Regulars

No regular should be more than a fifth of your income. Keep doing rounds on the nights your book shows up, because regulars vanish without notice.

Remember his birthday, accept gifts with a thank-you and nothing more, and give small ones that cost attention, not money. Generosity yes, expectation no.

Most vets say don't. If you do, it is after months of him respecting every boundary unprompted, with a friend who knows, in public, on your terms.

Fade a regular who costs more than he pays; block him outright, with security told first, the moment he is unsafe. Tell the staff before you tell him.

A regular is made by a consistent persona, one remembered detail, and a specific invitation back. Get those three right on visit one and visit two follows.

Free numbers get reclaimed when idle and flagged by other apps; a paid line or a cheap second phone keeps your book safe. Pick for permanence, not price.

Record the name he knows you by, his name, drink, job, spend, last visit and one personal detail. Never write anything you would not want read aloud.

Give each regular a usual night, a time limit and notes with his details, and book the draining ones for nights you can recover. Memory is not the system.

A paid online channel lets regulars keep spending between visits, but only under a separate name, via the work number, with the club still the product.

Listening is much of what regulars pay for, so sell it as time in the room, not free hours at the table. Therapy happens on the clock or not at all.

Text a regular who has gone quiet at two, four and eight weeks: a casual nudge, a personal note, then a warm last call. Three messages, then let him go.

Answer every regular, but on your schedule: short replies, a fixed window, and a steer back to the club. Unpaid texting is work; you decide how much you give.

A trip, an allowance or a loan from a regular buys him access to your time, your identity and your dependence. Take his money in the club, not outside it.

Give a work number, never your personal one, only after he has come back on his own, and only if your club allows it. Then use it to tell him when you work.

When a regular pushes for dinner, calls or your real name, refuse softly, keep bookings firm, and if he keeps pushing, fade him rather than fight him.

One short, warm, specific text on the afternoon of your shift, personalised with one detail, sent to the regulars who fit that night, is the whole system.

A regular who spends $300 every other weekend out-earns the rare $5,000 night over a year, costs nothing to screen, and lets you plan your rent.