Charging per face a birthday parties......???

I am a slow painter--I've mostly worked festivals, but recently did a birthday party. I was a little nervous knowing I was working per hour. It took me 2 hours to paint 12 full faces. I would have a hard time not painting all the children that wanted to be painted.

Does anyone charge per face for birthday parites?
For example:
10 children = $XX.00
15 children = $XX.00
etc.........

I would think this would decrease my stress level.
Your input would be greatly appreciated!!

You could. No reason why it wouldn't work... but when more kids show up than expected then it involves adjusting the fee, etc. but it is do-able.

I don't. I actually never charge per face, ever.

So you are taking 10 minutes per face - that actually is okay for a beginner ... how long have you been painting? Speed increases with practise so generally most of us gain speed with experience.

Have you streamlined your designs to speed them up? Have you considered making a menu/display of designs that you have that you CAN complete in 5-7 minutes?

I had been thinking about the same thing. But I have decided on a combo, sill per hour, but being very up front about how many poeple I can do in that time and in what detail the parent wants. I have the tendency to want to give everyone the best I've got, mostly cause I really get into it, but I realize that's not really necessary all the time.

I did $8.00 per face for a while.... I am now going to start an hourly fee. I am pokey too... I pay too much attention to detail and just keep adding stuff which slows me down!! LOL

I charge a "package" fee for birthday parties and the rate covers "up to 15" faces in a 2 hour booking ... additional are extra cost. BUT... I have never had to charge extra. Birthday parties here are not huge.

Birthday bookings for me are where I get to paint the fancy faces so I spend more time on them! If less than 15 kids (and it usually is around 10) I really take my time add lots of extras, etc.

So at birthday bookings for me, speed it not really an issue. The festivals really need the speed though.

That makes sense. I like it!

Shannon Fennell wrote:You could. No reason why it wouldn't work... but when more kids show up than expected then it involves adjusting the fee, etc. but it is do-able.

I don't. I actually never charge per face, ever.

So you are taking 10 minutes per face - that actually is okay for a beginner ... how long have you been painting? Speed increases with practise so generally most of us gain speed with experience.

Have you streamlined your designs to speed them up? Have you considered making a menu/display of designs that you have that you CAN complete in 5-7 minutes?

Thanks so much for your reply... I've been painting for four years, BUT just recently became more active in trying to get gigs. So, I would say it is only probably equivalent to 2 years, maybe!! I started out painting murals and still do some, but, I think face painting is for me!
I have a menu board but I'm always changing it because I like to do different designs. But, I guess I shouldn't be trying out new designs at birthday parties! I draw out my designs on a face templates for my board. Makes sense to stick with designs I've done alot for b-day parties. I think I will try charging a package deal for parties and see how it works. Thanks for the great advice Shannon. I really love this forum!!

SuzySparkles wrote:I am pokey too... I pay too much attention to detail and just keep adding stuff which slows me down!! LOL

I do the same thing!!

JBax wrote: I have the tendency to want to give everyone the best I've got, mostly cause I really get into it........

I do the same thing. I am also my worst critic. I always look back at my pictures and find something wrong....but I need to just remember the smile on their face when they looked in the mirror.....priceless!

I'll let everyone know how the package deal works for me. I do not have any current bookings for parties right now. I have a fundraising event and two corporate events in March. I need to get busy finding some work, I can't go three months without face painting!

Thanks for replying. I greatly appreciate everyone's advice.

by working on a smaller set of designs more often, you will be able to get much faster. Of course, painting new things is always more fun, but I'm sure most of us could paint spiderman faster than some of the little simple designs... just from repeated practice.

Shannon Fennell wrote:I charge a "package" fee for birthday parties and the rate covers "up to 15" faces in a 2 hour booking ... additional are extra cost. BUT... I have never had to charge extra. Birthday parties here are not huge.

Birthday bookings for me are where I get to paint the fancy faces so I spend more time on them! If less than 15 kids (and it usually is around 10) I really take my time add lots of extras, etc.

So at birthday bookings for me, speed it not really an issue. The festivals really need the speed though.

I agree with this- this works for me (I have up to 20 kids since birthday parties are big in our area).

~Michelle

I charge in a way that is similar to Shannon's post for parties.
I have a small party rate (up to 10 faces), a meduim party rate (up to 20 faces), and a large party rate (up to 30 faces). There is an additional charge for each face over the limit for that party size. The "Party Rate" is slightly less per hour than my normal hourly rates since the amount of faces is limited. This allows me the time to pay more attention to each design at a party rather than just having to churn out faces every 2 minutes.
If it is an event where the number of faces is unknown, they have the option of hiring at my hourly rate (with a two hour minimum in most cases).
Most go for the party rates since they know how many people they have invited and usually know how many to expect.

Exactly Lisa... that is my reasoning too.

My "Birthday Party" rate is also my "Small Group" rate for up to 15 faces. Then I have "Medium Group" rate for up to 30 faces, then "Large Group" which is my Hourly Rate with a two-hour minimum booking OR "Half-Day Rate (4 hours)" OR "Full-Day Rate (7 hours)"...

I have divided my rates on : Package # 1 up to to 10 faces and package #2 up to 15 in a 2 hour gig. I also explain the people why I charge like that and why I only have 2 packages. My charges are really cheap now, but I'm a begginer (I dont say that to possible clients) I just explain that the packages give me the freedom to add details and spend a reasonable time with each kid. I rarely have any parties of more than 12 kids...Thank god..and once I'm done with 10 or 15 kids I'm gone...unless they ask me to stay longer then I apply my hourly rate..(still cheap , though, I rather have payed gigs than none)

I just tell parents it is my hourly rate with a two hour minimum. They can count on doing one child every 5 minutes and any time over the hour is charged in half-hour increments.

