We're charging too little for parties?

We have a family glitter tattoo business. It's myself (hair stylist) and my 2 teenage daughters 13 and 15. My husband sometimes helps too. I'm charging $95.00 an hour, in San Francisco East Bay California. I'm looking at it as we're making approx $30.00 an hour each. Not much for me, but a lot for 2 teenagers. I'm afraid if we charge more, no one will book us. Does anyone have any suggestions? We haven't done an actual party yet.

If you haven't done a party yet... how can you tell? Are you getting inquiries but no bookings?

You aren't making $30/hour each... you haven't figured in your costs.

Figure out your costs per unit, number the three of you do per hour, add in wages....

Refer to my post here for a spreadsheet you can use:

http://shannonfennell.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/business-tips-for-face-painters-body-artists-and-make-up-artists-7-setting-your-rates/

If you are doing a party being 3 artist doing 20 tattoos each thats mean 60 tattoos an hour, yes is very cheap, but it is a waste of your time too. That means if you go to a 10 kids party each kid will get 6 tattoos , as a mom I wouldn't allow that.

Usually small parties only need 1 artist at the time, if you are only doing 1 service you need to calculate the time you can spend per child (usually 3 minutes) so you can say : rate x hour = # kids served.
If you want for your teens to work you can book 2 separate teams, so each parent will go with one kid.

I agree, once you factor in the cost of your supplies, the cost of the gasoline to get to the gig you'll find that you're making less than $30/hr. If you're charging $95 for 3 entertainers, you're definitely selling yourself short. Have you looked into the pricing demographic in your area? That should be your starting point.
I know that I personally wouldn't hire a tattooist if I knew he/she was coming with an entourage of helpers...not unless I was hosting a picnic that warranted that number of people.I'd be careful about the precedence you're setting by providing that many entertainers so cheaply in area like San Fran. You could be making it very difficult to raise your rate or limit entertainers when you realize how much money you COULD be making. It seems that nowadays I spend half of my time reeducating potential clients because they've found someone who would give them the world for a pittance where as I charge what I know my time is worth. Good Luck.

First, figure out your costs/etc as Shannon said.

Then........ figure out how many tattoos you and your staff can put on in 10 minutes, multiply that by 6 and you will get an hourly count of how many that you can do.

All of that will help you to decide how many artists you're going to need per party.

For myself... depending upon the complexity of the design, I can put on 10 to 20 per hour. (especially if we have several wanting the same tattoo... then I use the "Line" method - so fast)

So, the host says "I am going to have 15 people at my party."
(How many hours is the party going to be?)
How many tattoos will the host provide each attendant?)

You can then decide how many artists that you're going to need, and for how long.

I have to have an assistant as I need help setting up and tearing down.. no matter the event.
The needs of the party will decide her earnings. I pay her for set-up/tear down no matter... then, if necessary, she can help with tattoos, or, if not needed for that, help people to make choice/color/keep the line going.

So, at the very least, she's going to make a base salary... and, since I pay her per tattoo - she can earn some extra cash. (Honestly, if I'm painting, I let her do all the tattooing because it's easier that way for us.. and pay her accordingly)

Good luck!