The persistent will come out on top when it comes to this. Creators are constantly bombarded by companies/agencies on Instagram about signing with them, so if you're using Instagram as outreach (which you should be) using a clear, short, concise, message and reaching out to as many creators as you can daily will help. It's important to not get discouraged when you hear a lot of no's or just aren't responded to. I'd also sit down with your current creator, who potentially sounds like a friend and leverage her connections, or even use her social media accounts for out reach - offering her a referral fee on any model you sign might incentivize her to help you.

To be honest it depends on a few factors - since chatting is such an integral part of the business flow it's definitely essential to have a good chatting team in place. For example, if you're just starting off the cost efficiency of hiring a few chatters and training them might make more sense for you because chatting agencies tend to charge more, with the quality of models having to be worth it for them. I've done both methods but I'd say it truly depends on the size of your agency. As your agency continues to grow, you'll want to find more time for you to focus on other aspects of the business, so the time/value consideration intensifies. From my personal experience it's crucial to have a team or someone in place that handles the chatting aspect of the business so you're able to focus on other things.

Chatting agencies that are actually worth it and willing to work with a smaller management companies usually aren't doing 10%, they'll usually start at 20% and go up to 25%. I'm sure you can find them at lower percentages but I'm not sure the quality will be there. There are many Filipinos willing to work for less than the percentage a chatting agency is going to charge you. It's really what works with every individual companies cash flow and what each owner is willing to pay, and how much time they want to invest in training/overseeing chatting.

I was open to all sorts of creators/niches from the jump, female, male, trans, fem-dom, cosplay, etc. But certain agencies do different things, I think being well versed in different niches sets you apart - so if you get the opportunity to take on, i.e a fem-dom account or a cosplay account I'd say do it so as long as you think your team can keep the client happy.