NEVER work for just tips!

Stick to your guns on fundraisers, as long as you do, you will get them to come around. I recently had to raise my rates for fundraisers because I was getting too many of them.

The only job I do for free is for the dream factory kids picnic but even that is not really free. I submit an invoice for all my and my assistants' materials which they pay for. So the only thing I am donating is my time and talent. Two of my children have received wishes from them. This is my way of giving back.

Metina wrote:Un,

I guess you have confirmed what we are all saying.  You really don't make hardly anything working for tips.  Once you get more experience under your belt, you will see how working for just tips is counterproductive.  

You are sending a message in your community that face painting should be free and maybe a small tip, not paid for.  I totally understand your excitement for getting a few parties, but in the end you are doing yourself a disservice.

Please don't take offense.  WE ALL started this way.  

-Metina

I agree with you Metina completely. When i first started, i painted at my local library for free on saturdays. I made no more than £2-£3 for about 5 hours work in tips. I once had a kid jump out of my chair to go attend to someone else and return to continue to be painted. ........ and that was IT for me. I felt taken for granted and haven't returned since and now that I have more experience and my work has greatly improved, plus I have now purchased more valuable supplies, I see it as a waste of time knowing I could be elsewhere getting paid even if it means PPF in a store or park.

And I sooooooo agree with you in that the message we're sending into the community is that face painting has no value! Well said Metina. well said!

I had an idea - I'll work for tips. When I saw how the parents give their children 50 cents I changed my mind. I stopped the line. I wrote a pricing on a piece of paper with my face paint

One time when I started out, I did a festival which is presented totally free to the public. I turned out high-level artwork for five straight hours and everyone left with a top-quality business card. NEVER got a single party from that.

The entire rest of the season, I painted at festivals and charged top dollar for high-level artwork. Booked lots of parties from them.

Same general area. Entirely different results.

Perception is everything.

If you are entering the world of professional face painting, please charge. It helps the field you will be taking part in.

Learned this one quick! I accepted one charity event for the other side of my business (princess parties), which was a cause close to my heart and great exposure. All of the sudden the charity was expecting face paint, glitter tattoos, etc. for (get this) 2000+ people! I was like ummmm... no. My staff were generous enough to devote their time from the goodness of their own hearts.... we can't also afford to be giving away supplies!

Since 5 of my staff donated 2/3 hours each, I think I'll be very accurate on our "gift in kind" form, to let the organizers know what they're REALLY getting for our kindness (at least $600 just in staff pay. At commercial rates, that many staff for that long would have been $1500+)

Mini beef over.

When i first started out, I painted at a Terry Fox Run in High Park "for tips".
I made $1.25 for five hours of face painting. My last customer, a dad of five children, put a quarter in my hand, to pay for his five children's face painting.
Last
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xoxox

Wow! A WHOLE quarter!!! At that rate, you could retire sometime in about fifteen thousand millenia, in a land beyond the beyond of the afterlife ...

I painted at children's expo, you can see the money there as the event looked to neat and clean organized, she said you need to bring 1.500 business cards to put them in gift bag to give away, I paid $250 on business cards, she gave me $50 dollars for supplies, I painted 7 hours + a glitter tattoo artist and I made $30 in tips, with 1 police call to a parent who was yelling somebody that cut in line, I have never felt so abused, I have never received a call from somebody that got my card in that package, I think the people who goes to that kind of events only get the kids painted when is free.

When I retire on my $1.25, I am moving in with you, JJJJJ!

xoxo

Oh, goodie! We can pool our resources and afford one half of one cup of coffee at Starbucks, or, a box of instant oatmeal (generic), regular flavor. I am looking forward to the day.   

OK, I have an exception. If you are good--there is a genre that works hard for their $, and tips well if you are open to late night work and won't turn up your nose at their vocation( usually justifiable for personal reasons--raising siblings, paying off student loans, etc.). Hint: Jesus hung out with this crowd & the Pharisees took offense.

I am usually treated to what He turned the water into by the management. (Beats Starbucks JJJJJ.)

Oh! anniel!
Have you EVER seen the stuff I spout when I have drinking and chat-rooming? (If there is such a word?)

Alas... I cannot drink and draw, either. While I think I can at the time... The pictures of my work reveal the craptastic truth.

Going back to my box of cookies. I found out where they hide them in Kammy's Café.

When I drink, I gushingly drape my arms around everyone and tell them I love them. While this is certainly true (that I love a lot), I do not drink in order to avoid this, and that headache the next day. Except for my eggnog with rum at Christmas. Eggnog without rum is like ... well, eggnog without rum. Good post Anniel. Interesting and thought-provoking too.

fesspenter wrote:When i first started out, I painted at a Terry Fox Run in High Park "for tips".
I made $1.25 for five hours of face painting.  My last customer, a dad of five children, put a quarter in my hand, to pay for his five children's face painting.
Last
Time
Ever
Painting
At
A
Terry
Fox
Run
xoxox

I would’ve been SO pissed. That’s almost more insulting than nothing at all.