I feel like this discourages them from adding more folks at the last minute, but if it happens, a 30 minute charge isn't so bad for them.

-Metina

I had my rates at $80 for 15 kids for a while. I got really confusing. I recently changed (with help from the ladies here) to an hourly rate with being really up front about how many faces I can do in an hour.

So do you guys charge the next level group rate even if they miss the lower level by only one child or do you have a rate to add on just one additional child?

I say up to 12 kids, with $5 each additional child (this compensates me for the extra time if needed), but I USUALLY won't charge the additional child fee until they get over 15 or so. I can usually handle painting 12 to 15 kids in the 30 to 45 minutes that I allow for face painting in my party packages.... as long as they don't all want to be jaguars or something, but there's usually a couple of spiderman faces, a few butterflies or puppies and those are just so fast I can catch up from the more detailed ones then.

Perry Noia wrote:I say up to 12 kids, with $5 each additional child (this compensates me for the extra time if needed), but I USUALLY won't charge the additional child fee until they get over 15 or so. I can usually handle painting 12 to 15 kids in the 30 to 45 minutes that I allow for face painting in my party packages.... as long as they don't all want to be jaguars or something, but there's usually a couple of spiderman faces, a few butterflies or puppies and those are just so fast I can catch up from the more detailed ones then.

Up to 12 kids in how long? 30 or 45 minutes? I'm really slow I take up to 10 mins on each face. I don't know what I'm doing wrong..

Don't panic. 10 minutes is okay. For years I did not worry about speed... and I still don't, but with experience I have developed my speed and skills and can "dumb down" many more involved designs to increase my speed when I have to.

My regular full faces I advertise as 4-7 minutes, "fast faces" are 2-4 minutes.

When I am painting for photographs or designs I'm playing with it can take 20-30 minutes!!

Speed is important, sure, if you are having to paint hundreds of people in a never-ending line, but, small birthdays or private parties are not usually concerned with how fast you are but how good you are.

Shannon Fennell wrote:Don't panic. 10 minutes is okay. For years I did not worry about speed... and I still don't, but with experience I have developed my speed and skills and can "dumb down" many more involved designs to increase my speed when I have to.

My regular full faces I advertise as 4-7 minutes, "fast faces" are 2-4 minutes.

When I am painting for photographs or designs I'm playing with it can take 20-30 minutes!!

Speed is important, sure, if you are having to paint hundreds of people in a never-ending line, but, small birthdays or private parties are not usually concerned with how fast you are but how good you are.

Speaking of speed...I have a client who wants me to paint at his family reunion..he is bringing 15 grandchildrens and the other family is bringing 15 more. total of 30. He said not all of them will be willing to get paint, but ill be painting approx. 20 to 25 in 2 hours..on my web site says that I can only paint from 12 to 15 in a 2 hrs period..I like to add details and spend some time on the design. the truth I rarely get more than 12... He said is ok for me to stay xtra 30 mins there , he is fine with it but I'm not..I have another gig after that with less childrens and I dont want to be rush and stress out for the amount of money I will get paid....what should i tell him? How should I back up. He called me while I was sitting on traffic I told him I was gonna call him back , I havent yet.

I paint REALLY fast... to be honest, I have trouble slowing myself down. I am by no means a perfectionist. Don't worry about being THAT fast.

As far as 20 kids in 2 hours, that's 6 minutes per child. If you can do 10 minutes per child, then you can probably find a few ways to make it work... pick your 5 fastest designs and only offer those designs for that party, in whatever colours, but only those designs. Also, let them know that they have to know which design they want BEFORE they sit in your chair or you are going to the next child. Be totally up front that you have another gig immediately afterward and cannot stay extra time. That it will be very hard to paint that many children in that time and leave it up to him whether he wants to take the chance of not all the children getting painted or not do it.

While you don't want to paint badly because it reflects badly on your business, there are ways of speeding up designs to make them faster. Limit the number of colours in the design, leave out the extra swirls and dots (this time), use lots of glitter

I hope that helps... I'm fast, but I"m certainly not the best painter out there or on this site. I've just always done my creative works very quickly, it's how my brain works creatively. If I started to fuss with it, I'd probably wash off the whole thing and start over again, painting just as quickly as the first time.

Mirandas wrote:He said is ok for me to stay xtra 30 mins there , he is fine with it but I'm not..I have another gig after that with less childrens and I dont want to be rush and stress out for the amount of money I will get paid....what should i tell him? How should I back up. He called me while I was sitting on traffic I told him I was gonna call him back , I havent yet.

You just have to reiterate that you can paint X# per hour and that you, unfortunately, do have another booking after his so that you are not available to stay extra time. Offer to do something else such as glitter tattoos if you have them. Or choose a few designs that you KNOW you can paint fast and tell him that you would have to limit the choice of designs in order to accommodate HIS increase in numbers. You were clear about how many you can paint when he booked you.

Thanks to all!!! I spoke to him already..and told him that he should consider adding an extra artist so we both can paint the 25 kids in 2 hours..I said i will have to charge him extra..He said he couldnt pay..I was like Ok..Thanks .lol. Later on I booked another gig for the same day only 10 mins away from the other event..Small party but want me to stay 2 hrs..YAY! didn't loose anything.

P.S: I love this forum, And I love the fact that you guys here are so helpful,and willing to share your knowledge and experience with people like me...Thanks all!!!!