It's festival season - Top Tips for moving the line through fast.

I was hoping for everyone to post their top tips for moving the line through. I posted this topic in business for a reason. It's about putting $'s in your pocket, nothing else.

Here's one of mine. I NEVER let a kid look at the mirror while they're in my chair. I put the mirror as far away from the chair as I can. The second I'm done painting, I say "go look in the mirror" and point to whenever it is. By the time they get to the mirror, I'm already talking/painting on the next victim.

Also, I always have a "hostess" of the booth. I make them do the glitter. The minute I tell a girl "go get your glitter at the glitter station" - bam! she's jumping out of my chair.

Thanks for sharing everyone.

Those are great ideas, Lauri.
Thanks for sharing, and for starting such a great topic!
I don't have any to share but will be watching this topic closely.

The best thing that has sped up my line is the ONE price option. If someone wants something that is not on the board, or is in the back of the book with a red dot on the picture, that is an upgrade.
My line manager has them already deciding upon their design before they ever get to my chair. She will not let them sit down in the chair until they have already decided. She writes it on a little ticket. At the end of the event, I can look at the tickets and see what is being asked for over and over again that is NOT on my board.

I think our best tips would be...

When we don't have a line manager:
1. We price everything in multiples of $5's. We wear aprons with large pockets and keep 5 dollar bills in one pocket and 10 dollar bills in the other. That way we can make change very quickly and don't have to bother with one dollar bills.

2. We have a menu banner on the outside of the tent as well as the inside so that people in line can already be deciding what they want long before they get to us.

When we do have a line manager I let him take the money AFTER we're done. He watches to see when we're finished and we signal to him how much they owe and he gets the money from them on the way out the tent. If they pay afterwards, we usually always get a tip. When we tried having them pay BEFORE the face painting, they never gave tips. He can take his time using the Square for the credit cards, too, and usually mentions to them about our Birthday Club for 10% off, which is actually just having them sign up for a mailing list so that I can contact them a month before the birthday to see if they're interested in a party booking.

I do have a very small hand mirror that I keep in the side pocket of the director's chair. I give them a quick glance but then point to the long mirrors away from me and tell them "If you want a better look, go look in those mirrors!" They always scamper quickly out of the chair

These methods allow us to still paint full faces even when there is a long line. I always put my best faces on the menu boards as well as quick ones. I want to advertise my best work whenever I can! Of course, we don't always paint those on a busy festival day, but they're great for advertising for party bookings... especially my white tiger!

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the tips everyone.

I have a gay PRIDE fest next weekend that I am super nervous about, anticipating more adults than kids. I have been going back and forth with myself on pricing, but really think 5 10 and 15 will be the way to go, for both painting and glitter tats.

For those that use a big mirror, any fears of it breaking? I keep a small one in my chair, and a small one on a table for those that want to keep looking. I had thought about the big mirror, but they always seem so flimsy to me.

What do you think about a list of top tips? Maybe Metina will put it in the newsletter.....

1. move mirror away from chair
2. one price
3. price in multiples of 5
4. payment after painting may result in tipping
5.

Do you guys like this list or is it a waste of time?

Liz, I have a ridiculous free standing mirror that I will take if Darren will help me and/or I lay my hand mirror ($1) on the ground. I dont worry about either breaking.

Dawnie, I already know your set up - totally pro all the way. The next time i get to paint, I'm going to paint the face and arms of my assistants too. What a great attraction! I cant paint my own face, I have pores the size of dinner plates

Caswell Designs FP,
I bought acrylic mirror from Silly Farm. It's unbreakable, stands on it's own and it's big (9x12).

I bought a ridiculously large unbreakable acrylic mirror from IKEA for $20. It looks like an arched window with two "shutters" that can close up with Velcro and opens and has pockets that hold my business cards perfectly. Since it is a tri-fold, it stands up on it's own. I have attached a bungee cord to the back so I can suspend it from my tent.

how much room do they give you guys at these festivals? The one we are at this weekend is 10x10 and that is it, tents are on top of each other with no room to spare.. I can't imagine where I would put a mirror that wasn't close to us with two painters in the tent.

fesspenter wrote:I bought a ridiculously large unbreakable acrylic mirror from IKEA for $20. It looks like an arched window with two "shutters" that can close up with Velcro and opens and has pockets that hold my business cards perfectly. Since it is a tri-fold, it stands up on it's own. I have attached a bungee cord to the back so I can suspend it from my tent.

got a link?

I broke a huge mirror in my trunk last year and have stayed away from large ones ever since.... my bad luck is already into the year 2099...

I was actually thinking of driving up to IKEA this weekend sometime.
We had an acrylic bubble mirror from there and for some dumb reason after we moved into this house, while unpacking, I tossed it thinking we had no use for it. Doh!

I will be looking for that mirror fesspenter. Thanks!

I've broken two Target $7.00 mirrors...ironically it was at home not on the job. I like the big mirror thing too. I usually duct tape it to the tent leg facing outward.

I had a serious problem with mom's photographing the kids in my chair, sometimes aunts and uncles and grandmas too. This year we are making a painter's zone and only the kid being painted is brought in (by Emma) and then I'll let them down to go see themselves in the mirror and go get their picture taken.