I was once told that people's true characters come out with a little alcohol. Those who are crass and mean get nastier--and the rest of us gush (and paint).

Fessie:I have discovered Organic Vodka. (In my cupboard no less!) I had to make an orange juice run...and that hasn't happened since I lived in Poland in the late 70's & had to get the OJ smuggled in from Scandinavia...)

When I drink, I try to take care of people, and collect strangers socks.

.... What kind f person does that make me in non-inebriated life?

I think the PC term is "weirdo"

I just love everybody when I have a drinkypoo...and then I fall asleep.

xoxo

Mellygee - maybe you should start a sock company! I hereby confess that I have a sock fetish. I am certifiably unable, under any circumstance, to pass a sock display without going over and looking and touching. I actually ASK for socks for my birthday. I love socks. When I was in high school, one day I wore knee socks to the beach. My friends still discuss this thirty years later. Right now, I am wearing my plain beige socks with the light golden overtones. They are special because they are not too tight but stay up ALL day without any adjustments. This is a high compliment for a pair of socks. Tomorrow, I might wear my thin purple socks. Or the ones with little birds and nests on them. Or my thick sky-blue wool ones. Or my tall grays. Or ...
You see? I am in love with socks. I'll bet there are other people here who love their socks too. Because just like face paint, it's a matter of "oooh - look at all the pretty colors!" Anyway.   Let's see what Fessy has to say about this. She is sure to set down her cookie and come out of her box to drop a comment.

Dear JJJJJ:
Bwahahaha!
I did NOT put down my cookie to type this missive!

What I find really weird is.... when I mentioned that I picked up your telepathic message which stated that you wanted all our left socks to be mailed to you... I had NO idea you had this sock fetish.
I was lying to you about being able to pick up telepathic messages. I cannot read anyone's mind.

xoxox

artyfacesbyluz wrote:I painted at children's expo, you can see the money there as the event looked to neat and clean organized, she said you need to bring 1.500 bunnies cards we are putting them in gift bag to give away, I paid $250 on business cards, she gave me $50 dollars for supplies, I painted 7 hours + a glitter tattoo artist I made $30 in tips, with 1 police call a a parent was yelling somebody that cut in line, I have never felt so abused,

Holy smokes! That's prob the worst story for free/by tips painting i have heard. I take the business card in the baggies as a warning not to do that. I'd rather be included in their advertising material.
$250 on cards
-$50 supply, and $30 in tips
so you came out at -$170, -7hrs of your time

wow... Looks like you paid them for your services. I'm sorry this happened to you. And really the police were called?! Wow. Why is it tends to only happen when the face painting is free to the public? Human psychology must make them feel more entitled or something.

artyfacesbyluz wrote:I have never received a call from somebody that got my card in that package, I think the people who goes to that kind of events only get the kids painted when is free.

Yeah I find that's the trend too :/ I rarely get leads from events of that nature.

Well there are some horror stories here.  I'll make sure not to just work for quarters.  Yikes!

and...

JJJJJ wrote: I'll bet there are other people here who love their socks too. Because just like face paint, it's a matter of "oooh - look at all the pretty colors!"

*raises hand slowly*  I guess I'm one of those.
LOL.  I have 80 pairs of colorful patterned socks.  I collect/hoard.  People give me funny socks for gifts, and I love it. ....  I'm wearing green with shamrocks now.  Yes, I'll even wear holiday socks out of season.  

Holiday socks out of season??? You go, Pattyoh!! That's good, that's great, that's grand!! You are an official sock-lover! Socks know no time or season - they are just ... SOCKS! Long live socks!!!

If I started a business, I envision it would be a sort or ransom operation... You see, I generally only steal one sock. JJJJ, I imagine sock aficionados such as yourself would pay a great deal to reunite a matching pair. I'm basically a kidnapper who doesn't need the high maintenance of dealing with human cargo.

Alas, my partner said I'm not allowed to have any more businesses!!

Careful, Mellygee ... you may think there is no high maintenance with a sock operation. But I am here to testify that the time-space warp within most household dryers notwithstanding, socks tend to multiply faster than they disappear. You would have enormous storage issues with your new business. As well as sock-lovers everywhere angrily demonstrating outside your house. There's that pesky human cargo issue again. How about a kinder gentler business? Like a sock spa? People could visit with their favorite pairs of socks for facials, massages, cold-cycle lavender rinses, etc. Whaddya think?