2nd Festival~ Stupid Mistake!

The cheetah and tigers can be sped up by using large split cakes for your "blending" work or load sponges with no more than three colors (like Lynn Jaimeson does) and use the same color combos over and again. Also, a cheetah/leopard/animal print stencil would speed up laying down the spots tremendously. Don't think of it as "cheating". People always go, "Ohhhh wow!" when I pull that "trick".

Tiger striping will go lickety split once you have the line placement downpat and it becomes ingrained into muscle memory. I used to struggle (hesitate a second here and there) with tiger striping placement... each one was different. Now it's mechanical. Not that it doesn't vary from face to face - just that the variances are limited to a couple space fillers that have become my mainstays.

Tigers and cheetahs - 4 minutes tops, $8-$10 easy money. Added bling +1 minute = increase by $2.

Starting with one person in the chair - 5 minute faces means that every third person in line is waiting 15 minutes... 6th person 30 minutes... 9th person 45 minutes. And that doesn't include transition time! So, if you're doing 10 minutes faces, the 3rd person in line is waiting 30 minutes for their turn. At 3 minute faces, the 3rd person is waiting 10 minutes tops. Huge difference in number of sales and level of satisfaction in line.

I try to keep transition times down too. Placing mirror on table next to "photo shoot station" so child hops down, moves to mirror and sits down against black curtain where mom/dad can take as long as they want to "just get a picture real quick", eh, hem.

NEXT!

Ashley Pickin wrote:May I ask why you decided to do festivals already when you're still such a new painter? Not that you shouldn't jump in with both feet.. but you're putting yourself in a situation where speed is a major factor... ppf is all about getting as many people done and making as much money as possible.

Ashely, LOVE your avatar face!
I'm a newbie and I've only done festivals (a few non-paid friend's parties for practice). I thought I did 'ok' with Net Profit. But now I'm wondering, how much can one make on a ppf festival that lasts for 7-8 hours?

When I do ppf for large festivals, I average $500+ per day...

The last festival I did, where I was paid by the hour, I did $200 a day in tips.. soooo.. yep.

But it all depends on the venue.. different areas, different responses.

Oh, and thanks! I like it too.. I did it on myself a while back when FAB first came out and I was trying out the ocean shimmer color..

At my last PPF festival, I charged $5 and $10 for everything and I made $220 the first day (Friday- kids in school, etc), $850 the second day (Saturday, perfect weather) and $400 the third day (Sunday, raining off and on, short day). So you can see, every thing depends on the weather, if kids are in school or not, how long you're there, etc. I did a 3-day festival once where I paid $500 for a booth fee and cleared only $100 because there was an event going on near by that had gang fights and shootings going on so everyone was afraid to go to the festival. You just never know with PPF festivals

Festivals are gambles and like nurturing a client for repeat business you must put in the time and nurture the event in order to grow it and have it become profitable. Not every one of course some are great right off some are duds, and may never grow.

So the event is 7-8 hours that only asks a small part of the question....there are other considerations that will greatly affect one's income potential.

I did the festival really to get more practice and experience. I had done my first one a few weeks earlier and it was fun and profitable. I have done 2 birthday parties, one was a nephew so I didn't charge. I am glad I did it, I had tons of compliments on my work, one lady said there was another face painter at the festival, and she heard a kid say after he got painted by her (after he walked away)"I'm gonna wash this off and go get my face painted by that other lady!" (meaning me!) That made me feel really good! One little girl even said I was a "legend"!! So cute! It was great advertising in our small town and it did get my name out there. The place where I painted was a yoga studio, the owner did chair massages while I painted. She let me use it for both festivals, at no charge, but I paid her a very nice tip. She said I am welcome to use it anytime there is anything going on downtown! It was nice for the parents to come into the airconditioning & out of the heat, so there were no complaints on waiting!