I'm using these lightweight fencing stakes that have slots in them and so I'm going to use ribbon or tulle to create a fence or actually buy plastic fencing to create an "L" shape where we'll be with the painting stuff and there will only be a small opening for the victim...I mean client...to come through. I'll take pictures and let you guys know if it works next week.

Just realized when I was looking for a picture that it's intended for electric fences...don't tell my husband, might give him some ideas!



D.

I've just started charging more. Seems to work, I make more money and the line is shorter, still work just as hard all day but I make more money. Works for me. I used to be all $3 and $5, now it is $5, $10, $15, next year I think I may not advertise the $5 and only do it on request. It means I get to do more of my good work as well which is better advertising for the business and more fun.

JBM!

that is one thing that I've heard ... if your line is too long, your prices are too low.

That's right for sure, but making your price higher excludes the children which can't afford that much?
Breaks my heart when I notice something like that...

Well, at least this year...judging from the last 4 gigs I've done, I've decided that I am NOT fast enough to do $10.00 faces so I'm going to do $5.00 fast boards to keep my profit margin up and I realized there is one good side note...I will get more business cards in people's hands this way, right? One of my goals is to book parties so this way I'll "meet" more people.

Honestly, most of my parties have been fast designs anyway and I'm STILL taking too long on the more complicated designs (sigh) so my style fits better with the corporate and large family parties anyway. We're planning on having a portfolio available for parents to look at while I paint their kids that will show my more complicated designs but it's more of a show-off thing.

So, long story short, I'm offering designs I know I can do in 3 minutes or less.

D.

l!zzie wrote:That's right for sure, but making your price higher excludes the children which can't afford that much?
Breaks my heart when I notice something like that...

The thing you HAVE to remember is that our business is providing a luxury service, not a necessity. The child won't starve to death because their mom doesn't buy them a face painting. Give a family discount for more than 3 kids if you really want to, but if your line is too long, your prices aren't high enough... the same thing goes the other way, if you can't get a line, then maybe they are too high... but be careful with that one because once the line comes, you can't raise them on the spot. So if you can't get a line going, snag one or two kids to paint for free or discount if they promise to walk around and tell people that YOU did it... then charge your regular prices. Never less than $5 though, we're worth at least that much no matter what.

Well said, Perry. Good points.

There was another person painting face at my Wizard of Oz event this weekend... their booth's main attraction was sand art, though. The event coordinator came to me and told me that she had forgotten that the wife does face painting, too, but she has been coming for the last 9 years. I only saw a couple of faces done by her and I have to say, they were extremely sub-par. My booth partner went out to do some spy work and came back saying that the lady's painting was absolutely terrible and she was charging almost as much as I was.

People were more than willing to pay my prices and told me how they saw kids walking around with their faces painted and went to the other booth, but when they saw what she offered they said "no thank you" and came seeking me out. This whole pricing things is a constant squeaky wheel... I don't want to whip off faces like a cookie cutter assembly line, but, like Denise, I don't think I'm fast enough or can edit myself well enough. It seems that I always hear the same thing from the customers - "Wow! That was definitely worth the wait." That's a bittersweet thing to hear.

There are certain designs that I can do very fast, but even they are affected by my mood, surrounding distractions, fidgety wiggle worms or kids who can't seem to un-scrunch their face no matter how many times you ask them to, etc., etc.

I think I learned this weekend from my customers that $5.00 to $8.00 is way more than reasonable and I believe this area can support higher prices easily. So, for this coming weekend's festival I will be raising my prices accordingly.

Also, I wanted to share how my line method worked for this weekend. I was determined to have law and order for once. I bought a cheapie white plastic 3-tiered quick assembly shelf from WalMart. I placed a small plastic Tupperwear-type container on it and in the container were bright lime green squares that I cut out from a sheet of craft foam paper. I wrote the numbers 1 - 15 on the front and back of each square with a black Sharpie. I made a little sign that I taped to the container that said "Please take a number."

I used a stop sign on a plastic stand that is made for children's play and taped a laminated sign under the word STOP that said,

The Line Starts Here
Please take a number
and wait to be called.
Thank You! (with a happy face clip art)

It worked like a charm. I called out the number and the child came forward and you could tell by the looks on their face that they felt important when they handed me their number. I stacked the numbers up and when I got to 15 I just put all the numbers back and started through them again. I was also able to keep track of how many faces I'd painted just by keeping track of how many times I went through the pile. For the first time I was not crowded or felt overwhelmed by so many kids (and adults) all up in my face.


I stored my water jugs on the bottom shelf and I also had made a sign that said

No Food or Drink
Allowed in Tent

Please park you drink here
(arrow pointing down to second shelf)

Thank You! (happy face)

OMG... people actually obeyed my signs!!!!!

Nice Miss Ronnie. I like the stop sign idea. I might do that for the opening to the painting area as in "Stop. You need to be invited in here. You need to have a bracelet. No one but the paintee is allowed. I'm using chairs to maintain the order in the tent...hopefully the line outside will be okay.

D.

I've never done a festival before and I'm kinda nervous to do one... I come back from a 5 hour event and my legs are stiff, my paint is seriously dented, and I'm parched...

How do you keep yourself comfortable?!

ignore it and think about all the money you're making

Vodka