requested. In the beginning, some of your days will be slower and some busier than you would like.
2. You will have to keep your new career secret from your family. If your family and friends are like most, they will not readily accept your new career choice. They may be saddened, disappointed or disgusted by the fact that you’re an escort. In order to keep the peace in your family, you will have to lead a double life, lying about your job, where you are and who you are spending time with. If you share the information with your family and friends, expect for some of them to highly disapprove. Sometimes, family and friends will disown you or cut off communications, until they can deal with your new career.
3. You will have to spend time away from your family and friends. If you have children, this may be the hardest aspect of all. Depending on when encounters are booked, you may not be able to have dinner with your family and children, rock your babies to sleep or do other family events. Your time with family and friends will be limited until you establish regular clients that you can book encounters with at more reasonable times. In the meanwhile, do your best to keep up with the important people in your life by setting aside other time to spend with them.
4. You may feel exhausted. Working late at night, in the wee hours of the morning and in the middle of the afternoon all within one day may have you feeling like you have been drug over the coals. But that’s part of the life of a new escort. Additionally, encounters may have you feeling worn out, too. Tending to a client is much like putting on a performance for the entire booked time. You must constantly be “on” and at the service of your client, whether that is physically or mentally, or both. Your client expects your full attention and the best of what you have to give. That’s hard work. Then, factor in the other responsibilities you have in tending to your new escort business. You may be learning about web design and development. About marketing. You are responsible for taking care of your own accounting. All of these tasks, coupled with the energy you expend with clients, can have you feeling pretty zapped. The important thing through all of this is to tend to your body’s needs when it begins to tell you it needs rest. Get some sleep, eat a healthy diet and exercise. These are things that will help your body combat the fatigue of becoming an escort.
5. You may develop a tainted view of people. Previous to becoming an escort, you may have had an overview of people along the lines that all people are generally good. But, after tending to some less than desirable clients, you may decide that people can’t be trusted. Dealing with these questionable sorts can leave you feeling like you can’t take people at face value and that people always have ulterior motives. While your skewed view may or may not be true, it may help you develop that “sixth sense” that most escorts claim to have about people. They can tell when a client is lying to them, they get a gut feeling when a client is going to be violent and others just know when something isn’t “right”.
6. Your romantic relationships may be affected. If you are currently single, any future romantic relationships you have may be difficult. If you are involved in a relationship when you start escorting, your relationship may fail. Most partners don’t understand why a woman would turn to escorting. And, even if they understand, they have hard times dealing with it, themselves. Often, jealousy, anger and selfishness create huge problems in a relationship when someone begins escorting. If you’re unattached when you start, it’s hard to find a partner who is willing to accept your lifestyle. And, due to being involved intimately with clients while working, you may not be interested in intimacy with anyone else. (You may not even have time to devote to a relationship.)
7. Your lingerie drawer may have a better selection than the rest of your closet. You can get by with a few good outfits to wear to encounters. However, you will need a whole slug of fancy lingerie to wear with clients. Bras, panties, garter belts, stockings and other items of sexiness will need to be varied and available for your encounters. They expect to see pristine white panties or sexy black push-up bras, depending on their preferences. In the beginning, your lingerie may be your biggest expense. You will need to stock up on great pieces.
8. You may have to sacrifice your modesty when you begin escorting. Clients like to see their escorts prance around in their skivvies or in the nude. If this is something you’re not quite comfortable with, you’re going to have to get over it. Practice by walking around your house in the nude and performing mundane tasks such as dusting, vacuuming or watching television. Once you become more comfortable being nude by yourself, it may become much easier to function that way with clients. And, most clients won’t find it sexy that you’re a little shy about getting naked, especially when that’s what they may think they’re paying you to do.
9. You will not be getting a regular paycheck. If you’ve been accustomed to getting a regular check monthly, weekly or in some other timeframe, you are going to have to rework your budget. When you’re an escort, you don’t get a guaranteed check every week. One week you may get a great profit, but another week may fall short. You will need to learn to budget your entire month, based on a minimum quota you feel you can bring in. Throughout the month, you will need to set mini goals in order to achieve your overall required income.
10. You may sacrifice your safety. While most escorts refuse to travel to sketchy neighborhoods to visit with clients, there are other situations you may find yourself in that may cause you to question your safety. You may encounter criminal-like individuals on the way to and from encounters. And, despite your best efforts to screen a client, one that may threaten your safety can easily get past you. While your safety is nothing to sacrifice voluntarily, it’s something that happens each and every time you enter a room alone with a new client. If you can, back yourself up with some sort of security. And, don’t be afraid to use pepper spray, if you carry it in your purse. Many escorts take self defense classes, learning simple moves that can help them free themselves from an attacker or crazy client, if necessary.
11. You give up your “good girl” reputation. If you’ve always been proud of the fact that you were “Most Likely to Succeed” or “Class Brain” or something else of the sort, you will be trading in that reputation for a much less refined one. Individuals outside of the escort industry think the worst of escorts, stereotyping escorts as whores, drug users and nymphomaniacs. When others find out what you do, you may automatically be judged and profiled less respectfully, despite the fact that nothing else about you has changed other than your job title.
12. You sacrifice your sense of what “normal” is. Before working as an escort, you may have ideas concerning what a “normal”, healthy sex life consists of. However, through working with clients who have tastes that range from boring to exotic, your eyes will be opened to new activities, toys and elements of pleasure. Missionary position may no longer be good enough for you in personal relationships.

There are many sacrifices you must make when you become an escort. Perhaps, the biggest one is giving up the concept that life is made up of black and white decisions. Sometimes people have great reasons for doing wrong things. They are good people, caught up doing something that could be questionable to others. The world is full of gray levels of decisions and actions. Black and white, right and wrong: they don’t exist in the escort industry world.

Despite all of the sacrifices you may make to become an escort, it is a very rewarding career that may not only make you lots of money, but it can also provide you with a pretty entertaining and fulfilling life. You can meet interesting people, experience new adventures and do some crazy things you may never tell your grandchildren about, but will blush later when you think about them.