Thoughts on bikini competitors?

If you choose to give it a try, good luck. My wife started competing earlier this year, with encouragement from a coworker who competes. There are different federations you can join and each have their own rules/guidelines for posing. Find a local competition and go see what it is like. As far as costs, there is the fee to join a federation, contest fees (novice, open, master, etc.), drug test, tanning, makeup, hair and competition suit. There are also travel costs involved if competitions are out of town.
For each of the competitions my wife has done, they are very different depending on the show promoter. Her experiences have been largely positive (sometimes you just don't know what the judges are looking for).